Early Holocene Occupations at Ashash Rock Shelter (Zemmur, Western Sahara)

Abstract

The archaeological record of the Western Sahara remains extremely fragmentary, with very few sites systematically excavated. The excavation at Ashash rock shelter (Zemmur region) has provided, for the first time in the region, the evidence of superimposition of two prehistoric occupations that have been radiocarbon dated to the early 9th millennium cal.BPand to the mid-7th millennium cal.BP. The Epipalaeolithic occupation is strongly marked by the standardised production of geometric microliths and points using a microburin blow technique. The Neolithic occupation of the site has yielded a few potsherds that provide the first unambiguous evidence of pottery in the Zemmur area in the mid-7th millennium cal.BP.