MEMOQUAT - Man and Environments in Morocco during Quaternary

Abstract 

Morocco is a valuable area to study hominids and their reaction to ever-changing conditions. The MEMOQUAT project addresses chronology, evolution and adaptation, and social behaviour of humans who faced many stresses linked to geography, climate and environment. These kind of studies, at a large scale (the last Million years), have never been conducted in partnership with European universities. For the first time, a scientific project will cross each step since the discovery of archaeological artefacts until the publication of the results, with in the middle step, the setting of a dating laboratory. The MEMOQUAT project is lead by the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle ' MNHN (France) in association with an European partner: the Universita degli studi di Ferrara ' UNIFE (Italy), and a third country partner: the University Moulay Ismail, Meknes ' UMI (Morocco). These three partners have internationally acknowledged competences and expertise in the fields of Geochronology, Palaeontology and Prehistory, and previous experience of scientific cooperation tradition in the field of Prehistory and Geology of the Quaternary Period. The scientific collaboration intends to structure different programs already initiated between partners and support a long-term way relations between the partners. The research training and the transfer of knowledge for the study and materials dating from the prehistoric archaeology and the development of heritage valorisation are at the heart of the MEMOQUAT project.