New archaeological research is overturning assumptions that North Africa was a backwater before Phoenician traders arrived 3,000 years ago. Research combining excavation data, radiocarbon dating, and DNA evidence shows that communities in present-day Morocco were farming, raising livestock, and trading across the Strait of Gibraltar as early as 3800 BCE. The massive settlement of Oued Beht, covering roughly ten hectares, may have housed over a thousand people, while later sites show locals adapting Bell Beaker pottery and Phoenician technology on their own terms rather than passively absorbing outside cultures. Bronze Age connections stretching to the British Isles further suggest a thriving, interconnected network. The findings challenge long-standing narratives that centered ancient Mediterranean history on Greece, Rome, and Egypt, repositioning northwestern Africa as an active crossroads of exchange.
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