Final Report Summary - ATERIAN (A north african perspective on modern human origins)
The project ATERIAN focused on the origin and spread of Anatomically Modern Humans out of Africa through the analysis of one of the most abundant archaeological remains from this period: the lithic implements. The Aterian is the lithic technocomplex characteristic of North Africa in a chronological range of ~170 to ~40 Kya.
An analysis of the Aterian lithic industries from Jebel Gharbi (Libya) has been the crucial bulk of the project. The Italian-Libyan Archaeological Project in the Jebel Gharbi was launched in the early 1990s with the aim of investigating the development of human occupation in this region. The Aterian record here has been examined with particular focus placed on the sites from the upper Wadi Ghan Valley and from Ras el Wadi sites. Two other key assemblages, Haua Fteah (Libya) and Tabelbalat (Algeria), have been studied in order to clarify similarities and differences between different sites in different regions of the area covered by the Aterian.
New insights have been proposed our understanding of different aspects of this techno complex. Through the analysis and the technological description of the various knapping methods (Levallois, Laminar, Taramsian, Nubian, etc.), several traditions converging into the Aterian have been outlined. Those knapping methods are shared all over the north of Africa, and the Aterian and the Nubian complex (characteristic of the Nile valley) have in common many technological features in spite of their separate facies attributions.
These different technical traditions can be linked with human displacement through the Maghreb during the OIS 5-3 and more generally with the expansion and settlement of anatomically modern humans in North Africa. Those anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) populations are candidates for the Out of Africa movement that lead to the peopling of the Near East and Europe. What the ATERIAN project has shown is that all the populations living in North Africa in this key period (including the non-Aterian ones) have similar technical tradition that could be the result of a common background or of constant contact between human groups.
An analysis of the Aterian lithic industries from Jebel Gharbi (Libya) has been the crucial bulk of the project. The Italian-Libyan Archaeological Project in the Jebel Gharbi was launched in the early 1990s with the aim of investigating the development of human occupation in this region. The Aterian record here has been examined with particular focus placed on the sites from the upper Wadi Ghan Valley and from Ras el Wadi sites. Two other key assemblages, Haua Fteah (Libya) and Tabelbalat (Algeria), have been studied in order to clarify similarities and differences between different sites in different regions of the area covered by the Aterian.
New insights have been proposed our understanding of different aspects of this techno complex. Through the analysis and the technological description of the various knapping methods (Levallois, Laminar, Taramsian, Nubian, etc.), several traditions converging into the Aterian have been outlined. Those knapping methods are shared all over the north of Africa, and the Aterian and the Nubian complex (characteristic of the Nile valley) have in common many technological features in spite of their separate facies attributions.
These different technical traditions can be linked with human displacement through the Maghreb during the OIS 5-3 and more generally with the expansion and settlement of anatomically modern humans in North Africa. Those anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) populations are candidates for the Out of Africa movement that lead to the peopling of the Near East and Europe. What the ATERIAN project has shown is that all the populations living in North Africa in this key period (including the non-Aterian ones) have similar technical tradition that could be the result of a common background or of constant contact between human groups.