Afr Archaeol Rev (2017) 34:447–449 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-017-9276-9 INTRODUCTION The Role of North Africa in the Emergence and Development of Modern Behaviors: An Integrated Approach Emilie Campmas & Emmanuelle Stoetzel & Aicha Oujaa & Eleanor Scerri Published online: 12 December 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2017 This special issue of African Archaeological Review, Modern Human Behavior: A View from North Africa^ entitled BThe Role of North Africa in the Emergence organized by Abdeljalil Bouzouggar, Nick Barton, and and Development of Modern Behaviors: an Integrated Nabiha Aouadi during the UISPP conference at Burgos Approach,^ is the outcome of a session held at the 23rd in 2014 (Mutri 2016). Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) meeting TheuseofthetermBmodern behaviors^ is to- held in Toulouse, France, from June 26 to July 2, day considered to be contentious, because it is 2016. The session was organized by Emilie Campmas, based on a number of assumptions, including that Emmanuelle Stoetzel, Aicha Oujaa, and Eleanor Scerri. (1) modern behaviors are associated with modern The special issue builds on a series of recent meetings humans, (2) behavioral complexity evolves linearly and publications focusing on the same topic and region, with archaic to modern human forms, (3) features such as the meeting BModern Origins: A North African considered to be hallmarks of modern behavior Perspective,^ organized by Jean-Jacques Hublin and derive from specific European archaeological re- Shannon McPherron at the Max Planck Institute in cords, and (4) the determination of features consid- 2007 (Hublin and McPherron 2012), the session ered as either Bmodern^ or Bnon-modern^ can only BNorthwest African Prehistory: Recent Work, New be a matter of qualitative opinion. In addition, Results and Interpretations^ organized by David Lubell taphonomic issues complicate evaluation (e.g., at the 21st SAfA meeting in 2012 in Toronto (Lubell Henshilwood and Marean 2003; Conard 2010; 2014), and the session BOrigins and Evolution of Roberts 2016). However, the aim of the present special issue is not to address this debate itself, but rather to furnish new data for future discus- E. Campmas (*) sions on the topic. For these reasons, and for the TRACES-UMR 5608-CNRS, University of Toulouse, 2 Jean sake of continuity, we continue to use the term Jaurès, Toulouse, France B ^ e-mail: [email protected] modern behaviors in this issue. Development of our session at the 23rd SAfA meet- E. Stoetzel ingin2016wasmotivatedbyrecentadvancesinseveral ’ HNHP UMR 7194-CNRS, Muséum National d Histoire disciplines, including anthropological, cultural, and en- Naturelle-UPVD-Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France vironmental studies concerned with the importance of A. Oujaa North Africa in understanding of the emergence, devel- INSAP, Rabat, Morocco opment, or decline of early and recent anatomically modern humans and associated innovations. E. Scerri Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, The African continent occupies a central position in University of Oxford, Oxford, UK discussions and debates concerning the emergence, 448 Afr Archaeol Rev (2017) 34:447–449 timing, and development of modern behaviors. Al- microvertebrates to reconstructing the paleoclimatic though North Africa has yielded human remains asso- and paleoenvironmental context of human occupations, ciated with Middle and Later Stone Age industries but also their role in tracing movements of faunal and (MSA and LSA, respectively) in well-established chro- human populations, notably between North Africa, nological contexts, this geographical area is often ex- Western Europe, and other parts of the African cluded from debates concerning the origin and subse- continent. quent evolution and dispersals of Homo sapiens, which Emilie Campmas (TRACES-UMR 5608, University have mainly focused on East and South Africa. The of Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, France), with a paper entitled present volume aims to provide new answers from a BIntegrating Human-Animal Relationships into New North African perspective, enhanced by the recent dis- Data on Aterian Complexity: A Paradigm Shift for the covery of human remains with Middle Stone Age tech- North African Middle Stone Age,^ provides a synthesis nology at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco dating to 315 ka by of the Aterian of northwestern Africa, and especially Richter et al. (2017), and attributed to an early stage of animal-human relationships. She shows that Aterian anatomically modern human evolution by Hublin et al. populations had a broad diet, for example including (2017). This volume opts for an integrated scientific the consumption of both terrestrial and marine resources approach to explore the significance of North Africa, along the Moroccan Atlantic coast. Aterian populations combining symbolic, technological, anthropological, have also used faunal remains for the production of tools subsistence, paleontological, and chronological data and ornaments. from this region. This includes contributions covering In their paper, entitled BThe Pleistocene of Rabat environmental reconstructions, and faunal, anthropolog- (Morocco): Mollusks, Coastal Environments and Hu- ical, technological, and use-wear analyses. From a chro- man Behaviour,^ Amel Chakroun (Faculty of Sciences, nological point of view, the papers mainly focused on Department of Geology, University of Tunis El Manar) the MSA (especially the Aterian), as well as on the LSA et al. analyzed thanatocenosis mollusks dating to MIS (Iberomaurusian). 11, 7, and 5 from the North Atlantic coastal area of The session and the present issue also provide an Morocco. Their results, combined with regional geo- opportunity to discuss the possible character of social morphological data, provide new data on the and demographic relationships between North Africa paleoenvironments in this area and on mollusk species and other African regions. available for prehistoric human populations, especially We dedicate this special issue to André Debénath, MSA groups, both for consumption and ornaments. who greatly contributed to the knowledge of North Aicha Oujaa (INSAP, Morocco) et al., with an article African prehistory. Sadly, André Debénath passed away entitled FThe Fossil Human from Rabat-Kébibat (Mo- in June 2016, just a few days before the 23rd SAfA rocco): Comparative Study of the Cranial and Mandib- meeting. Thus, this issue begins with a dedication writ- ular Fragments,` furnish new data on the skull fragments ten by his colleagues, Roland Nespoulet and Mohamed and mandible morphology of the ancient human from Abdeljalil El Hajraoui. Kébibat Quarry (Rabat, Morocco). These analyses allow This special issue includes six contributions. Two the revision of the position of the remains in a wider syntheses concern both microvertebrate records of the geographical and chronological range. Several morpho- Pleistocene to the Holocene, and the North African Mid- logical characteristics of the mandible exclude the dle Stone Age (especially the Aterian). Broader analyses Kébibat remains from modern human groups. However, encompass the Témara-Rabat region of Morocco (with features on the skull fragments are highly derived, and Pleistocene mollusk shell thanatocenosis, and ancient fit with those of modern humans. Thus, these remains human remains of Quarry 10). Other contributions con- present a mosaic of features showing the complexity of cern Aterian and Iberomaurusian technological analyses human evolution in Africa. and use-wear data from Libya and Algeria. Serena Falzetti (LTFAPA Laboratory, Sapienza Uni- Emmanuelle Stoetzel (HNHP-UMR 7194, MNHN, versity of Rome, Italy) et al., explore technological France), in her paper BAdaptations and Dispersals of perspectives through their paper, entitled BFrom Aterian Anatomically Modern Humans in the Changing Envi- Notch to Aterian Tang: How to Make a Technological ronments of North Africa: The Contribution of Invention. ^ Aterian technology is well known from its Microvertebrates,^ highlights the importance of tanged or stemmed points. The authors argue that the Afr Archaeol Rev (2017) 34:447–449 449 tang for hafting purposes represents a significant tech- Laurent Bruxelle, Benoit Chevrier, Els Cornelissen, Pierre de nical innovation. Thanks to the use-wear analyses of Maret, François-Xavier Fauvelle, Eric Huysecom, Alexandre Liv- ’ ingstone Smith, Anne Mayor, and Caroline Robion-Brunner. We notches from Djebel Gharbi s industries and experimen- are also grateful to the Editor-in-Chief of African Archaeological tal data, they suggest that the Bnotch^ is a techno- Review, Adria LaViolette, for having supported the publication of morpho-functional unit applied to several blanks and this special issue. We thank all the participants of session 8, and used for several activities. Notches alone or multiples especially authors who published their results here. Finally, we express gratitude to all those who reviewed the manuscripts of this on blanks create different tool morphologies. Thus, issue and provided feedback for the authors. tangs could have derived from a new combination of notches, which would define or transform the shape of the tool. Finally, Latifa Sari (CNRPAH, Algeria) and Kyung- References Jin Kim (HNHP-UMR 7194, MNHN, France) provide B results concerning the Lithic Economy and Specialized Conard, N. J. (2010). Cultural modernity: Consensus or conun- Activities among the Iberomaurusian Populations of Ta- drum. Proceedings