Ancient cemeteries and rock art discovered on Morocco's Tangier Peninsula
A trio of archaeologists from the University of Barcelona and the University of Castilla-La Mancha, both in Spain, and the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage in Morocco have discovered three ancient cemeteries on the Tangier Peninsula. In their study, in the journal African Archaeological Review, Hamza Benattia, Jorge Onrubia-Pintado and Youssef Bokbot conducted fieldwork on the peninsula.
The Tangier Peninsula, which lies on the northwest tip of Africa, in Morocco, just south of the Strait of Gibraltar, is one of the least-understood parts of the Mediterranean region. The researchers traveled to the area and conducted fieldwork. They discovered three ancient cemeteries, one of which held a stone burial dated to approximately 4,000 years ago. The team also found several rock shelters with painted rock art and also several standing stones.
The goal of the research team was to find dig sites containing evidence of human existence from 500 BC to 3000 BC. As they dug at several sites, they uncovered evidence of cist burials in some of the cemeteries they discovered. Such burials were conducted by digging holes into rock, placing a body in the hole, and then covering it with a stone slab. This type of burial, they note, would require a great deal of work, given the limited tool set of the time.
The researchers also used radiocarbon dating on human remains that were found in one of the cist burials, and found that the person who had been placed in the cist was from some time around 2000 BC. They note that their use of radiocarbon dating was the first to be done on a cist burial site in any part of northwest Africa.
The researchers also found multiple instances of human-built shelters, many with shapes painted on them. They note that some of the pictures were similar to ancient pictures found in the Sahara Desert. They found multiple examples of standing rocks and stones located at both the cemeteries and the sites where the painted rocks were found鈥攚ith one approximately 2.5 meters tall. They note that standing stones were used by many ancient peoples as a way to mark territory.
More information: Hamza Benattia et al, Cemeteries, Rock Art and Other Ritual Monuments of the Tangier Peninsula, Northwestern Africa, in Wider Trans-Regional Perspective (c. 3000鈥�500 BC), African Archaeological Review (2025).
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