Archaeologists in Morocco have uncovered a 4,200-year-old settlement, challenging the long-held belief that the Phoenicians were the first to establish a presence along the country’s Atlantic coast.
The discovery, made at the site of Kach Kouch, reveals an ancient community that existed over a thousand years before the Phoenicians arrived in the 9th century BCE. This finding forces historians to rethink the timeline of human settlement in North Africa and the role of indigenous cultures in shaping the region’s history.
A Settlement Predating Phoenician Influence
The Kach Kouch site is located on Morocco’s northwest coast, near the mouth of the Oued Kach Kouch. Archaeologists excavating the area found clear signs of human habitation dating back to 2200–2000 BCE, long before the first known Phoenician contact.
Among the artifacts uncovered were pottery fragments, cattle bones, and chipped stones, indicating that people lived in the area and possibly engaged in toolmaking and food preparation.
While it is not yet confirmed whether the settlement was permanently occupied at that time, evidence suggests that by the 13th century BCE, Kach Kouch had developed into a stable and organized community.
Excavations revealed houses built using wattle and daub, a construction technique combining earth and wood. These structures point to a structured and established way of life, demonstrating architectural traditions that evolved independently of Phoenician influence.
Further analysis of the site reveals that Kach Kouch’s inhabitants engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. The remains of barley, wheat, beans, and peas suggest a diet based on cereal crops and legumes, while the discovery of more than 8,000 animal bones indicates extensive livestock farming.
The presence of cattle, sheep, and goats suggests that the community was not only self-sufficient but possibly thriving on trade and local resources.
Reevaluating the Phoenicians’ Role in Morocco’s History
Historians have long credited the Phoenicians, an ancient civilization from the Levant (modern-day Lebanon), with being the first to establish settlements along Morocco’s coast.
These expert navigators and traders created a vast commercial network, extending their influence across the Mediterranean and North Africa. They are often linked to the founding of major colonies such as Carthage (in Tunisia) around 800 BCE, which later became a formidable trading power.
The recent findings at Kach Kouch, however, suggest that a local society was already flourishing centuries before the Phoenicians arrived. Rather than introducing civilization to an undeveloped land, the Phoenicians may have interacted with pre-existing indigenous communities, leading to a mutual exchange of knowledge, culture, and technology.
One key discovery supporting this theory is the hybridization of building techniques at Kach Kouch. Archaeologists identified structures combining local construction methods with Phoenician influences, such as the use of stone foundations in traditionally mudbrick houses.
This suggests cohabitation and cultural blending, rather than a complete replacement of indigenous traditions by foreign settlers.
A More Complex and Ancient History Emerges
The Kach Kouch discovery challenges the long-standing notion that Morocco’s history began with the arrival of the Phoenicians. It highlights the presence of a thriving indigenous society, one that engaged in agriculture, livestock farming, and organized construction techniques long before foreign traders set foot on its shores.
This finding adds to a growing body of evidence that North Africa’s past is far more complex than previously assumed. Instead of viewing its early history through the lens of external civilizations, archaeologists are now recognizing the significant role played by local communities in shaping the region’s development.
The so called experts have no idea what really happened around the world thousands of years, let alone tens of thousands of years ago. And what they say that happened hundreds of thousands of years ago and millions of years ago, is only what they hoped happened so they can gain some reward !
Otjiherero and oshiwambo in Namibia today came from a far away place full of water as per oral traditional history
The writer and experts of this article astounds me. They claim that it is new unto them that there was a previous culture to that of the Phoenicians in western North Africa (Maghreb).
Well, in Iberia (Spain) and western France prehistoric caves, maybe around 35,000 years old, were discovered with paintings of animals and hunt. Those prehistoric peoples probably traveled to Iberia via Morocco. There must have been a settled, similar culture in Morocco too.
There was also a Megalithic culture from Morocco, across Iberia, France and into Britain.
The agricultural revolution, from Egypt to Mesopotamia, already existed 10,000 years ago. By 4,000 years ago it must have existed in Morocco too.
4,000 to 5,000 years ago the Maltese were already experts in masonry. They influenced other cultures, including Phoenicians, and would have had some effect on those peoples existing in western Africa.
Lastly, for the Phoenicians to have setup a number of colonies in the western Mediterranean, such as Cartago (Carthage), Cartagena (Spain), Cadiz was the possibility to trade with the local indigenous peoples of those areas.
Thank you, Moshe.
We have a ridiculously Egypt-centric academic history of the world prior to the Greek gods and a few pre-Roman conquering societies like the Phoenicians and Persians. Egypt’s archeologists and Egyptologists in general must have been really upset when the teachings of the clay tablets of Sumeria and the far ancient cultures of China and India became well known! And Gobleki Tepi must have blown their socks off. The whole hunter-gatherer time line seems to be falling apart, so we need to keep looking for advanced, pre-Egypt societies all over.
The Phoenicians were traders. Where ever they were outside of the Levant you can safely assume a civilization was already.