Origins of the Iberomaurusian in NW Africa: New AMS radiocarbon dating of the Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Taforalt Cave, Morocco R.N.E. Barton a, * , A. Bouzouggar b , J.T. Hogue a , S. Lee c , S.N. Collcutt d , P. Ditchfield c a Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK b Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Hay Riad, Madinat Al Irfane, Angle rues 5 et 7, Rabat-Instituts, 10 000 Rabat, Morocco c Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX13QY, UK d Oxford Archaeological Associates Ltd., 1 Divinity Road, Oxford OX4 1LH, UK article info Article history: Received 5 February 2013 Accepted 1 June 2013 Available online 24 July 2013 Keywords: Maghreb North Africa Microlithic bladelet industry abstract Recent genetic studies based on the distribution of mtDNA of haplogroup U6 have led to subtly different theories regarding the arrival of modern human populations in North Africa. One proposes that groups of the proto-U6 lineage spread from the Near East to North Africa around 40e45 ka (thousands of years ago), followed by some degree of regional continuity. Another envisages a westward human migration from the Near East, followed by further demographic expansion at w22 ka centred on the Maghreb and associated with a microlithic bladelet culture known as the Iberomaurusian. In evaluating these theories, we report on the results of new work on the Middle (MSA) and Later Stone (LSA) Age deposits at Taforalt Cave in Morocco. We present 54 AMS radiocarbon dates on bone and charcoals from a sequence of late MSA and LSA occupation levels of the cave. Using Bayesian modelling we show that an MSA non- Levallois flake industry was present until w24.5 ka Cal BP (calibrated years before present), followed by a gap in occupation and the subsequent appearance of an LSA Iberomaurusian industry from at least 21,160 Cal BP. The new dating offers fresh light on theories of continuity versus replacement of pop- ulations as presented by the genetic evidence. We examine the implications of these data for interpreting the first appearance of the LSA in the Maghreb and providing comparisons with other dated early blade and bladelet industries in North Africa. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Recent phylogenetic studies of mtDNA haplogroups M1 and U6 have proposed that modern human populations in North Africa originated from groups that had migrated into this region from Southwest Asia (Maca-Meyer et al., 2003; Olivieri et al., 2006; Gonzalez et al., 2007). However, the nature, timing, and geograph- ical spread of such a back-migration are still a matter of considerable debate (Pennarun et al., 2012). On the one hand, some studies pro- pose an early dispersal of M1 and U6 lineages into North Africa at w40e45 ka (thousands of years ago) (Olivieri et al., 2006), while others suggest multiple events with a major expansion of the U6 lineages in the Maghreb w22 ka (Maca-Meyer et al., 2003; Pereira et al., 2010). Bound up with these models is the proposal that the geographical patterns of the haplogroups can be shown to coincide with major technological shifts in the archaeological record. One of these relates to sub-haplogroup U6a1 and its posterior clade U6a1a, with coalescence ages of w22 ka, which may be associated with the appearance of a culture known as the Iberomaurusian (Maca-Meyer et al., 2003). This microlithic bladelet industry is significant because it represents potentially the earliest Later Stone Age technology in the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia). The genetic studies therefore also highlight the issue of whether the Iberomaurusian was a truly indigenous development to the Maghreb or whether it reflects a general spread of people and traditions from Cyrenaica with older roots in Southwest Asia. While the published genetics research provides useful models for understanding the early peopling of North Africa by modern humans, considerable caution must be exercised in interpreting these data. One issue concerns underlying assumptions regarding the timing of dispersal events that are heavily dependent on the methodology used to estimate molecular divergence values and DNA mutation rates (Endicott et al., 2009; Scally and Durbin, 2012). Indeed there is still a huge disparity between the age of U6 and * Corresponding author. E-mail address: nick.barton@arch.ox.ac.uk (R.N.E. Barton). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol 0047-2484/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.06.003 Journal of Human Evolution 65 (2013) 266e281