Africa

Casio knows that his calculators have the lost battle in the West. So you have designed a B: Africa

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In a world dominated by smartphones, where any mobile has a calculator application, it might seem that the days of pocket calculators are counted. However, Casio, the Japanese giant who has been in the business for almost 60 years, has a plan to stay as a relevant company: carry its scientific calculators to the classrooms of developing countries. In search of the ideal countries to continue expanding. Since its first scientific calculator in 1972 was launched, Casio has achieved great achievements such as a reference in the Spanish Meracdo. But now he focuses on eight countries in Asia and Africa, among which are Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladés and the Philippines. The calculator as an infallible ‘antitrampas’ system. The program baptized as ‘Gakuhan’ is not limited to selling calculators only. Casio seeks to promote teaching methods that integrate these devices, pressing so that schools use them in classes and allow their use in exams. The reason is simple: the calculators They have a much less copy risk than smartphoneslacking Internet connection functions. In the case of Spain this is something that we see in the selectivity, for example, where one of the requirements is obviously not having any electronic device on top and Nor any calculator that can transmit information. Although always when you get to Baccalaureate, it is raised The question of which is the best calculator to study. And this is precisely what they sell to the professors of Asia and Africa with a sales manager who has become the official ambassador of this program. The objective of its task is clear: create educational material where the calculator is essential to develop the activity and offer competencies to students. A market in decline, but with a resilient niche. Despite the presence of smartphones, Casio has managed to maintain a stable business with calculators. Although the sales of this device have fallen two thirds from its peak in the last 20 years, the company sold more scientific calculators than basic last year. In fact, it has expanded its range of scientific calculators to 73 models, 40% more than seven years ago, to adapt to the subtle differences of each country. European countries have their ‘antitrampra’ versions. For example, in Germany and France Comas are used instead of points for decimals and the graphic calculators of the United Kingdom They have an “exam mode” that deactivates the functions not allowed. Although the educational technology business of Casio is not as large as that of watches, which generates 60% of total salesit does provide a constant income flow. The company expects Sell 23 million scientific calculators in 202510% more than the previous year. Other products have not had the same fate as calculators. Mobile phones have caused the disappearance of many products or even icons that we had normalized in our society, such as public phones, Pocket cameras or the music players like the walkman either The iPod. In this case they have failed to reinvent themselves to continue advancing with the new advances of society. Others, such as instantaneous cameras, They still have their niche Within lovers of Vintage, Like what happens with vinyl. But in this case the calculators in mobiles, tablets or computers do not seem to end the products dedicated to it. In institutes it remains a practically mandatory product and on which we depend on not making the calculations with a pen and paper such as a simple division. Images | Robert Schneider Aaron Lefler Doug Linstedt In Xataka | Better scientific calculators: which to buy for the institute and the university and eight recommended models from 10 euros

Morocco has started one of the most ambitious projects in the history of Africa

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Morocco has begun to build its stretch of the Nigeria-Charuecos gas pipeline (NMGP), a megaproject of 25,000 million dollars that stands out not only for its scale, but for its geopolitical implications. The energy map of Africa and its connections with Europe will change. A 6,000 km corridor. Moroccan Energy Transition Minister Leila Benali, announced the start of the works. The stretch of Morocco will cost about 6,000 million dollars, and will serve as the future dorsal spine of the Kingdom Gasist Network. This initial segment will connect the port of Nador, on the Mediterranean coast, with the city of Dajla, to the south of the country. The entire Transaphrican gas pipeline will be extended through the Atlantic coast to connect Nigeria’s vast gas reserves with Morocco. From there, it will be exported to the European market, confirming Rabat as a first level energy hub. A pharaonic project. The infrastructure is designed to transport up to 30,000 million cubic meters of natural gas per year and guarantee the supply of 13 African countries. The gas pipeline will leave from Nigeria, crossing the coasts of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bisáu, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco. In addition to promoting industrial development and access to the energy of 400 million people, NMGP foresees Extend the supply to the European Gasist Network Already African countries without coast: Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. Engineering studies They ended in 2024the environmental and social impact analysis of the southern section are missing. And the Algeria gas pipeline? The project directly rivals the Transaharan gas pipeline (TSGP), The initiative backed by Algeria to bring the same Nigerian gas to Europe through Niger. However, political instability in Sahel, especially after the coup d’etat in Niger, has put the viability of the Algerian corridor in serious trouble, granting a strategic advantage to the Atlantic route of Morocco. Where 25,000 million will come from. For Nigeria, the gas pipeline is the cornerstone of its “Gas Decade” initiativea strategy to monetize national reserves of six billion cubic meters of natural gas. For Morocco, the project is the spearhead of its “Atlantic Initiative”, which seeks to turn the country into a strategic corridor between Europe, Africa and the Atlantic. Ensuring 25,000 million dollars is the main obstacle. The project will make a final decision on the investment at the end of 2025 that will be the fire test, although it has already aroused the interest of entities such as the Islamic Development Bank and the European Investment Bank. How to protect thousands of kilometers of pipes that will cross 13 nations, some with unstable political environments and doubtful security, will be one of the great discussion points. The fact that investing in fossil fuel infrastructure In full green transition it is the elephant in the room. Image | NNPC In Xataka | The US has had an idea to feed its AI: build its data centers next to natural gas deposits

Europa presumes to be a renewable power, but it turns out that it wants to import energy directly from Africa

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The desert sun hits strongly the dusty plains of Tunisia and Algeria. At first glance, they look like empty lands, but they could soon become a mosaic of wind towers, solar fields and batteries capable of storing as much electricity as to feed millions of European homes. It will not be energy for nearby cities: the Mediterranean will cross through submarine cables to light homes, factories and trains on the other side. The European Union has decided that its energy transition will not be built only at home: a good part of its green future will travel from North Africa. A priority list. The European Commission He has just updated Its list of cross -border projects of renewable energy, incorporating five new plans that will have preferential access to the financing of the mechanism connect Europe (CEF) and greater international visibility. Among them, one stands out that symbolizes the new energy strategy of the block: Medlink. According to documents cited by BloombergMedlink plans to install 10 GW of wind energy, solar and storage systems in Tunisia and Algeria. Electricity will travel through two high -voltage marine cables to Italy, with an annual capacity of 28 SWH, enough to cover about 8 % of the Italian electrical demand. The project, promoted by the Italian company ZHEROcould be extended to supply energy to Austria, Germany and Switzerland from 2030. The European Commission establishes that, to enter its list, a project must involve at least two Member States or a Member State and a third country. With this update, thirteen initiatives are part of this special category. Other in motion actors. The impulse is not limited to Tunisia and Algeria. Starting with Morocco that aspires that renewable energies represent 52 % of its installed capacity in 2030 and has launched six green hydrogen megaprojects. Among the companies involved are the Spanish Action and Cepsa, together with European, Arab, Chinese and American giants. These projects will not only produce hydrogen, but also ammonia, steel and green industrial fuels, bound for both international markets and the supply of Europe, According to data collected in Xataka. For its part, Egypt has attracted billions in European investments for solar, wind and green hydrogen plants, much of whose production is destined for export. However, A report reported by The Guardian de Greenpeace He warns that this strategy could limit local decarbonization, keeping the country dependent on imported fossil fuels such as mazut, a oil derivative with high contaminating content. In parallel, Themed also advancesan underwater interconnection project of 600 MW between Tunisia and Italy, independent of Medlink and centered on hydroelectric energy. With its scheduled implementation for 2028, it has financing from the European Reconstruction and Development Bank, the Green Climate Fund and the German Development Bank, As reported Enterprise. The implication of this bet. In Brussels they see it as a double play: accelerate the green transition and reduce the dependence of Russian gas, which collapsed after the invasion of Ukraine. Italy gains weight as a renewable entrance door to the north, and countries like Spain They restore key energy relationships, as the agreement between Naturgy and the Algerian Sonatrach to set gas prices until 2027. The European Commission defends that these interconnections and megaprojects are “essential to meet the objectives of the European Green Pact and reinforce energy security” at a time of global uncertainty. Critical voices have not been long in coming. As they have detailed in a reponnet for The GuardianGreenpeace denounces that Europe runs the risk of “outsourcing” socio -environmental costs to the global south: intensive use of water in arid areas, displacement of communities and prioritization of the European supply on local development. Hanen Keskes, responsible for campaigns of the organization in the Middle East and North Africa has sentenced: “The global north must assume its responsibility and build domestic renewable capacity, instead of outsourcing costs to the global south.” Looking to the future (almost) immediate. The EU has set the objective of importing 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen in 2030. Morocco wants to be one of the main exporters together with Algeria and Egypt, a trend that extends throughout North Africa. In the European energy map, the south of the Mediterranean is ceasing to be a border. Under the sea, high voltage cables will join sunny deserts with industrial cities. It is a historical opportunity to accelerate the decarbonization of the continent provided that, as critics warn, the light that comes to Europe does not leave those who live under the sun that generate it in shade. Image | Unspash and Unspash Xataka | The white gold that unites Morocco and the US in the Sahara: phosphate

When an engineer wanted to cross Africa by car, he invented a wooden. It would be the beginning of its end

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In one of his picturesque life, Tony Howarth had a revolutionary vision: Create a perfect car for Africa. A cheap, resistant, easy to repair and that could be made locally with sustainable materials. His project, baptized as ‘Africar’, promised to change transportation in the African continent forever. However, what began as an altruistic dream It ended up becoming a legal nightmare which led its creator directly to prison. From a filmmaker to engineer with a mission: to manufacture the perfect car for Africa Image: Silodrome Howarth was not any businessman. Graduated in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, had developed since childhood A passion for mechanics which led him to build his own fuel injection system for his motorcycle when he was barely ten years old. However, it was his recognized career as a photographer and filmmaker that led him to devote himself to this peculiar project. And is that Howarth has traveled more than 130 countries, experiencing in the first person the difficulties of African land roads. During his trips through Africa in the 70s, Howarth realized that Western vehicles were not designed for the extreme conditions of the continent. Earth tracks, deep potholes and the lack of specialized workshops turned any breakdown into a capital problem. In addition, the programmed obsolescence of the Western car industry made the spare parts more and more difficult to achieve. An inspiration of the Ford Model T Image: Silodrome The concept of Africar was inspired by the legendary Ford Model T, a vehicle that had been designed precisely for the roads without asphalting from Rural America of the early twentieth century. Howarth understood that what Africa needed was something similar: A simple, durable and that could be repaired by local mechanics No need for sophisticated equipment. Its design was revolutionary for its simplicity. The chassis was built with stainless steel tubes to avoid corrosion, while body panels could be manufactured with local materials such as laminated wood impregnated in resin, aluminum or even plastic. The chosen engine was the Citroën GSA Boxer Propulor Refrigated by air that offered reliability and ease of maintenance. An expedition that changed everything Image: Lancslive In 1984, Howarth built three prototypes of Africar for an ambitious expedition that would be documented by Channel 4: A journey from the Arctic Circle to the African Ecuador. The three vehicles-a ranchera, a pick-up and a six-wheel model-demonstrated their worth crossing thousands of kilometers of extreme land. During the journey, Africar exceeded evidence that left a Land Rover Series III that accompanied them. Their long -running independent suspension and their high distance to the ground allowed them to overcome obstacles that stuck more conventional vehicles. The fatal error Image: Lancslive The success of the expedition opened the doors to investment. In 1986, Howarth founded Africar International Limited in LancasterEngland, and began to capture capital of private investors. However, He made a mistake that would end his project and, later, in prison. Concerned about the dependence of the Citroën engines, which could be obsolete at any time, Howarth decided to invest the money of investors in developing their own engine. It was a logical decision from the technical point of view, but catastrophic since the financial. The funds were exhausted before completing the development, and the clients who had paid in advance did not receive their vehicles. The situation became unsustainable when investors discovered that the prototype shown in a Christmas presentation of 1987 was actually an empty shell: without engine, with the doors stuck and still wet paint. A bitter ending and a legacy that endures Image: Silodrome In July 1988, the Police intervened and Africar International Limited ceased its operations. Howarth fled to the United States in a desperate attempt to get the financing that saved the project, but it was useless. In 1994 he returned to the United Kingdom, where He was arrested immediately. Tony Howarth declared himself guilty of a fraudulent crime and five to obtain goods through deception. Was sentenced to 15 months in prison. In his own words, the prison experience “was like being in a British boarding school.” Although Africar never manufactured in series (it is estimated that only one and six specimens of production were built), Howarth’s idea did not die with him. His concept has inspired other African entrepreneurs, such as the creators of the Mobius in Kenyathat resumed the vision of a car designed for the region, despite Its economic difficulties. Cover image | Silodrome In Xataka | The list of 2025 most reliable cars has left us the most unexpected surprise: the best car does not have Toyota or Honda

In the center of Africa a race for minerals that moves the world is fought. And China is winning it

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Lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and, above all, Rare earth. These are some of the minerals and metals that dominate the world today because they are key to current and future industries. Revolutions such as renewable energies or that of the electric cars They go hand in hand with these materials, but they are also key to medical, aerospace and military industries. China It has advantage because Master the extraction and processing of key raw materials, but also for its enormous influence on the great world mine: Africa. Treasury search. We are talking about a key territory not only as a business opportunity, but as fountain of critical strategic minerals for the development of technologies that move the world and, also, the future of industries such as that of renewable energies or the electric cars. This is something that has encouraged several countries to want to invest in Africa, since ensuring certain resources is to cement that future. What countries are key? Congo Democratic Republic – It’s about the great world mine when we talk about copper, gold or cobalt. It is estimated that 70% of the world cobalt is extracted only in this country, but it is also crucial for coltan, tungsten, lithium or bauxite. The technology industry cannot work without them. Gabon – Another prominent territory when we talk about gold, but it is also an important source of manganese, iron and other essential minerals. China strategy. China and Western countries are very interested In those two countries in particular, but there are others, such as Zambia, of which they extract more lithium, metals of the platinum or nickel group. But China’s strategy is something that attracts attention throughout this panorama. The Asian giant has been doing years investments Of more than 10,000 million dollars to exploit the mines, extract the materials, process them and send them to China. They control the entire supply chain of these key minerals and esteem that import about 4,000 million dollars in minerals and metals every month. Central Africa is a priority area for China’s supply, but that is also an opportunity for the African countries involved. Investments and opportunity. Within China’s strategy, there is something that is very important: politics. Summits and bilateral agreements are held to ensure access to resources by China, but African countries also remain with their part. Within that interested investment in China, we see that ports, roads and railway lines are being developed. Jobs are also created, joint laboratories and training centers are created to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation. Geopolitics and debt. But, as is usually the case, there is a dark side in this story. On the one hand, competition between China and other global actors. That growing influence of the Asian country in central Africa is not something that makes the United States or European countries. It is something that generates more tension between them, but can also contribute to the tense political and economic stability of the African regions involved. There is studies that point in lack of transparency in contracts and the possible cooperation with authoritarian regimes to extract those resources. And they have also observed some risks of over -indebtedness by African countries. Arms. In all that geopolitical, commercial and collaboration context, and taking into account that we talk about territories with political instability and several armed groups, we cannot overlook another lucrative business for China: the sale of weapons. As we read in South China Morning Posta report by the Rand Corporation prepared in 2023 placed China as the main arms supplier for sub -Saharan Africa. Between 2019 and 2023, at least 21 African countries received great deliveries from Chinese weapons that includes weapons, ammunition, artillery, rockets, drones, missiles, armored and electronic warfare systems. It is also estimated that 70% of African armies use Chinese armored armored extended Its presence in countries such as Senegal, Ivory or Mali coast with new offices. This goes far beyond armament, since China also exports military and private security forces to protect the country’s mining interests. And this occurs because Chinese military exports are usually cheaper and with lower political conditions than Western alternatives, which is very sweet to those African states with a geopolitical context that is not stable. An asymmetric relationship. It must be added that China promised an investment of 50,000 million dollars in three years in the region and that it has pledged to train police and military in the area, but as already pointsall this investment in Africa is generating is an asymmetric relationship between countries. It seems that Africa is receiving much more than China because the former let them exploit their mines and the latter invest in infrastructure, employment, safety and sell manufactured products, but in the end what is achieved is that Chinese influence is huge in Africa. This rapid expansion in recent years causes sovereignty to be questioned and reinforce the idea of ​​what will happen in the area when strategic minerals have been extracted, since many depend on those Chinese investments, seeing how their local economic and political autonomy can stagger. And it must also be said that what we now see with China is something that, traditionally, have carried out other countries in those same territories, and it is something that they are in competing With its great adversary right now: the United States. Images | Hansueli Krapf, Africraigs, Steve Jurvetson In Xataka | In its particular underground war with Europe, China has found a new weapon: to monopolize copper

There was a time when we thought the birds migrated to the moon. Until an arrow released in Africa fell in Germany

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Spring is a time that I always liked. Not for the Horrible processionarybut for the return of the swallows And, above all, of the storks. After a long winter, They return home to nest. Imagine the surprise if, one day, one of those stork appears in your locality with the neck crossed by an 8 -centimeter arrow. Stop imagining because that happened in 1822 in a German city. And far from being an anecdote, it became a key event to unravel the mystery of why birds They disappeared in winter. The doubt. Now it is no mystery and it is something that we learn at school since childhood, but not so many centuries, people did not know why, good at first, the birds were in autumn and reappeared in spring. Those Migratory processes in which even the smallest of the birds rEcorren thousands of kilometers without stopping They were not understood, which forced the thinkers of the time to launch hypotheses and theories that, in the absence of evidence, since they were accepted without further ado. One of the answers was evident. And it could be none than … Alien birds. That is what thought Charles Morton, a Harvard academic who, in the seventeenth century, suggested that the reason why some birds disappeared in winter was because they migrated … to the moon. Most likely you have raised your eyebrow thinking something like “impossible, they could not be so illusory”, but you have to put into the skin of someone who had no way to check the phenomenon and it was still an answer to a real mystery. Because what they knew was that they disappeared for months, but not the place they were going to. And as they saw the moon from Massachusetts, but not Colombia, because the answer was clear. But don’t believe it was the only crazy theory of the time. Aristotle, already in the IV AC theorized about the possibility of being transformed into other species or even shuffled over his hibernation underwater. Morton rejected this idea because it was too fantasy (not like his, of course). The arrow. Morton even calculated that the trip to the moon had a month away and another back, sleeping much of the time and surviving thanks to his body fat. The truth is that, in the absence of better theories, it was not bad (despite my jocular tone, we talked about the seventeenth century and the media they had). However, little by little the idea that these European birds were going to other places during the winter. And the definitive test was brought by a stork. A good day of 1882, north of Germany, someone shot a stork, who fell down and with a capital surprise for those present: he had an 8 -centimeter arrow through his neck. The question was no longer how I could fly with such a breakdown, but where the arrow had come from. Brava PFEILSTORCH. Thus, they took the body of the stork to the University of Rostock, where the researchers examined the projectile and concluded that it was an arrow belonging to some group in the center of Africa. As it was impossible, or tremendously unlikely, that someone launched something like that on European soil, the response became evident: that stork had traveled more than 3,000 kilometers from the point in Africa in which winter had passed and where it was killed in Germany. Baptized as PFEILSTORCHIt was dissected and preserved in perfect condition in the Zoological Collection of the University of Rostock thanks to its undeniable importance in the world of science and ornithology: it was confirmation to the suspicions that, indeed, migratory birds or became anything else, nor slept four months underwater or went to the moon: they traveled to the warmest places during the European winter. Clue. After Pfeilstorch (which means “Flechy stork” or “storks crossed by an arrow”), they found more specimens In Europe with the same characteristics: arrows stuck somewhere in your body. This is not so uncommon in large birds, which show great resilience to wounds that do not compromise flight or its basic functions. Once they are injured, if not seriously, the wound stabilizes and the bird can continue with its life. With the inclusion Of the rings on the legs of the birds by the Danish HC Mortensen in 1899, the researchers systematized the study of specimens to verify that those who flew from Europe before winter, disappeared and then returned, were the same. Thus, we can say that this arrow launched in Africa that landed in Germany was the first bird monitoring system, a coincidence that allowed obtaining the first conclusive data on the migratory practices of the birds. Images | Thula Na In Xataka | Modern cities have become authentic “headlights.” For thousands of birds it is a problem

Meteorologists are dismayed at the heat wave of Africa and Asia

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“We are witnessing something incredible. By far the most extreme climate phenomenon in world history. Thousands of records are beating brutally from North Africa to Asia. And with margins never seen.” These words They are from Max Herradorone of the greatest public experts in extreme meteorological phenomena. And seeing Maps like the one that opens this articleI don’t lack reason. The best example is Kuwait. According to provisional data, the Kuwaiti city of Mitribah exceeded 46 degrees in April For the first time in history. And, just after, he exceeded 47, then 48 and, finally, he put almost 49. It is not an isolated fact: More than 45 degrees in Egypt, in India or in the Middle East; 45 also in Sudan, 45.7 in Chad, 45.5 in Niger; Central Asia records completely sprayed. We talk about absurdly high temperatures for latitude 30 at this point of the year. In the case of Mitribah they are very close figures to the historical maximum reached. In addition, the heat wave has a huge extension that covers three continents. And, as Herrera points out, everything indicates that the situation It will get worse. Tropical tidbits What is happening? It is a great question. Because heat waves They never come alone. They have serious social implications (more aggressions, more violence, more crimes, more Homicides) In areas of the world that right now are a polvorín: Syria, Israel, Ukraine, Sudan … The problem is that we don’t know very well why all this is happening. A priori, we can think that the same atmospheric dynamics that it has given us an extraordinarily wet March and a much cooler spring of what is usual is the one behind the heat waves of much of Central Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. After all, in meteorology the masses of air are pieces that play a strategic dance between them and the changes that occur in any part of the world, have effects on the rest. An increasingly uncertain future. I do not know if Herrera is right and we are living one of the most extreme meteorological phenomena in the documented history of the earth. However, it is clear that the situation only complicated. Not only because things are changing very fast, but because we don’t know where it goes. Image | Tropical tidbits In Xataka | 35,000 dead and 46 ºC in the shadow. This was the penultimate great heat wave that devastated Europe

North Africa was outside the bronze age map. A metallic waste has been put in the center of history

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If we look at the map From the Bronze Age, we observe that much of Europe and the Middle East are the protagonists of the period of the Ancient bronze. For a long time it was estimated that Egypt was the only focus of Metallurgical development In Africa during the Bronze age. For years, we thought that the rest of the territories were empty and it was with the Phoenicians when settlements and metal development began. We were wrong. And young archaeologists have shown that Morocco was more connected to other Mediterranean regions of what we thought. And the Kack Kouch settlement is the test. The Phoenicians. The Maghreb was an absent zone in the debates about late prehistory in the Mediterranean region. It was known that he received some influences from the European bronze, but they were pieces, because they did not produce their own metallurgy until the colonization of the Phoenicians. Morocco arrived around 800 AC, founding colonies such as Lixusbut it turns out that there were already stable settlements on the Mediterranean coasts of Africa. In North Africa, the representation is Egypt … and it ended Kach Kouch location Kach Kouch. In 1988, a team formed by Moroccan and Spanish researchers discovered the settlement of Kach Kouch. It was an important finding, since the survey made in 1992 revealed that, at some point between the VIII or VI ac centuries, there had erected a half -hectare camp with cabins built with mud. It was probably an agricultural people and the researchers said that, probably, Kach Kouch had been founded by Phoenician sailors to control access routes to the Mediterranean from the Lau River. Why the Phoenicians? Because the remains found belonged to amphorae of this culture that would have served to transport wine, oil or wheat. Frozen. After the 1992 excavation, the archaeological site had not been analyzed again, until now. He Kach Kouch Archaeological Projectled by researchers from the National Institute of Archeology of Morocco, set out to reach the bottom of the settlement. Literally. The SE development In two phases – in 2021 and 2022 – and, although the archaeological interest was present in both, one of the objectives was that the students of the institute be formed in archaeological methodology. What they found was far beyond what would be expected of training practices: Kach Kouch was not a Phoenician settlement, but had centuries there. Through drones, differential GPS, 3D models and radiocarbon dating, the team of researchers discovered that three phases of occupation had been given in the settlement. Occupation phases | Image of The Conversation, H. Benattia Ancestral occupation. These occupation phases were between 2200 AC and 600 BC and the researchers They have isolated The three phases due to the remains they found. First phase: Between 2200 and 2000 AC the remains are scarce, such as ceramic fragments without decorating, a flint lasc and bovine bones. It could have been a sporadic occupation, but existing. Second phase: Between 1,300 or 900 AC the occupation would have already been stable with circular housing and warehouses, evidencing a sedentary society. Kach Kouch would be agricultural, mainly, due to the silos and grinding stones found. For the remains, it is estimated that they cultivated barley and wheat that complemented with the breeding of sheep, goats and cows. Third phase: Between 800 and 600 AC here and the Phoenicians have played a role. This external cultural influence brought elements such as ceramics to lathe and iron tools, which were mixed with local architecture and stone buildings. From left to right: plant remains, carved bones, flint lacquers The metal. Therefore, the new discovery indicates that, centuries before the arrival of the Phoenicians, Kach Koach was already a stable settlement. But there is a key piece that reveals that the first bronze object found in the region could have arrived through the broader exchange networks of the Mediterranean: among the important recent discoveries, a bronze fragment dated between 1110 and 920 ac This is the oldest bronze evidence in the Maghreb area and, although the phrase is very manida, it is something that changes everything in the archeology of North Africa because the fragment is a waste of the function in a mold, but it is the oldest bronze object known in North Africa if we do not have Egypt into account. In the image on the right, we see a rest of an amphora. On the right, objects A a are grinding tools. E a g are the metal remains so relevant The Phoenician influence. Hanza Benattia is one of the authors of the study, as well as the director of the Kach Kouch archaeological project and, as explained in The conversationevidently the Phoenicians played a role in this story. During the VIII and VII AC centuries, the inhabitants of the settlement had the same material, architectural and economic culture they had during the previous phase, but contact with the Phoenicians introduced new cultural practices. “For example, circular housing coexisted with other squares made of stone and framework of wood and mud, combining phenistic and local techniques,” says Benattia. In addition, he points out that products such as vine and olive tree began to be cultivated, and that was when they began to use ceramics made around and the use of iron objects. This is the first thing that was found in 1992 and for what was considered that the settlement was Phoenician. However, the archaeologist points out that, towards 600 BC, the settlement was abandoned. There is no evidence of violence, so social or economic changes would have pushed the inhabitants to other more prosperous close settlements. To look for. It is curious how a simple waste from a material that should not be there changes the historical perception not only of a specific place, but of a region. As we said, the Magreb was excluded from the conversation about the late prehistory of the Mediterranean, but as Benattia points out, this discovery “not only … Read more

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