Monday, May 10, 2010

Beaker Culture find in Morocco



Archaeologists in Morocco have uncovered an ancient burial ground in a cave near Khemisset, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Rabat. The grave contains human skeletons dating back 5000 years.

The Khemisset cave

According to the dig's team leader, Youssef Bokbot, it is the first time that human skeletons dating from the end of the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age have been discovered in Morocco, The excavation began in 2006,  in a cave 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Khemisset

"Seven skeletons and four graves will allow us to identify very precisely the funeral rites of the Beaker culture, a first", Bokbot said of the discovery

"The copper objects that we found confirmed humanity's evolution, the passage from stone to metal, a real transformation", the archaeologist added.

Examples of Beaker pottery

The Bell-Beaker culture (sometimes shortened to Beaker culture, Beaker people, or Beaker folk; German: Glockenbecherkultur), ca. 2400 – 1800 BC,[1] is the term for a widely scattered cultural phenomenon of prehistoric western Europe starting in the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic running into the early Bronze Age. The term was coined by John Abercromby, based on their distinctive pottery drinking vessels.



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