Posted on behalf of:
CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange)
30 June 2008
"*"
A complete mandible of Homo erectus was discovered at the Thomas I
quarry in Casablanca by a French-Moroccan team co-led by Jean-Paul
Raynal, CNRS senior researcher at the PACEA[1] laboratory (CNRS/
Université Bordeaux 1/ Ministry of Culture and Communication). This
mandible is the oldest human fossil uncovered from scientific
excavations in Morocco. The discovery will help better define northern
Africa's possible role in first populating southern Europe.
A Homo erectus half-jaw had already been found at the Thomas I quarry
in 1969, but it was a chance discovery and therefore with no
archeological context. This is not the case for the fossil discovered
May 15, 2008, whose characteristics are very similar to those of the
half-jaw found in 1969. The morphology of these remains is different
from the three mandibles found at the Tighenif site in Algeria that
were used, in 1963, to define the North African variety of Homo
erectus, known as Homo mauritanicus, dated to 700,000 B.C.
The mandible from the Thomas I quarry was found in a layer below one
where the team has previously found four human teeth (three premolars
and one incisor) from Homo erectus, one of which was dated to 500,000
B.C. The human remains were grouped with carved stone tools
characteristic of the Acheulian[2] civilization and numerous animal
remains (baboons, gazelles, equines, bears, rhinoceroses, and
elephants), as well as large numbers of small mammals, which point to
a slightly older time frame. Several dating methods are being used to
refine the chronology.
The Thomas I quarry in Casablanca confirms its role as one of the most
important prehistoric sites for understanding the early population of
northwest Africa. The excavations that CNRS and the Institut National
des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine du Maroc have led there
since 1988 are part of a French-Moroccan collaboration. They have been
jointly financed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs[3], the
Department of Human Evolution at the Max Plank Institute in Leipzig
(Germany), INSAP[4] (Morocco) and the Aquitaine region.
[1] De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et
Anthropologie (From Prehistory to Present day: Culture, Environment,
and Anthropology)
[2] Acheulians appeared in Africa around 1.5 million years ago and
disappeared about 300,000 years ago, giving way to Middle Stone Age
civilizations. Their material culture is characterized by the
production of large stone fragments shaped into bifacial pieces and
hatchets, and of large sharp-edged objects.
[3] (Mission archéologique « littoral » Maroc, led by J.P. Raynal).[4]
(INSAP-Rabat) which falls under the authority of the Moroccan Ministry
of Cultural Affairs.
Contact INFORMATION
Researcher
Jean-Paul Raynal
05 40 00 88 89
jpray...@wanadoo.fr
Public Information Officer
Laetitia Louis
01 44 96 51 37
Laetitia.lo...@cnrs-dir.fr
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