Previously sometimes known as ‘Oranian’, this is an industry of the Maghreb dating to final Pleistocene times. Iberomaurusian assemblages are dominated by large numbers of small backed bladelets. Ilie earliest occurrences, as at Taforalt in eastern Morocco, are of the 14th millennium be. During the following 2000 to 3000 years the area of Iberomaurusian occupation extended eastwards into eastern Algeria and Tunisia. Hunting was carried out from small temporary encampments: at least in later times shellfish collection was also an important activity. Extensive cemeteries have been investigated, as at Taforalt, and also at Afalou bou Rhummel and Columnata in Algeria. The human population represented was invariably of the robust Mechta-Afalou type. Burials were sometimes decorated with ochre or accompanied by food remains or by horns of wild cattle.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied