Earthquakes and tectonic dynamics favouring late Pleistocene human settlements in the Jebel Gharbi, Libya

Our fieldwork combined geoarchaeological and site surveys with systematic artefact collections and test excavations. Research concentrated on the eastern and central parts of the mountain range, in the Wadi Ghan and Wadi Ain Zargha respectively, and recently extended to the foot of the northern scarp of the mountain, around the area of the modern village of Shakshuk and its surroundings, where a series of water springs appear. The Shakshuk area proved to be particularly rich in prehistoric sites and Upper Pleistocene geomorphological features. Furthermore, we identified clear sets of evidence of active tectonic faults capable to produce ground displacement during earthquakes; the faults and related fracture field also act as a preferential underground drainage network and feed some water springs which can still sustain the human settlement system of the area. This allowed us to extend the geomorphological framework of Shakshuk to other parts of the mountain range, where evidence of faults and water springs exists, but could not be interpreted within such a detailed scheme connecting geological events and human adaptations. This paper aims at presenting two major results of our research. The first is to demonstrate that there were strong earthquakes and serious tectonic dynamics during the late Upper Pleistocene in the Jebel Gharbi, and the second is to show how these events created the conditions that favoured human occupation by Aterian and Later Stone Age/Upper Palaeolithic populations.