RABAT — Archaeologists have uncovered the first clear evidence that Morocco’s important prehistoric Oued Beht site remained active during the Bronze Age, revealing a previously unknown chapter in the history of one of North Africa’s major archaeological sites.

The findings are based on excavations carried out in 2023 in Khémisset province, where researchers investigated walls, an embankment and a ditch in the southern section of the site. Radiocarbon dating of 17 samples provided evidence of construction and occupation during the second millennium BC.

Researchers identified at least two construction phases. The earliest wall dates to roughly the early second millennium BC, while another structure was subsequently built over it. A separately dated posthole indicates that activity continued into the middle of the second millennium BC.

The discovery is significant because Oued Beht was already known for its extensive Final Neolithic settlement, which included evidence of farming, food storage, pottery production and stone-tool manufacture. Researchers now have evidence that the location continued to be used several centuries after that earlier phase.

Archaeologists say the newly identified structures may have had a defensive function, although their precise purpose remains uncertain. Their location in a narrower and potentially more defensible part of the ridge also suggests that settlement patterns may have changed over time.

The earlier Neolithic community cultivated crops including barley, durum wheat and peas and made use of several wild plant resources. The latest findings add to evidence showing that the surrounding landscape supported human activity over a very long period.

Oued Beht also contains evidence from much later periods. Archaeologists have identified medieval activity dating approximately from the 11th to 13th centuries AD, demonstrating that the site continued to attract human settlement long after its prehistoric phases.

The research, published by Cambridge University Press in Libyan Studies on September 7, is expected to contribute to a better understanding of the poorly documented Bronze Age period in the northwestern Maghreb and the region’s connections with communities around the Mediterranean.

The discovery gives Oued Beht an even broader historical significance, linking evidence from early farming societies to later prehistoric and medieval occupation and offering researchers new clues about the development of communities in northwestern Morocco.