This book, edited by Clarke and Brooks, reports the results of archaeological and environmental investigation undertaken between 2002 and 2009 in the ‘Free Zone’ of the Western Sahara, the areas flanked by the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and Mauritania under the control of the indigenous Sahrawi Government. In most parts of Western Sahara a long history of conflict has prevented any systematic archaeological research, hence the significance of this work, which delivers much-needed data, comparable to those already known from the Central and Eastern Sahara.
The volume is divided into eight chapters, many of which are written by multiple authors; it is unfortunate that not all author affiliations are provided. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the geopolitical context that greatly influenced the history of research in the area, the current state of archaeological and environmental studies, both at local and regional scale, and to the aims and approaches of the book. The scope of the volume is limited to an exploration of the archaeological and environmental dynamics of the Holocene.
Chapter 2 is dedicated to the environmental survey. Results are presented within the broader context of current regional knowledge on climatic and environmental conditions, alongside a description of the physiography of the Free Zone. In a landscape such as that of the Sahara Desert, reconstructing past environmental variations is pivotal for understanding human occupation. A combination of fieldwork and remote sensing was applied by the authors to identify indicators of past environmental variations, some of which have produced radiometric dating. Both floral and faunal remains, the latter including animal depictions on rock art, were used as proxy. Results, although based on more elusive evidence, are in line with those known from other areas of the Sahara.
The typology of stone structures, the most common archaeological occurrence in the study areas, is detailed in Chapter 3. Despite being a ubiquitous feature of Saharan landscapes, stone structures, some of which were funerary monuments, vary in morphology and spatial distribution. For this reason, and because of the inconsistency of available definitions, the authors have chosen to devise a new typological scheme that uses existing definitions only when applicable. A synopsis table summarising the new typology, cross-referenced with previous versions, is provided, alongside drawings and photographs of each type of feature. A significant amount of effort has gone into allocating the different features to large morphological groups; the chosen terminology, while not innovative, works as well as any previous vocabulary.
Chapter 4 is dedicated to the extensive archaeological survey and discusses the identification, recording and spatial distribution of stone features; this chapter also describes recovered lithics, ceramics and rock art. The discussion at the end of the chapter offers useful insights on similarities between Western and Central Saharan stone features, possible chronological affiliations, regional innovations and intra-regional differences.
Chapter 5 presents an interesting GIS-based spatial analysis of stone features in the landscape of Wadi Tifariti, in the northern sector of the Free Zone. To overcome the difficulty in discussing the distribution of monuments in a sequential way, due to a lack of reliable dates, each monument type is discussed in isolation, with the assumption that each populated the landscape at a given time. A detailed description of some of the features and a tabulated list of all of the sites are also included. Results suggest that the position and orientation of monuments in the landscape was pre-planned and meaningful. For instance, tumuli were positioned in order that they could see one of the standing-stone structures, a fact indicating that the latter were already present when tumuli were built, which provides a loose relative chronology for the two. In another case, a monument was found to be oriented towards a major rock art site.
The next two chapters (6–7) deal with the tombs and surface scatters excavated in 2005 and 2007 in the Tifariti area, and the chipped stones found therein. The two tombs excavated were of the stone cairn type, the most common type of stone feature in the Tifariti area and also the Sahara; these contained single burials radiocarbon dated to the second half of the first millennium AD. Surface scatters are dated to the Palaeolithic, Early and Middle Holocene by associated finds and radiometric dating.
The concluding chapter discusses the Western Sahara in its local and regional context, suggesting, for the Tifariti area, the presence of hunter-gatherers in the Early and Middle Holocene, as evidenced by the surface scatters, and that of pastoralists during the Late Holocene, associated with the stone features. Lithic analysis suggests a restricted mobility for the former and a wider movement for the latter. The conclusions drawn about the stone features are that their planning and construction are evidence of a high degree of social complexity. Finally, a possible ‘Atlantic connection’, which needs further development, is suggested for the use of quartz in some of the stone structures.
This book is an extremely interesting first step towards a better understanding of the archaeology of the Western Sahara, and it is certainly worth reading.
