A reconsideration of the Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age in North Africa after the evidence from the Libyan Sahara

The 1960/63 excavation was interrupted at the bottom of the Holocene sequence. In 1990, the early trench was cleaned and a Pleistocene archaeological deposit was brought to light with several Aterian artefacts in it. The 1960s’ excavation had been left open for many years and the assemblage seemed to be disturbed. It was then preferred to focus on the sequence resulting from the new excavation made between 1990 and 1993. The archaeological sequence containing Aterian materials represented the lowermost part of the archaeological deposit. It laid on the sandstone bedrock. The deposit was composed of yellow, coarse and consolidated aeolian sands, including a consistent quantity of lithic artefacts and large sandstone blocks. It was separated from the upper, Holocene, sequence by an unconform erosional surface with a stone line including wind-shaped clasts, which had been covered by a thin layer of loose, aeolian sand. The Aterian lithic assemblage has already been partially presented elsewhere. The material was described according to the traditional typological classifications. However, the most recent debates are now presented and the information available on the site is updated. A sequence including several phases is also suggested on the basis on the lithic assemblages, the natural resource exploitation and the subsistence economy. Some TL and OSL datings were run on Pleistocene sand samples from two sites recently excavated in the Tadrart Acacus, Uan Tabu and Uan Afuda, which provided the first finite time range of the Aterian in the Central Sahara.