The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2009: the third season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the 2007–2008 fieldwork

Abstract

The paper reports on the third (2009) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project, and on further results from the analysis of materials collected in the previous (2007 and 2008) fieldwork. Sediments in a 14 m-deep core drilled beside the McBurney trench provide an invaluable overview of the overall stratigraphic sequence, including at depths reached by the 1950s Deep Sounding but not yet investigated by the present project. Sampling of newly-exposed faces of the original excavation trench for dating (14C, ESR, OSL, U-series) and palaeoenvirommental indicators continued. Excavation was begun of sediments assigned to the early Holocene Libyco-Capsian (McBurney's Layer X), and of Pre-Aurignacian layers beside the top of the Deep Sounding. The Libyco-Capsian layers are particularly prolific in lithic debris, shells, and animal bones; preliminary analysis of the lithics suggests a development from Typical to Upper Capsian within the layers excavated in 2009. Geoarchaeological survey along the littoral to the west and east of the Haua Fteah identified complex sequences spanning most of the last interglacial-glacial cycle. Geoarchaeological survey south of the Haua Fteah characterized the major landforms of the Gebel Akhdar mountain and of the pre-desert and desert-edge zones further south, with Late Stone Age (Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic) material being found especially on the southern side of the Gebel Akhdar, and Middle Stone Age (Middle Palaeolithic) material in the pre-desert and desert regions. The first suite of 14C dates (from charcoal samples taken in 2007) indicates the use of the Haua Fteah by Oranian hunter-gatherers during the Last Glacial Maximum and in the succeeding millennia, but not in the Younger Dryas cold/dry phase (c. 11,000–10,000 cal. BC), with Libyco-Capsian occupation resuming soon after the beginning of the Holocene c. 9000 cal. BC, suggesting that the cave, and perhaps the Gebel Akhdar in general, have a complex history as refugia for human settlement during the Pleistocene.

Site formation processes in caves: The Holocene sediments of the Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica, Libya

“…It is clear from initial work (Barker et al, 2007(Barker et al, , 2008(Barker et al, , 2009Simpson and Hunt, 2009) that the Haua Fteah contains a high-resolution record, where changing environments and patterns of human activity can be discerned. It is also showing that many of McBurney's findings require re-evaluation in the context of modern techniques and understandings.…”

Carbon isotope signatures from land snail shells: Implications for palaeovegetation reconstruction in the eastern Mediterranean

“…Many of these sites, particularly the multi-period cave site of Haua Fteah, contain abundant land snail remains (McBurney, 1967;Barker et al, , 2008Barker et al, , 20092010. These sites therefore offer enormous potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from land snail stable isotopes.…”

Changing patterns of eastern Mediterranean shellfish exploitation in the Late Glacial and Early Holocene: Oxygen isotope evidence from gastropod in Epipaleolithic to Neolithic human occupation layers at the Haua Fteah cave, Libya

“…The site was originally excavated over three seasons in the 1950s to a depth of 14 m (McBurney, 1967). It is being re-excavated as part of the TRANS-NAP project at the University of Cambridge (Barker et al, 2008(Barker et al, , 2009(Barker et al, , 2010(Barker et al, , 2012Rabett et al, 2013;Farr et al, 2014). The TRANS-NAP excavations have reached Middle Palaeolithic units .…”

“…Numerous smaller caves in the Gebel Akhdar have revealed evidence of late Pleistocene to Holocene human occupation and shellfish exploitation including Hajj Criem, Hagfet al Gama, and Hagfet et Dabba (Fig. 1, McBurney and Hey, 1955;Barker et al, 2009). …”

“…The presence of abundant shellfish along with other plant and animal resources including barbary sheep, gazelles, hartebeests, bovines, reptiles, land snails and wild plants attests to the broad spectrum diet characteristic of many Epipaleolithic and Neolithic archaeological sites in the Mediterranean basin (Barker et al, 2009(Barker et al, , 2012. During the Epipalaeolithic, shellfish exploitation was limited to intertidal species, the most common being Phorcus turbinatus and Patella caerulea.…”