Discovery of 5,000-year-old farming society in Morocco fills a major gap in history – north-west Africa was a central player in trade and culture

A new discovery of an ancient farming society at Oued Beht in Morocco fills a centuries-old gap in history. It reveals that, 5,000 years ago, the Maghreb (north-west Africa) was far from a backwater. Rather, it was an integral part of life in the Mediterranean, a region nestled between north Africa, south-western Asia and southern Europe.

Over time, the Mediterranean has served as a cradle for interconnected societies that influenced one another through trade, migration and the exchange of ideas. Although the Maghreb is widely recognised for Middle Stone Age and Iron Age developments (from 300,000 years ago to the first millennium BCE), its role in the period from 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE has remained an enigma. Until now.

Archaeologists Cyprian Broodbank, Giulio Lucarini and Youssef Bokbot are the leaders of the international team who made the discovery. They are co-directors of the Oued Beht Archaeological Project in Morocco. Their multidisciplinary study has finally shed light on Africa’s pivotal role in the socio-cultural evolution of the early Mediterranean in a time marked by dynamic changes. We spoke with them.

What did the study find?

The team’s work at Oued Beht unearthed the most extensive and earliest agricultural complex known in north Africa outside the Nile Valley. Located in northern Morocco, between the coast and the Middle Atlas Mountains, Oued Beht occupies a unique position that favours both agriculture and trade. Its varied terrain, with river valleys intersecting rolling hills and plains, offers fertile ground ideal for early agricultural activities.

The findings suggest that between 3400 BCE and 2900 BCE, a large-scale farming society thrived in this region. We were struck by the sheer scale of the settlement. It’s comparable in size to the early levels of the legendary city of Troy in modern-day Turkey.

Oued Beht yielded domesticated plant and animal remains, pottery – including painted types – polished axes and chipped stone. Particularly remarkable was the discovery of deep storage pits, a feature previously found in sites in Iberia in the same period.

These likely contained a variety of grains and may have been used to store surplus food. This will have helped to manage resources during periods of scarcity. The abundance of pottery sherds and fragments of stone artefacts in these pits suggests that they were also used as dumping grounds in their final phase of use. These characteristic pits, along with finds from southern Spanish sites from the same period of painted pottery, as well as ostrich eggs and ivory, strongly point to connections between the Maghreb and the wider Mediterranean.

The material from Oued Beht clearly indicates that north-west Africa was not isolated but played an active role in Mediterranean networks.

This period led to advancements in social organisation, technological innovation and extensive trade networks that interconnected diverse cultures across the Mediterranean basin.

How was the discovery made?

Oued Beht was first identified as an archaeological site in the 1930s. Colonial French construction work uncovered a remarkable number of polished stone axes. However, the site was not thoroughly investigated until this century. Nearly a decade ago, a French-Moroccan team, co-led by one of us (Youssef Bokbot), conducted stratigraphic investigations there, though the results remain unpublished.

The Oued Beht Archaeological Project’s recent “re-discovery” of Oued Beht emerged from a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach. Over multiple seasons of fieldwork, the team combined traditional investigation techniques with modern technologies like drone-based photogrammetry. This is the science of taking measurements from photographs. It enabled detailed mapping, facilitating the identification and understanding of specific surface structures and features.

Intensive surface survey by a team of walkers spaced at 10 metre intervals was fundamental to understanding the patterning and extent of material of all periods across the site.

Following state of the art excavation, which very carefully recovered and documented each unit of ancient deposition, radiocarbon dating provided precise chronological information. Botanical and faunal analyses reconstructed the environment and dietary practices of the area’s inhabitants. Together, these methods offer a comprehensive view of the human behaviour and the activities at the site.

Botanical analysis points to the cultivation of barley and wheat, pea and legumes likely central to their diet, alongside wild pistachio and wild olive. Faunal remains, including domesticated animals like cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, indicate a pastoral component. Housing structures are challenging to reconstruct precisely, as no clear foundations have been identified so far.

We’re still investigating whether Oued Beht served as a large village or some other form of gathering place for communities throughout the region. The presence of storage pits and evidence of agricultural surplus suggests its inhabitants, if such there were, might have organised resources and labour.

Evidence of trade with other regions could further imply specialised roles within the community. However, as our research is still in its early stages, future investigations will be essential to confirm these initial hypotheses.

Why is this find so important?

Historically, the spotlight in north African archaeology has been on Egypt – or, if embracing the rest of Mediterranean Africa, mainly limited to Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Islamic times. These discoveries dominated narratives of early African societies. They often leave earlier periods or areas such as the Maghreb in their shadow.

So, the findings at Oued Beht shift our understanding of the Mediterranean’s prehistory. With concrete evidence of a thriving, complex society, the Maghreb takes its place as a key player in the region’s development.

But Oued Beht also changes how we think about the interconnectedness of the Mediterranean world during this time. This wasn’t a one-way street of influence from north to south. The Maghreb shaped broader developments across the entire region.

This discovery may also have implications for understanding the Sahara’s historical role in cultural and social transformations. As climate change transformed the once-greener Sahara into a desert, it likely pushed populations towards more viable agricultural areas like the Oued Beht valley. This in turn ultimately facilitated exchanges across continents.

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From what this study shows, the Maghreb was not just a passive recipient of ideas and innovations from elsewhere. It was a cradle of agricultural and social complexity in its own right. It contributed to the development of societies on both sides of the Mediterranean.

Giulio Lucarini received funding for the OBAP from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the National Research Council of Italy, and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), via the International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO), Rome. He is affiliated with ISMEO.

Cyprian Broodbank received funding for the OBAP from the British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies, a Cambridge University Humanities Research Grant, and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. He is a vice president of the British Academy, and a Trustee of the Mediterranean Archaeological Trust and Museum of London Archaeology.

Youssef Bokbot does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.