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This paper focuses on the new macro-botanical evidence of South-Western Asian cultivated plants from northern Moroccan Neolithic sites. Due to the reduced presence of plant remains from previous excavations in the region, archaeological evidence of agriculture is rare and the arrival of domesticated plants and the role of farming in the Early Neolithic of North Africa are still poorly understood. Here we present results of the analysis carried out in three sites recently excavated: Kaf Taht el-Ghar, Khil, and Ifri Oudadane. Charred seeds of domesticated cereals ( Triticum dicoccum , Triticum monococcum/dicoccum , Triticum durum , Triticum aestivum/durum , Hordeum vulgare , Hordeum vulgare var. nudum ) and pulses ( Lens culinaris , Pisum sativum , Vicia faba ) have been recorded in all sites analyzed. Radiocarbon dating of crop seeds indicates that farming, along animal herding and pottery, was most probably introduced in the region at the interval between 5500 and 5000 cal. BC. Absence of evidence for Neolithic farming in other regions of North-Western Africa suggests that the first crops arrived into Morocco through a maritime route, more likely from the Central or Northern Mediterranean shores. Similarities in both radiocarbon dates and crop assemblages from early Neolithic sites in Northern Morocco and the south of the Iberian Peninsula point to an almost simultaneous East to West maritime spread of agriculture along both shores of the Western Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an overview of the state of research on the process of neolithisation of the northwestern corner of Morocco. Particularly noteworthy are the recent findings of a Spanish-Moroccan team in the framework of the AGRIWESTMED project carried out between 2011 and 2013 for the most part at the caves of Magharat el-Khil (Tangier), Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tétouan) and Ifri n'Amr or Moussa (Khemisset). These excavations brought to light occupations from the Moroccan Early Neolithic Impressed-Cardial ware complex, levels that correspond to the earliest horizon of agricultural and animal husbandry practices in the northwestern corner of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]