Мароккогийн нутгаас олдсон энэхүү бэхлэлтийн үлдэгдэл нь Нилийн хөндийгөөс гаднах бүс нутагт хийгдсэн хамгийн эртний томоохон байгууламжид тооцогдож байна.
Итали, Марокко, Английн судлаачдын хамтарсан баг Мароккогийн нийслэл Рабат хотоос зүүн зүгт 80 км-ийн зайд орших Оуэд Бехт (Oued Beht) хэмээх газраас эртний хамгаалалтын хана, шуудууны системийг олж илрүүлжээ. “Libyan Studies” сэтгүүлд есдүгээр сарын 7-нд нийтлэгдсэн судалгаагаар, эдгээр байгууламжийг 3500-4000 жилийн өмнө шавар, үнс, лаг болон чулуу ашиглан барьсан гэж дүгнэсэн байна. Энэ нь тухайн бүс нутагт эртний газар тариалангийн төв цэг байсныг илтгэх бөгөөд олдворын дундаас үр тариа хадгалах зориулалттай хонхорцог бүхий олон тооны нүхнүүд олдсон нь тухайн суурин нь өргөн хүрээний нөөц баялгийг удирдан зохион байгуулдаг байсныг харуулж байна.
Судалгааны багийн ахлагч, Италийн Үндэсний судалгааны зөвлөлийн эрдэмтэн Жулио Лукаринигийн тайлбарласнаар, ийм хэмжээний бүтээн байгуулалт нь нарийн төлөвлөлт, байгалийн тогтоцыг ашиглах чадвар, мөн хөдөлмөрийг уялдуулан зохион байгуулах шаардлагатай байсан нь илэрхий юм. Хэдийгээр эдгээр ханыг юунаас хамгаалах зорилгоор барьсан нь тодорхойгүй байгаа ч судлаачид үүнийг газар нутаг, нөөц баялгийн төлөөх өрсөлдөөн, эсхүл нийгмийн зохион байгуулалт хөгжиж байсны илрэл гэж таамаглаж байна.
Энэхүү нээлт нь Магребийн бүс нутгийг Газар дундын тэнгисийн түүхэнд эзэлдэг “хоосон орон зай” гэсэн ойлголтыг өөрчлөхөд чухал ач холбогдолтой юм. Калифорнийн их сургуулийн (UCLA) археологич Иман Нажигийн үзэж байгаагаар, Оуэд Бехтийн олдвор нь нийгмийн нарийн бүтэц, архитектурын шийдлүүд зөвхөн гаднаас нэвтэрч ирсэн гэх түгээмэл онолыг няцааж, бүс нутгийн бие даасан хөгжлийг харуулж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Archaeologists have unearthed defensive walls in Morocco that are about 4,000 years old, the oldest structures of their kind in North Africa outside the Nile Valley. Found at Oued Beht, the fortifications once protected what appears to have been a thriving farming hub.
The site lies in a river valley roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Rabat, the capital. The research team, made up of archaeologists from Italy, Morocco and England, published its findings on Sept. 7 in the journal Libyan Studies. Many of the same researchers were also behind last year’s discovery of a prehistoric village at Kach Kouch, about 120 miles (190 km) to the north, in the Rif Mountains near the Strait of Gibraltar.
The find matters because the Maghreb has long been a gap in the story of Mediterranean prehistory. Giulio Lucarini of Italy’s National Research Council, the study’s first author, says the region was treated as a “blank space” for more than a century. That gap, he argues, came from a lack of scientific knowledge. Ancient DNA research, for instance, has only recently suggested that hunter-gatherers from Europe may have crossed the Mediterranean to the Maghreb around 8,500 years ago.
A Defensive System Built With Planning
The defenses at Oued Beht consist of ditches and ramparts, plus several walls. The most heavily fortified one runs along the southern edge of the site. The archaeologists think its base went up between 3,500 and 4,000 years ago, using clay, ash, silt and stones, to protect a settlement from attack. Building something like this was no casual undertaking.
“A work like this is not improvised,” Giulio Lucarini said. “It requires planning, choosing the right spot in the topography, and mobilising and coordinating labour over time.”
A Farming Hub Worth Protecting
If the settlement was worth defending, what was inside? The team suggests an early farming hub with livestock, cultivated crops and large storage facilities. Among the discoveries are dozens of bell-shaped pits, which the researchers believe held grain. According to Lucarini, the number of pits points to a storage capacity much larger than the needs of the people living there.
“These facilities may have served a much wider community, perhaps drawing on a whole surrounding territory,”he said.
The study added that, as for who threatened the site, that remains unclear even to the researchers who excavated it.
“We don’t know exactly what they were protecting themselves from,” Lucarini said. Rather than “invaders,” he suggested, the walls may reflect growing competition over land and resources, control of movement through the landscape, and perhaps more formalised leadership.
Two Shores, Two Different Stories
Across the Strait of Gibraltar, prehistoric Iberia offers a point of comparison. African ivory and ostrich eggshell found there have long pointed to contacts with North Africa, and Lucarini says researchers are now beginning to see the African side of that relationship.
The two regions were not identical. Contemporary Iberian sites are large, fortified hilltop settlements with planned architecture, abundant bronze metalwork and rich burials that reveal marked social hierarchies. The defensive system at Oued Beht seems to have been much smaller.
Still, Lucarini stresses that the discovery shows “not that the two shores looked alike,” but that communities in the northwestern Maghreb were also investing in large collective works and in the control of strategic places.
Iman Nagy, a landscape archaeologist at UCLA who was not involved in the study, found the wall especially interesting.
“Oued Beht is especially interesting because it challenges us to reconsider the Maghreb’s place in Mediterranean prehistory,” Nagy told Live Science in an email. Discoveries like it, she added, “challenge diffusionist models that assume substantial architecture or social complexity must have arrived from elsewhere.”
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Энэ олдворууд нь Хойд Африк дахь хамгийн эртний хамгаалалтын хана гээд сонирхолтой, газар зүйн түүхийг өөрчлөхүйц олдвор юм шиг санагдлаа. Манай судалгааны багийнхан ийм өндөр нарийвчилсан бүтээн байгуулалтуудыг хэрхэн төлөвлөж, хэрэгжүүлсэн гэж бодож байна вэ?