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The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2010: the fourth season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the 2007–2009 fieldwork

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Graeme Barker ,
Annita Antoniadou ,
Simon Armitage ,
Ian Brooks ,
Ian Candy ,
Kate Connell ,
Katerina Douka ,
Nicholas Drake ,
Lucy Farr  and
Evan Hill
...Show all authors
Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Annita Antoniadou
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Simon Armitage
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Ian Brooks
Affiliation:
Engineering Archaeological Services Ltd, Blaenau Ffestiniog, UK
Ian Candy
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Kate Connell
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Katerina Douka
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, UK
Nicholas Drake
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, King's College, London, UK
Lucy Farr
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Evan Hill
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Chris Hunt
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Robyn Inglis
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Sacha Jones
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Christine Lane
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, UK
Giulio Lucarini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Archeologia e Preistoria, University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy
John Meneely
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Jacob Morales
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Historicas, University of Las Palmas, Spain
Giuseppina Mutri
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Archeologia e Preistoria, University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy
Amy Prendergast
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Ryan Rabett
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Hazel Reade
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Tim Reynolds
Affiliation:
Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
Natalie Russell
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
David Simpson
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Bernard Smith
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Chris Stimpson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Mohammed Twati
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Omar Mukhtar University, al-Beida, Libya
Kevin White
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Archaeology, University of Reading, UK
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Abstract

The paper reports on the fourth (2010) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project, and on further results of analyses of artefacts and organic materials collected in the 2009 season. Ground-based LiDar has provided both an accurate 3D scan of the Haua Fteah cave and information on the cave's morphometry or origins. The excavations in the cave focussed on Middle Palaeolithic or Middle Stone Age ‘Pre-Aurignacian’ layers below the base of the Middle Trench beside the McBurney Deep Sounding (Trench D) and on Final Palaeolithic ‘Oranian’ layers beside the upper part of the Middle Trench (Trench M). Although McBurney referred to the upper part of the Deep Sounding as more or less sterile, the 2010 excavations found evidence for small-scale but regular human presence in the form of stone artefacts and debitage, though given the sedimentary context the latter are unlikely to represent in situ knapping. The excavations of Trench M extended from the basal Capsian layers investigated in 2009 through Oranian layers to the transition with the Dabban Upper Palaeolithic. Some 17,000 lithic pieces have been studied from the Capsian and Oranian layers excavated in Trench M, in an area measuring less than 2 m by 1 m by 1.1 m deep, along with numerous animal bones, molluscs, and macrobotanical remains, as well as occasional shell beads. Preliminary studies of the lithics, bones, molluscs, and plant remains are revealing the changing character of late Pleistocene (Oranian) and early Holocene (Capsian) occupation in the Haua Fteah. Alongside the work in the Haua Fteah, the project continued its assessment of the Quaternary and archaeological sequences of the Cyrenaican coastland and completed a transect survey of surface lithic materials and their landform contexts from the pre-desert across the Gebel Akhdar to the coast, with a new focus on the al-Marj basin. Significant differences are emerging in patterns of Middle Palaeolithic and later hominin occupation and palaeodemography.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 41 , 2010 , pp. 63 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2010

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