Search

Abstract: Faunal analysis was carried out on four Holocene Tunisian prehistoric sites from both Capsian and Neolithic cultures. Capsian hunting strategies from the examination of prey selection and carcass exploitation were investigated from two sites: Bir Hmairiya and SHM-1. Capsian populations showed great adaptability to their physical environment. At SHM-1 and Bir Hmairiya, prehistoric populations developed subsistence strategies focused on hunting of a wide range of local wild prey with more exploitation of medium and small mammals, especially hartebeest and gazelle with additional exploitation of food resources from other terrestrial mammals and land snails. Cultural and economic patterns indicate that these hunters-gatherers populations were using long-term occupation sites, a mode of sedentary lifestyle during the Capsian. The Neolithic economy is documented through archaeozoological studies of faunal remains from two sites: Kef el Agab and Doukanet el Khoutifa. Neolithic populations kept the same lifestyle as the Capsian tradition but with gradual investment in meat, milk, and wool production. Comparing Kef el Agab and Doukanet el Khoutifa, patterns of mammal exploitation do not display great differences. The occupants practiced hunting and gathered land snails. The main change lies in the increase in Ovicaprid remains at Doukanet el Khoutifa, which would suggest a greater control of breeding activity. Pastoralism was already established at Doukanet el Khoutifa by the first half of the 7th millennium cal BP. This pastoralism involved more sheep and goat than bovines, but without dog or pig. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Le Pléistocène supérieur en Tunisie est caractérisé par des alternances climatiques cycliques entre des phases pluviales et arides. Nous notons que le paysage steppique occupe une large superficie du pays, en particulier le Centre et le Sud. Même durant les phases humides, le paysage de savane reste dominant. Les sites préhistoriques du Pléistocène supérieur en Tunisie tels que l'Oued el Akarit, Aïn Mhrotta, Oued el Bey, El Guettar, Aïn Métherchem, Aïn el Guettar, objets de cette étude, sont tous des sites de plein air, localisés principalement en Tunisie centrale et méridionale, généralement au sud des sources d'eau encore actives de nos jours ou bien en bordure des oueds d'où dérivent d'ailleurs leurs noms. Les occupations préhistoriques ainsi que les comportements humains sont régis en grande partie par les changements climatiques survenus au Pléistocène supérieur. The Upper Pleistocene in Tunisia is characterized by cyclic climatic alternations between rainy and arid phases. The steppic landscape occupies a large area of the country, in particular in the Centre and the South. Even during the humid phases, the savannah landscape still dominant. The Upper Pleistocene prehistoric sites in Tunisia, such as Oued el Akarit, Aïn Mhrotta, Oued el Bey, El Guettar, Aïn Métherchem and Aïn el Guettar, which are the subject of this study, are all open-air sites, located mainly in Central and southern Tunisia, usually to the south of the springs that are still functioning today, or on the border of the wadis from which their names derive. Prehistoric occupations and human behavior are mainly subject to the climatic shifts occurred during the Upper Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on cultural and subsistence changes in North African societies during the Early and Middle Holocene, with a special emphasis on the emergence of a productive economy in the Eastern Maghreb. An overview of Western Mediterranean Neolithic spread is first given in order to verify the trajectories evinced in European and North African contexts as well as the different models for neolithisation recently proposed in both contexts. A chrono-stratigraphical, economical and technological analysis carried out from coastal (SHM-1) and inland (Doukanet el Khoutifa and Kef Hamda) Tunisian sites is then proposed. New AMS dates offer insights on Upper Capsian development as well as on the Neolithic transition during the 9th and 8th millennium cal BP. Information gathered at SHM-1 and Kef Hamda indicates the acquisition of some specific Neolithic features such as decorated pottery in a hunter–gatherer context dated to 8000 cal BP. Data from Doukanet el Khoutifa hint at a Neolithic productive economy from 7400 cal BP based on pastoral activities and integrating the consumption of wild animals and plants, with no evidence for agriculture. These data confirm the specific North African pathways identified in other local contexts, where an active role of Epipalaeolithic groups is at the basis of the Neolithic transition through an acculturation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]