Taforalt Cave (Grotte des Pigeons)
Taforalt
Middle Paleolithic to Epipalaeolithic (85,000–8,000 BP; cemetery 13,000 BCE)·Aterian / Iberomaurusian·🇲🇦 Oriental Region, Berkane Province, Morocco
About
About Taforalt Cave (Grotte des Pigeons)
Taforalt (Grotte des Pigeons) in the Beni Iznasen mountains 15 km SE of Berkane is Morocco's keystone Iberomaurusian cave — 28-m wide mouth yielding 15,000-year sequence from Middle Paleolithic Aterian tanged points (85 ka) to 13-ka Iberomaurusian cemetery of 34 adults with oldest funerary evidence in Africa: deliberate ochre-coated burials, fox-tooth ornaments, and 12,000-year-old calculus of wild oats showing early cereal use. Earliest human DNA from Africa (15 ka) extracted from Taforalt individuals reveals 63% Natufian-like ancestry linking Iberomaurusians to Levant. Engraved ostrich eggshell containers.
Why it mattersEarlies t proof of cemetery behaviour (15 ka) and cereal in human calculus (12 ka); 2018 aDNA overturns back-to-Africa model with Natufian tie.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Natufian gene flow direction
- 02Wild oat cultivation vs gathering
Theories
- 01Iberomaurusian as back-migrant from Levant rather than Sub-Saharan origin (Fregel 2018)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Deposit 85,000–8,000 BCE; main cemetery 15,000–11,000 BCE
- Period
- Middle Paleolithic to Epipalaeolithic (85,000–8,000 BP; cemetery 13,000 BCE)
- Culture
- Aterian / Iberomaurusian
- Builders
- Iberomaurusian hunter-gatherers
- Purpose
- Long-term rock shelter and collective cemetery with ritual ochre and shell ornaments
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
Deposit 85,000–8,000 BCE; main cemetery 15,000–11,000 BCE
Initial construction
c. 1429 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
34.8106° N · 2.4083° W · 720 m · 3 mapped features
Iberomaurusian Cemetery
tomb34 ochre-coated primary burials 15–13 ka
34.8106° N · 2.4085° WAterian Layer
megalithicTanged-point Middle Paleolithic deposit 85 ka
34.8104° N · 2.4080° WCalculus Oats Deposit
megalithicStratum with wild oat calculus on infant teeth 12 ka
34.8105° N · 2.4083° W
Gallery