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  • Nefta
  • Tozeur
  •  
  • Tunisia
  • Tozeur Governorate
  • Nefta
  • Es-Seni

Credits

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  • AIAC_logo logo

Periods

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Chronology

  • 72000 BC - 98000 BC

Season

    • Since 2013 fieldwork were undertaken in the vicinity of the chotts in southern west of Tunisia. New aterian site was discovered in Nafta. We highlight that during the last interglacial humid period (MIS 5) the chotts (El Dejerid, El Rharsa) outline a huge system of megalakes with rivers and fresh water. Several mammals’ taxa like rhinoceros, zebra, bovids (Oryx, hartebeest, gazelles, aurochs, and buffalo), carnivores and ostrich lived there. The faunal assemblage represents sub-saharan and savanna biotope with fresh water. The deposits from the new site are from a shoreline human occupation. Lithics are fresh so have not been moved far. Centripetal Levallois cores produce Aterian points. Source material was predominantly flint pebble with minor silcrete. OSL dates show an interval going from 72000 to 98 000 years ago. Aterian population lived in the vicinity of the Megalake. The Chotts Megalake may have formed a corridor across the Sahara for the dispersal of Homo sapiens and other animals from Sub-Saharan Africa during the Upper Pleistocene.

Bibliography

    • La Tunisie présaharienne (Etude géomorphologique). Ed. A Colin. Paris, 476 p. 1962.
    • Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert. PNAS, 11, vol. 108, no. 2, 458–462. 2011.
    • Climate Change and Human Dispersal: Evidence from the Chott el Djerid on Northern Margins of the Sahara. In. SAFA, France Juin, 2016.
    • Nefta : un nouveau site atérien aux abords de Chott el-Djerid (Tunisie). QT3-Sousse (20-23/10/2016).
    • Structural controls of Quaternary depocentres within the chott trough region of southern Tunisia. Journal of African earth science. Vol.22, n° 3,335-347. 1996
    • Climatic and tectonic controls on quaternary eolian sedimentary sequences of the cott Rharsa basin, Southern Tunisia. Thèse de Doctorat, Université de Texas, 243p. 1997