The “Moroccan Archaeological Bulletin” returns with a new issue, the eighth after the twentieth, of the annual publication specializing in archaeology and heritage sciences, issued by the National Institute of Archeology and Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, in Arabic, English, French and Spanish.
The issue includes the results of archaeological research, archaeological studies, and scientific proposals, focusing on the Moroccan field and its broader space, in multiple periods. From prehistoric times in “Tafogalt Cave”, all the way to the Islamic period in Sijilmasa in Tafilalet.
A study is concerned with the “Cave of the Pigeons” in order to understand the “technological” transformation, and the unknown transitional period in archaeological research concerned with “prehistoric times in North Africa,” which is the transition “from the Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic,” revealing circumstances of “the period between the end of the Atrian era and the beginning of the Iberian-Moorish era,” which to this day constitutes “a temporal and cultural vacuum.”
While others are interested in understanding what “Bezmun Cave” reveals about the function of a type of seashell, and understanding the way “human groups exploit the resources available in the surrounding area, in addition to the social and economic organization of these groups, and their movement up to the coastline.” Because “the Paleolithic era witnessed a group of behavioral, cultural, and societal changes. Among its manifestations in North Africa was the exploitation of marine resources for multiple purposes, including symbolic, food, and functional.”
Another scientific research published by the “Moroccan Archaeological Bulletin” and bringing together Moroccan and foreign scientists, more than twenty in number, presents the preliminary results of a project that “led to the identification of more than fifty unknown sites” in northwestern Morocco, which “is characterized by being a region of communication and principles.” It is a project to uncover “rock art sites, Mycelain tombs, and open-air settlements dating between the sixth and first millennium BC.”
While a new study is concerned with the possible prospects for archeology based on magnetic analysis based on a studied experiment in a non-Moroccan location, another scientific study presents the mosaics of the archaeological site of Lyxus, which is particularly linked to the Roman period, near the city of Larache, and what unites them and distinguishes them from the rest of the mosaics of “ancient Morocco.”
Regarding the site of Lixus itself, scientific research studies its latest burials, presenting the outcome of knowledge of “the ancient cemeteries of Lixus, located in the immediate vicinity of the site, through a critical reading of various data published in the past, and of the information provided by the archive of Cesar de Montaleban, which was recently placed at the disposal of researchers,” in the context of an effort to “answer questions about the topography of burials, the history of the burials, and the nature of funerary practices and their development during the period extending from the eighth century B.C. AD, until the fifth century after.”
Among what the “Moroccan Archaeological Bulletin” reveals in its new studies are inscriptions discovered in the last ten years in the vicinity of the defunct city of Volubilis, near the city of Meknes, with a study of Latin inscriptions dating back to the Roman era “in their archaeological context linked to the sites of Toculosida and Ain Chakour, which formed part of the Roman ‘limes’ (defense systems) in the Mauritania of Tangiers.”
Among the studies show that the decorated remains discovered in 2013, during the restoration of the Kasbah Mosque in the city of Marrakesh, are “the remains of one of the original domes of the mosque – that is, the Almohad ones – which were destroyed by the explosion that occurred at the end of the sixteenth century AD, and were covered by the reconstruction work ordered at the time by the Saadi Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib,” with the study proposing “a comparative analysis of inscribed writing and vegetal decorative forms,” with a call to “The necessity of keeping up with archaeological monitoring of the restoration works of historical buildings in Morocco, and disseminating it on the largest scale.”
A new study differs from previous conclusions about “Bab al-Mansuriya” at the Sijilmasa archaeological site, presenting new interpretations based on archaeological developments. While another searches for a historical Islamic site through archaeological investigations in “part of the Upper Wadi Inawen region, belonging to the Taza and Taounate provinces,” to uncover the “Garmat Castle” founded by the Emirate of Beni Abi Al-Afia Al-Meknassids. This research revealed “at least ten other archaeological sites, which are castles, cities, and village communities dating back to the medieval period.”
The study presents an attempt to date the antiquities of “the site of the Small Palace,” including the “Zellig Antiquities,” located on the “southern bank of the Strait of Gibraltar,” which during its heyday during the Marinid state was a “city and port.”
Another research scientifically studies gold coins from the Almoravid era, presenting the results of the extent to which “the mastery of coin making” had reached in Morocco in that era, and the elements to which the metal alloys belonged; Which “can serve the need to preserve, restore and value artifacts,” and can “guide the choice of restoration techniques and preservation of mineral heritage.”
“Moroccan Archaeological Publishing” presents the results and conclusions of the studies in the Baht Valley in Khemisset, the research in the “Bono Palace” in southern Morocco, the results of the archaeological excavations in “Tahadrat”, and the research program “Vulubilis… from Europe to the Marinids”, with research concerned with the status of living human treasures based on the model of the workmanship of the “Tatawi” roof.
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