Morocco - Casablanca

Thomas I Quarry, Level L
Thomas I Quarry, Hominid Grottoes
The Grotto of the Rhinoceros’, Ulad Hamida 1 Quarry (formerly Thomas III)

Ahl Al Oughlam

The Ahl al Oughlam site was discovered in 1985 by J.-P.Raynal and J.-P.Texier in the south-eastern suburbs of Casablanca, near Tit Mellil. It consists of a filling of caves and fissures in a coastal strip of fossil dunes, located at around 100 m altitude, post-dating a Messouadian-Age marine level, from which Biberson had described what he believed to be carved objects, but which are in fact natural. The Ahl al Oughlam deposit, dug since 1985 by D. Geraads, has turned out to be, by far, the most abundant of these past 20 million years in North Africa. Dated, thanks to the fauna, as going back to around 2.5 Ma, it shows that the Messaoudian, reputed to be from the Quaternary, is actually from the Pleistocene Age. Though contemporaneous to the major Hominid sites in Eastern Africa, this site has not yielded any vestiges of human presence or activity. As it has supplied over 4000 determinable fossils and nearly 80 species of vertebrates, it can be assumed that the absence of Man is not due to collection problems, but that our ancestors had not yet reached these embankments at the time, even though they had spread largely across Eastern and Southern Africa. However, the fauna is very similar, despite the distance between them, to the well-known fauna from the same period in Eastern Africa, hence should not have been any radical ecological differences between the two regions, or continuous Saharan barrier. It is, however, less diversified, both amongst the Bovidae, which show only 7 species here, and in the Equidae, Rhinocerotidae, Giraffidae, Suidae (one species from each family), and it could be that the milieu was less conducive (probably cooler).

The fauna in Ahl al Oughlam offers a sampling unparalleled in North Africa and outstanding across all of Africa, in that it encompasses almost an entire biocenosis of land vertebrates, and even some aquatic forms. It includes a few reptiles, snakes and tortoises (including a giant form), any bird species, from the ostrich to small sparrows, and a rare example of a bird resembling the albatross, with a toothed beak. Out of the mammal family, many groups are represented. Cetacea (dolphins) that washed up on the embankment were probably brought inside the cave by the carnivores. Very large animals, such as the elephant, the rhinoceros or the giant giraffid Sivatherium, are represented primarily through remains of young individuals, giving way to the assumption that, there too, they were brought on-site by the carnivores, incapable of dragging adult carcasses. Only one species of Suidae, Kolpochoerus, is present, though several genuses coexisted in Western Africa. The buffaloes and antelopes are more diverse, with 7 species, and include both forms suited to open savannahs, like the Alcelaphini (gnus, damalisks and bubals) or gazelles, and prairie forms, like the Reduncini (cobes) or bushy milieus, like the rare Tragelaphini (elks and koodoos). Amongst the Equidae, the genus Equus, to which all current forms belong (donkeys, horses, zebras) is still unknown, hence the site can be dated back at least 2.3 million years. The Equidae are represented by Hipparion, which still had three digits per foot. Also to be noted are the camel (still very rare in Africa at the time), the baboon Theropithecus, a genus now limited to the Ethiopian high plains, hares, insectivores and several species of rodents. The carnivores show outstanding diversity, with 23 different species. The aquatic forms include the morse, never before reported in Africa, and the otter. Several species of felines of all sizes (panther, cheetah, wildcat, sabre tooth tiger) coexist with 4 species of hyena, not to mention the foxes, jackals, meerkats and genets.

The bestiary of Ahl al Oughlam, probably pre-dating slightly the arrival of Man in Morocco, gives us a good idea of the extraordinary diversity of the fauna that our ancestors must have found upon arriving. Surely less varied than that of today, which accompanied the genus Australopithecus and the first Homos in eastern Africa, it testifies to an environment suited to housing fauna with varied ecological demands, but which seems to have slowly deteriorated thereafter.

In 1985, the Acheulean industry sealed under an extremely thick dune complex was identified, at the base of the filling of Thomas 1 Quarry (Raynal and Texier, 1989); work continued on the quarry thereafter and largely covered the levels in question. It was only in 1988 that we opened a large-scale survey with André Debénath then, in 1989, established a dig that was initially limited, due to the refilling of the quarry which had gone into disuse, then gradually extended the excavation. It yielded a great deal of material, which led us to use radical mechanical resources to clear and “reopen” the former quarry space to uncover, once again, the underlying level and grotto complex, thanks to a number of bulldozer campaigns, which led us to open the Ancient Acheulean levels across more than 1000 m2 and unearth, once again, the Hominid grotto complex across some one hundred m2. Today, the Thomas Quarry thus offers two extremely interesting sites, Level L, which is an ancient level, probably back over one million years (Rhodes et al., 2006) and the Hominid grotto complex, which is much more recent.

Within Level L, which is a complex of Paleo-Marigot with, at the top, sedimentation that becomes eolian, the archaeology declines to the occupations referred to as L1 and L5: specifically, at the base (L1), an ancient Acheulean rich in two-sided and trihedral tools and at the top (L5), an industry with various nuclei, including certain two-sided and fashioned stones, shards and tools on shards. Like elsewhere in Eastern Africa, interstratification can be observed here, with an Acheulean side and a so-called “Oldowan” side, in that in Eastern Africa, the so-called “advanced Oldowan” was dated back to 0.6 million years (Clark et al, 1994).

The fauna includes more than ten species of mammals, as well as a few reptiles and amphibians. Overall, it attests to an Ancient age in the Moroccan Quaternary. It should be noted that the Ellobius campagnol, which appears in Tighenif, Algeria, and becomes relatively common in the middle Pleistocene of Grotto and fissure fillings in the Thomas1 and Oulad Hamida1 quarries, is still absent. The morphology of the few rodent teeth from the Muridae family (rats and mice), in particular those of the first lower molar of Paraethomys, distinct from those known in Tighenif and in the later levels, confirms that Level L of the Thomas Quarries is older than the Algerian site. In large mammals, the discovery of a third Suidae molar from the genus Kolpochoerus also pleads in favour of an age more ancient than that of Tighenif. In the last level, it is replaced by Metridiochoerus compactus, another more recent Suidae, similar to the phacocherus. Hippopotamus bone fragments abound, obviously not a surprising fact considering the deposit conditions. Its abundance on this open-air site, like that of the elephant, is in stark contrast with their rarity or absence in grotto or fissure fillings. One can imagine a small basin occupied by a small lake, sometimes swampy, where the hippos were attractive prey for the fossil Humans that hunted and despoiled them probably on the spot. Other fossils from large mammals are probably the remains of animals that came there to quench their thirst, including elephants, zebras, gazelles and antelopes from the Alcelaphini group. Generally, these are herbivores that prefer open-air, dry environments, like the savannah, and it can be assumed that this is the type of milieu that dominated in the region. Amongst the micro-mammals, rodents, closely tied to their living environment, also provide reliable information about the environments, even though they are rare here. Out of the fifteen teeth yielded by the limestone sediments in Level L, thirteen belong to the Gerbillidae family, the current representatives of which colonise open-air, dry milieus, if not sub-desert. This matches up with the indications provided by large Mammals. Overall, the mammal fauna in Level L at the Thomas Quarry are thought to be around 1.2 million years old, even though the bone remains are not abundant enough for exact dating to be suggested. This makes it one of the oldest vestiges of human occupation in North Africa, and assuredly, the oldest known in Morocco.

The second level of interest in the Thomas 1 Quarry is the Hominid Grotto level. The exact location where the mandible from the Thomas 1 Quarry was found, because the mining front in this zone has varied to only a limited extent since the time in contrast, the quarry had destroyed part of the grotto and unearthed new deposits.

The industry discovered is an Acheulean set of carved stones, nuclei and, very rarely, two-sided tools. The deposits are a combination from outside the grotto, in the form of small mud slides, which carried the material away with out and pushed it to the bottom of the cavity.

The fauna includes a large number of carnivores, in particular, many jackals that probably belonged to a new species, a large bear, which probably came down from that which emerged in Ahl al Oughlam, hyenas (with the two species, striped and spotted), as well as rare forms, like the lion, otter, ratel or timberwolf. There is little doubt that most of the aforementioned predators lived inside the grotto, concurrently to Man, and the great baboon Theropithecus, already present in Ahl al Oughlam, but which had now reached the size of a small gorilla. The herbivores, which may have fallen into the grotto, or were brought there by Man or the carnivores, are not very abundant, but still valuable for they show that, as in Level, L, the milieu was probably open and dry. They include the Oryx, gnu, gazelle, zebra and white rhinoceros, all of which now inhabit the East African savannah. That Kolpochoerus was replaced by Phacochoerus between Level L and the Thomas 1 grotto suggests aridification. As with all sites in the Maghreb, the microfauna shows little diversify and includes representatives of only a few lines, several of which were already present in Ahl al Oughlam: Gerbillus and Meriones in the Gerbillidae family, three Muridae (rats and mice): Mus, Praomys and Paraethomys, the campagnol Ellobius, the dormouse Eliomys and the porcupine.

All of the dating indicators, including the microfauna, have thereby led us to estimate the famed mandible and 4 still-novel dental remains exhumated during the recent digs at around 0.6 My, though direct dating on the enamel of one of the teeth is still underway.

The so-called Rhinoceros’ Cave was discovered in 1991 (Raynal et al., 1993; Rhodes et al., 1994). The cave’s continental filling is separated into two sections by a marine incursion during a positive marine pulse that penetrated the cavity, revamped the continental deposits and their fossil content and deposited sedimentary material from the foreshore, which displays a characteristic facies and sedimentary structures. In other words, these deposits are older than the oldest member of the Anfa formation, deemed to be at least at isotope stage 13.

Only the lower part of the cavity filling was visible at the time of the digs in 1991 and was then recognised along two metres of power. The dig yielded 3,485 lithic objects across an excavated area of 56 m². The tooling is Middle Acheulean, in the traditional African sense. The macro-tooling includes two-faced objects of varying morphology and size and imperfect symmetry, as well as the rare cleaver along with chopping tools.

The micro-tooling is formed primarily of unfinished shards which, in addition to those resulting from the fashioning of two-sided parts, were produced through one-sided and two-sided, polyhedral and SSDA discoid debitage flakes; no signs of Levallois debitage flakes have been identified for the time being; the retouched shards are few in number, while the notched and toothed tools are in the majority and of limited diversity. This combination is relatively commonplace and often found in the literature on various Acheulean sites from the Middle Pleistocene, whether in Africa or Europe. Fire appears to be still unused: there are no burned bone remains and no charcoal was found. The fauna is extremely abundant in white rhinoceros, likely hunted by man; many carnivores were also found in the filling.

The fauna is very similar to that of the Thomas 1 Cave, but the highly-abundant microfauna is somewhat more varied, with a large number of shrews, bats and a hare that survived from the Pliocene, Serengetilagus raynali. Out of the larger forms, the most outstanding one is the rhinoceros, which belonged to an extinct species similar to the current white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium mauritanicum. Several complete skulls, many jaw and limb bones have been found, and the rhinoceros was thus, by far, in terms of biomass, the dominant animal. As it is unlikely that its presence was merely accidental, and that no carnivore should have been able to move a carcass of that size, it must be concluded that it was Man, who also left a large number of tools in the cave, who was responsible for this accumulation. The hypothesis of active hunting can probably be discarded, considering the limited effectiveness of the weapons which our ancestors had available to them, to take on the formidable power of such game. However, it is conceivable that the cave served as a trap, or had been arranged to do so by the Hominids. Unfortunately, its full topography will never be known, for at the time of its discovery, part of it had already been destroyed by mining in the quarry. Nonetheless, the relatively low number of skeleton bones from rhinoceros limbs gives reason to believe that the parts carrying the most meat were cut out on-site and transported outside the cave.

As with previous sites, the Bovidae provide a large number of clues as to the paleoenvironments. The most traditional analysis method for African Bovidae consists of assessing the relative importance of dry-savannah Bovidae, Alcelaphini (gnus, damalisks, bubals, and fossil forms assimilated to them) and Antilopini (gazelles), compared to the more closed-off and/or humid milieus in which the other tribes lived. In the Rhinoceros’ Cave, in addition to the extraordinary abundance of Alcelaphini (derived mainly from the extinct genus Parmularius, 96 determined specimens) and Antilopini (Gazella, 48), there were Oryx, frequently encountered in the semi-desert, indicating that, as on the other Th 1 and OH 1 sites, the milieu was open and dry. As on the archaeological sites of Casablanca, fossil remains of Equus are relatively rare. The abundance of white rhinoceros, now a grass-grazer, testifies to the same. Out of the Rodents, the number of Gerbillid specimens determined based on first molars amounts to 480, or 75% of all micromammals. Their presence inside the cave results from the accumulation of night raptor pellets, like the barn owl. The percentages can be skewed with regard to their relative abundance in the biocenosis, but this is probably not a decisive factor. As shown above, the current Gerbil populations colonise open and dry, if not sub-desert milieus, and there is no doubt that the environment of Homo erectus in Thomas - Ulad Hamida was very open and dry, though a few rare forms, like the bear, perhaps the porcupine and the wildcats, appear to testify to the existence of another type of milieu, probably fossilised dunes and coastal rock.

Considering the lithostratigraphy, the microfauna and dating clues, this occupation has been placed just after the Hominids of the Thomas 1 Quarry, meaning around 0.5 My.

In 2005 and 2006, the upper levels were explored, then excavated, across a limited area. This dig made it possible to gradually enter the cave from the top of the filling, as the deposits were extremely consolidated. Several archaeological levels abundant in fauna and lithic industry have been identified. They include the rare two-sided tool, as macro-tooling then consisted predominantly of chopping tools. The most recently level, in the upper calcarenite sealed by a thin deposit of calcite, is abundant in bone remains from large birds, along with large quartzite debitage flakes.

CLARK, J.D., HEINZELIN, J. de, SCHICK, K.D., HART, W.K., WHITE, T.D., WOLDEGABRIEL, G., WALTER, R.C., SUWA, G., ASFAW, B., VRBA, E., SELASSIÉ, Y.H., 1994. African Homo erectus: Old radiometric Ages and Young Oldowan Assemblages in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia. Science 264, 1907-1910.