Report Of New Archaeological Investigations At Ain Hanech, Algeria

Résumé: The Ain Hanech site was discoverd in 1947 by the French paleontologist Camille Arambourg in the course of his paleontological survey of the region around the town of Setif in northeastern Algeria, this site yielded an Upper Villafranchian fauna (=Lower Pleistocene) associated with artifacts of a Mode I ( Oldowan-like) technology. Estimate of the age here have ranged from 1.0 to 1.2 million years ago, based upon faunal correlations with East Africa (Coppens, 1972). The fauna included elephants ( E. moghrebiensis), equid (E. asinus tabeti), bovids, ( Bos bubaloides, Numidocapra crassicornis, Gazela pomeli, etc) hippo (H. amphibus), rhino (Ceratotherium simum mauritanicum ) etc. (Arambourg, 1970 and 1979). The artifacts consisted primarily of polyhedrons flaked, but not battered subspheroids, and spheroids similar to some known at olduvai Gorge ( Upper Bed I/ Lower Bed II) (Sahnouni, 1987 and 1992). This was the first time that an early Pleistocene fauna was found associated with Lower Palaeolithic artifacts in North Africa.

Publié dans la revue: RECHERCHES