Moroccan ridge yields earliest known defensive earthwork in Africa outside Egypt

Archaeologists working at Oued Beht in north-west Morocco have confirmed a multi-phase ditch, rampart and wall that they describe as the earliest known large-scale, probably defensive construction in Africa beyond the Nile Valley. Radiocarbon dating places it at roughly 4,000 to 3,500 years ago, contemporary with the Bronze Age of the western Mediterranean. The results come from 2023 fieldwork reported in Libyan Studies by Giulio Lucarini, Cyprian Broodbank, Toby Wilkinson and colleagues.

A ridge fortified across its neck

The structures were built across a narrow section of the ridge, between the river and a ravine, cutting off and protecting its southern tip. Earthworks at the site had been noted since the 1930s. The French archaeologist Armand Ruhlmann recorded three walls, with the fourth side guarded by the natural scarp, and interpreted the arrangement as a defensive barred spur. Until now, neither the nature nor the date of the features had been established.

Dating of deposits linked to the structures gives the original construction a place in the second millennium BC. Building a bank and ditch system implies planning, coordination and the mobilisation of labour, which the authors take as evidence of a community able to organise complex projects.

Reading the purpose of the wall

The team stresses that the threats the works were meant to counter remain unknown. They suggest the wall is more likely to reflect growing competition over land and resources, and possibly control of movement through the landscape, than fear of outside invaders. Such a structure could equally have protected a community or asserted authority over a strategic place.

The focus of activity also changed over time. In the earlier Neolithic phase, occupation centred on the broader, more open northern part of the site. By the period of the new study it had moved to the narrower, more defensible southern ridge, which may indicate a change in settlement strategy.

Connections across the western Mediterranean

The authors place the find in a wider context. In southern Iberia, Argaric societies (about 2200 to 1550 BC) built planned, often hilltop settlements, worked bronze and showed marked social hierarchies in burial practice. Fortified sites and settlements controlling surrounding territory were common. Growing evidence suggests that north-west African communities were linked to these wider networks, including Spain and Portugal, and the Oued Beht works fit the view that the Maghreb took part in regional developments rather than standing apart from them.

The later prehistory of the Maghreb has long been poorly understood, with evidence often fragmentary compared with Iberia or the eastern Mediterranean. Earlier work at Oued Beht had already identified what is probably the earliest and largest agricultural complex in Africa outside the Nile Valley, dating to around 5,400 to 4,900 years ago. The site covers at least ten hectares. Plant and animal remains point to farmers growing barley and wheat, gathering wild plants and keeping livestock, while thousands of polished stone axes and finely made, sometimes painted, pottery show substantial craft production. Whether the Neolithic settlement was a permanent village, a seasonal centre or something else is still uncertain.

Medieval reuse and open questions

The ridge became a focus again in the 11th to 13th centuries AD. The same defensive structure was rebuilt, a hamlet or farm was established on a nearby hilltop, and a cemetery lay between the two areas. This gives a rare view of rural life in the region in both prehistoric and medieval times.

The authors present the site as a landscape repeatedly chosen by different communities across millennia. Key questions remain, including the precise function of the defences, the social structures behind them and the nature of contact with Iberia. Continued excavation at Oued Beht is expected to clarify how Maghreb societies developed from early farming communities into the medieval rural world.

Source: A mysterious 4,000-year-old wall is rewriting North Africa’s history (ScienceDaily: top science, 31 October 2026).

Image: AI-generated illustration.