Mechta-Afalou

The statue of Bencomo, the ruler of Guanches, at Tenerife

Mechta-Afalou or Mechtoid are an extinct people of North Africa. Mechtoids inhabited Northern Africa during late Paleolithic and Mesolithic (Ibero-Maurusian archaeological culture).

Mechtoids were assimilated during Neolithic and early Bronze Age by bearers of Afrasian languages. The Capsian culture, from the anthropological standpoint, is considered an indigenous development.

In summary the various lines of evidence, used to argue for derivation of the Capsian from the east, in fact suggest the opposite, and simpler conclusion of continuity between the Iberomaurusian and Capsian. In the early Holocene as the Iberomaurusian populations moved inland to take advantage of the improved climatic conditions at the end of the Pleistocene adaptive divergence occurred resulting in inter-regional variability..^[1]

Notes

References

• Physical Anthropology of European Populations, Mouton, 1980.

External links

• http://sahara-news.webcindario.com/antropologiafisica.htm
• http://exploring-africa.blogspot.com/2008/02/mechta-afalou-and-so-called-mechtoids.html
• http://elguanche.net/Ficheros2/etniaguanchelfp4.htm
• Migration of Mechta-Afalou people (a.k.a. Ouchtatiens), marked light green on the map