The Plio-Pleistocene sequence of Oued Boucherit (Algeria): A unique chronologically-constrained archaeological and palaeontological record in North Africa

Located within the Beni Fouda intramontane basin, the Oued Boucherit area (Guelta Zerga, North East Algeria) hosts a unique succession of archaeological and palaeontological deposits spanning from the late Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene. While the recent work by Sahnouni et al., (2018) mostly foc...

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Published in:Quaternary science reviews 2021-11, Vol.271, p.107116, Article 107116
Main Authors: Duval, Mathieu, Sahnouni, Mohamed, Parés, Josep M., van der Made, Jan, Abdessadok, Salah, Harichane, Zoheir, Cheheb, Razika Chelli, Boulaghraif, Kamel, Pérez-González, Alfredo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acheulean
Age-depth model
Ain Boucherit
Ain Hanech
Archaeology and Prehistory
Biochronology
Chronology
Early Pleistocene
Humanities and Social Sciences
North Africa
Oldowan
Pliocene
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Summary:Located within the Beni Fouda intramontane basin, the Oued Boucherit area (Guelta Zerga, North East Algeria) hosts a unique succession of archaeological and palaeontological deposits spanning from the late Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene. While the recent work by Sahnouni et al., (2018) mostly focused on the two Oldowan archaeological levels AB-Lw and AB-Up, we present here an updated overview of the entire Oued Boucherit sequence, resulting from a long-term multidisciplinary investigation that started in 1992. In particular, we report for the first time a description of the oldest palaeontological levels dated to >3 Ma, and of the uppermost archaeological level hosting Acheulean artefacts. The age-depth model initially proposed by Sahnouni et al. (2018) was further extended to chronologically constrain the whole sequence, which spans from ∼3.93 Ma at the bottom to ∼1.65 Ma at the top. The Oued Boucherit sedimentary sequence records the earliest evolutionary steps of lithic technology, with early Oldowan assemblages at Ain Boucherit dated to about 2.44 Ma (AB-Lw) and 1.92 Ma (AB-Up) Ma, followed by the ∼1.77-1.72 Ma assemblages of Ain Hanech and El Kherba showing more derived features, and the appearance of the Acheulean technology, dated to ∼1.67 Ma. This chonostratigraphic framework indicates that the Oued Boucherit area (
ISSN:0277-3791
1873-457X
DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107116