Mechta-Afalou

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As Mechta-Afalou a group designated by Northwest African skeletons from 1932, which was defined by their anatomical features as a separate "race". Methodologically questionable and driven by ideas of race that were widespread in archeology and above all in anthropology of the time, this idea is now considered obsolete. Such assignments still appear in popular scientific literature to this day and until a few years ago also in specialist literature.

The name Mechta-Afalou goes back to the two sites Mechta el-Arbi and Afalou bou Rhummel in eastern Algeria . The former was excavated by Gustave Mercier and Albert Debruge from 1907 to 1923, the latter by Camille Arambourg between 1928 and 1930.

Anatomically, the skeletons found there belonged to modern humans, but were built to be more robust. They were described and classified as “Mechta-Afalou” by Marcellin Boule and Henri V. Valois in 1932, but it is controversial whether it was a separate “race”, as has been postulated for over half a century.

This is all the more improbable as the sites referred to by the authors belonged to the Capsien on the one hand and to the Ibéromaurusia on the other , and thus two very different archaeological cultures. Another argument against this classification is that this type, which is observed exclusively on the basis of anatomical features, also appears in Libya , where it was assigned to eastern Orange, but also in sites of the Capsia in Tunisia and Algeria. On the other hand, the discoveries of the Capsien were made in so-called escargotières , in a kind of waste hill, whereas the human remains of the Ibéromaurus were found under rock overhangs.

In 1955, the "Mechta Afalou breed" was divided into four subtypes by sorting the skeletons based on visual appearance. Around 1970 further "races" were defined in this way. Marie Claude Chamla differentiated between “Mechtoide” and “Mecht-Afalou” - the former being “more graceful” according to their definition. This type had been discovered in the Algerian Columnata . It was found in Medjez II in one and the same layer with the other type.

This “race” of the Mechta-Afalou was assigned to the Guanches of the Canary Islands for a long time and without further evidence .

Remarks

  1. ↑ This article is based on PM Vermeersch: Palaeolithic Quarrying Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt , Leuven University Press, 2002, p. 321f.
  2. ↑ So with Barbara Ann Kipfer: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archeology , Springer, 2000, p. 342.
  3. ↑ Ian Shaw, Robert Jameson (eds.): A Dictionary of Archeology , Wiley & Sons, 2008, here: p. 388.
  4. ^ Marcellin Boule, Henri V. Valois: L'homme fossile d'Asselar (Sahara) , in: Archives de L'Institut de Paléontologie humaine, Mémoire 9, 1932.
  5. ↑ Lloyd Cabot Briggs: The Stone Age Races of Northwest Africa , in: American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 18 (1955), p. 28.
  6. ↑ Marie Claude Chamla: Les hommes de épipaléolithiques columnata (Algeri occidentale) , Arts et Métiers Graphiques., 1970
  7. ↑ Marie-Claude Chamla: The Settlement of Non-Saharan Algeria from the Epipaleolithic to Modern Times , in: Physical Anthropology of European Populations, Mouton, The Hague 1980. For discussion: PM Vermeersch: Palaeolithic Quarrying sites in Upper and Middle Egypt , Leuven University Press, 2002, pp. 321f.
  8. ↑ For example in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (1952), p. 287 or in Hermann Baumann: Die Völker Afrikas und their traditional cultures , Steiner, 1975, p. 99.