A Late Pleistocene record of palaeoaridity from El Harhoura 2, Morocco: evidence from oxygen and carbon stable isotopes in Gerbillinae teeth

International audience; El Harhoura 2, an archaeological cave site on the Atlantic coast of Morocco preserves a long, well stratified sequence of human occupation dating back to the last Inter-glacial . The Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological contents of the cave can be used to assess the impact of past climate change on human cultural behaviour in North Africa. Palaeoclimate records in the region suggest that climate in North Africa has varied strongly since the Last Interglacial between periods of humidity and aridity. A palaeoenvironmental record based on the ecology of the microfauna already exists for the site, so in this research we sought to develop an independent proxy for past aridity shifts on the Atlantic coast of Morocco using stable oxygen and carbon isotopes from Gerbillinae (gerbil) teeth. The oxygen and carbon isotope records suggest that El Harhoura 2 experienced an episode of humidity, possibly during MIS 5e/5c, and the climate became more arid from MIS 5a onwards throughout the Last Glacial. Although both the microfauna and stable isotope records show the same general climatic trends, there are crucial discrepancies between levels in these records defined as ‘humid’ and ‘arid’.