Archaeologists’ ‘crucial’ discovery of long lost ancient society in Africa

fieldwork in Morocco has uncovered the earliest known farming society from a previously unexplored period of northwestern Africa’s prehistory.

A recent study published in the science journal, , highlights the significance of the (northwest Africa) in the development of complex societies within the Mediterranean.

With its , proximity to the Sahara, and the shortest maritime link between Africa and Europe, the Maghreb has historically been a crucial crossroads for cultural exchange and intercontinental connections.

While the region’s role in the Paleolithic, Iron Age, and Islamic periods is well documented, there has been a considerable gap in knowledge regarding its archaeology between approximately 4000 and 1000 BC—a period of profound transformation across much of the Mediterranean.

Addressing this gap, researchers Youssef Bokbot (INSAP), Cyprian Broodbank (Cambridge University), and Giulio Lucarini (CNR-ISPC and ISMEO) conducted extensive, multidisciplinary fieldwork at Oued Beht, Morocco.

“For more than a century, the last great unknown of later Mediterranean prehistory has been the role played by societies along the Mediterranean’s southern African shores west of Egypt,” the authors stated.

“Our discoveries prove that this gap resulted not from an absence of major prehistoric activity but rather from the limited extent of archaeological investigation and publication. Oued Beht now affirms the central role of the Maghreb in shaping both Mediterranean and broader African societies.”

Findings indicate that Oued Beht was the largest known agricultural settlement of its time in Africa outside , comparable in scale to Early Bronze Age Troy.

Excavations uncovered a wealth of domesticated plant and animal remains, pottery, and stone tools from the Final Neolithic period, along with extensive storage pits suggesting large-scale food preservation.

Similar storage structures have been identified across the in Iberia, where evidence of African influences—such as ivory and ostrich eggs—has long been recognised.

This connection reinforces the idea that the Maghreb played a pivotal role in shaping developments across the western Mediterranean during the fourth millennium BC.

The discoveries at Oued Beht underscore the integral role of the northwestern Maghreb within the wider Mediterranean world.

The researchers emphasise in Antiquity: “It is crucial to consider Oued Beht within a broader, co-evolving network that linked communities on both sides of the Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway during the later fourth and third millennia BC.

“While movement likely occurred in both directions, Oued Beht should be understood as a distinctively African community that contributed significantly to the formation of that social world.”