Before the Crescent

Jebel Irhoud, 100 km west of Marrakech. In 1961, barite miners hit a pocket of sediment and a human skull rolled out.

In 2017, Jean-Jacques Hublin (Max Planck Institute) redated the fossils: 315,000 years old. The oldest known Homo sapiens on Earth.

This pushed back the origin of our species by 100,000 years and expanded the "cradle of mankind" from East Africa to the entire continent.

Five individuals found: three adults, an adolescent, a child of about eight. Stone tools. Animal bones. Evidence of fire.

Their faces looked like ours. Their braincase was elongated — still archaic. The face evolved modern features first; the brain followed.

Oukaimeden in the High Atlas has rock engravings from the Bronze Age (c. 1600 BCE) — weapons, animals, geometric symbols. Still visible.

Amazigh means "free people." The Greek word "barbaroi" (foreign) became "Berber" — a name many reject.

Descended from Saharan pastoral cultures, Mediterranean fishing communities, and possibly ancient Egyptian populations. They settled between 12,000 and 5,000 years ago.

Three great tribal confederations emerged: the Masmuda (south, High Atlas, Sous), the Sanhaja (centre, Middle Atlas, Sahara), and the Zenata (east, plains and pre-Sahara).

Their script — Tifinagh — dates to at least the 3rd century BCE. Not used for commerce or record-keeping. Epigraphic. Carved into stone. Modern Amazigh nationalists adopted it as the basis for a new alphabet.

They had their own religious traditions before any monotheism arrived. Ancestor veneration. Sacred groves. Springs with spiritual power.

Ibn Khaldun (14th century) traced their genealogy to Mazigh, son of Canaan. The Kabyles of Algeria remained independent through Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Vandals, and Ottomans.

Phoenicians sailed from Tyre (modern Lebanon) westward, seeking silver and tin. They reached Morocco's coast by the 12th century BCE.

Trading posts, not colonies. Tingis (Tangier), Rusaddir (Melilla), Tamuda (near Tétouan), Lixus (near Larache), and Mogador (Essaouira) — the westernmost outpost.

At Mogador (Essaouira), they ran a purple dye factory on the Îles Purpuraires. Murex sea snails crushed for Tyrian purple — worth more than gold per gram.

They didn't try to control the interior. Coastal and strategic. Trade with inland Amazigh tribes was transactional — livestock, hides, dairy for manufactured goods.

They introduced their script to North Africa. The Amazigh adapted Punic letterforms alongside their existing Tifinagh.

When Carthage (founded 814 BCE in Tunisia) grew dominant, the Moroccan posts came under Carthaginian influence. Ports grew into proper cities. Some minted their own coins.

By the 5th century BCE, Carthage controlled the coastal trade. They expanded the Phoenician posts and extracted grain, grapes, fish, and tribute from Amazigh tribes.

The Punic Wars (264–146 BCE) ended Carthage. Rome destroyed the city in 146 BCE. But the far western outposts initially prospered — Carthaginian refugees flooded in.

The Kingdom of Mauretania emerged: a loose Amazigh confederation centred on Volubilis and Tangier. Not a kingdom in the European sense — more a network of tribal alliances.

King Baga (c. 225 BCE) is the earliest known ruler. But the dynasty that matters is Juba II (25 BCE – 23 CE): a Roman-educated Berber who married Cleopatra Selene — daughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony.

Juba II made Volubilis a centre of Hellenistic culture. Greek-inspired mosaics. A library. Trade with Rome. His court spoke Greek, Latin, and Punic.

His son Ptolemy ruled until 40 CE, when Emperor Caligula had him assassinated — allegedly for wearing a purple cloak that outshone the emperor's. By 44 CE, Claudius imposed direct Roman rule.

Mauretania Tingitana: the province of Morocco. Capital at Tingis (Tangier). Rome controlled the northern coastal plain and valleys — never the mountains or deep south.

Volubilis was the showpiece. 20,000 inhabitants. Two Roman baths. Triumphal arches. A forum. A basilica. Mosaics depicting Orpheus, Bacchus, and Neptune. 58 olive oil pressing workshops.

Lixus exported over a million litres of garum — fermented fish sauce — making it the largest garum producer in the western Mediterranean.

Timgad in Algeria (same period) had 8 bathhouses for 15,000 people. Half the population of Pompeii, twice the baths.

Banasa, a veterans' colony founded by Augustus, had thermal baths with triton mosaics. Abandoned in 285 CE when Rome retreated.

Christianity arrived in the 2nd century CE. By the 3rd century, North Africa was substantially Christianised. Lixus became nearly fully Christian.

The rule was plagued by constant Amazigh raids from beyond the Roman frontier. Rome governed through alliances with tribes, not military occupation. When the alliances broke down, so did the province.

By 250 CE, retreat had begun. By 285 CE, the province was reduced to territories north of Lixus. Volubilis continued with a reduced population. The baths remained.

In 429 CE, the Vandals — a Germanic people with an Arian Christian theology that Rome considered heretical — crossed the Strait from Spain. They conquered North Africa in 13 years.

The Vandals largely ignored Morocco. Too remote, not rich enough. They left almost no trace. Their presence in Tangier and Ceuta was administrative, not cultural.

In 534 CE, Byzantine Emperor Justinian reconquered North Africa from the Vandals. But Byzantine control in Morocco was limited to Ceuta and Tangier. A military foothold, not a province.

Byzantine remains have been found at Salé, and Volubilis was still populated — but the interior was governed by tribal chiefs who used the Byzantine presence to strengthen their own rule.

Several independent Amazigh kingdoms emerged in this period. We know almost nothing about them — the historical record is sparse. Tribal law governed most of Morocco.

Christianity, Judaism, and indigenous Amazigh religions coexisted. Jewish communities had been present since at least the 2nd century CE, probably arriving from the east via Carthage.

This was the Morocco that confronted the Arab armies in 680 CE: fragmented, tribal, multi-religious, ungoverned by any central power, and fiercely independent.

The Arab conquest took 70 years of fighting. Longer than it took to conquer the entire Middle East. The Amazigh warrior-queen Kahina led the resistance in Algeria until her death around 703 CE.