The Haua Fteah cave is a huge semi-circular rock-shelter in the lime stone escarpment of the Aljabal Alakhdar (the Green Mountain) with the lip of the rock about 60m above the ground and a half circle roof diameter of about 80m. It is located in the Cyrenaica region (North-Eastern Libya) about 8 km to the East of the city of Soussa.
The site was identified as a likely site of early human occupation and in 1951-1955 excavations by the University of Cambridge established that the Haua Fteah cave contains a 14 metre-deep record of human occupation, dated at the time from c.80,000 years ago to recent centuries. The 2007-2015 excavations by the University of Cambridge have established that the occupation revealed in the 1950s in fact spans the last 150,000 years, so including the whole of the last glacial cycle: the last interglacial 130,000-70,000 years ago; the last glaciation 70,000-12,000 years ago; and the Holocene or present climatic era from 12,000 years ago to the present day. Human mandibles found at depth in the 1950s excavations have been shown to be fully ‘modern human’, i.e. Homo sapiens. The Haua Fteah cave therefore has a uniquely long cultural record of our species that is unrivalled at any current WHS site.
No comments:
Post a Comment