At Oued Beht in northwest Morocco, archaeologists have found what looks like the earliest large-scale defensive construction in North Africa outside the Nile Valley. It’s about 4,000 to 3,500 years old.
Why it matters
- The same project had already found probably the earliest and largest farming complex in Africa outside the Nile Valley, from about 5,400 to 4,900 years ago.
- The new wall suggests these communities were organized, competing over land and resources, and connected to the wider Mediterranean world.
- The ridge became a defensive focal point again in the 11th to 13th centuries AD.
My take
Every time we dig, ancient people turn out to be more organized and connected than the textbooks gave them credit for. People back then weren’t simpler than us, just earlier.
God Bless, and Happy hacking!
