‘Empty land’ theory shattered as 4,400-year-old settlement find rewrites history

The international research team was led by Hamza Benattia Melgarejo, a PhD student at the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Geography and History and a member of the university’s Classical and Protohistoric Archaeology Research Group.

According to a press release, the team has been conducting an excavation of the prehistoric settlement situated near the Strait of Gibraltar, encompassing approximately 2.5 acres in the vicinity of the Lau River.

Over the course of their work, the researchers unearthed evidence indicating human occupation during three distinct periods, spanning from 2200 to 600 BCE. This finding effectively challenges and revises existing historical narratives. “It tells a very different story from the one that existed for a long time,” says Benattia.

Occupied 1,400 years earlier

Challenging conventional beliefs, the Maghreb region in Morocco was not an “empty land” until the arrival of the Phoenicians around 800 BCE. A new study published in the journal Antiquity details three phases of occupation extending back to 2200 BCE. This timeline imbues the Kach Kouch site with considerable significance as it rewrites the previously held, inaccurate historical account.

Under the direction of Hamza Benattia Melgarejo, the research team identified the initial phase of human occupation, dating between 2200 and 2000 BCE. While limited physical evidence was recovered from this earliest period, its very existence is considered a notable, if not groundbreaking, finding, even without substantial details about the site’s initial inhabitants, according to the press release.

However, the period between 1300 and 900 BCE appears to have been a flourishing era for the settlement. Archaeologists unearthed the remains of wooden mud-brick buildings, rock-cut silos, and grinding stones, indicating a “vibrant period” in the site’s history. It is believed that the first agricultural society thrived at Kach Kouch during this time, cultivating crops such as barley and wheat and raising livestock, including sheep, goats, and cattle.

“This is the first definitive evidence of sedentary life before the Phoenician presence in the Maghreb,” the press release stated.

Finally, the timeframe between 800 and 600 BCE reveals the inhabitants of Kach Kouch in modern-day Morocco as adaptable and receptive to innovation. Several new technologies and cultural elements were introduced, notably from regions outside the area, such as the eastern Mediterranean. These included stone architecture, iron tools, and wheel-thrown pottery. Crucially, this technological advancement reflects a complex and sophisticated trade network in which the Maghreb actively participated.

Maghreb was a center for human occupation

The Kach Kouch site provides the first well-documented evidence of “continuous settlement in the Maghreb,” offering a significantly different narrative of a region in Morocco that was anything but empty. “It shows the history of dynamic local communities that were far from isolated,” concluded Benattia.

“The excavations at this site are another step towards correcting these historical biases and reveal that the Maghreb was an active participant in the social, cultural, and economic networks of the Mediterranean.”