Ain Hanech
Pleistocene-Holocene sites located in the area of Ain Hanech (Sétif) on the plateaux of eastern Algeria.
Settlemetns of first species of the genus Homo, Homo erectus, archaic Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens.
A complex of open-air paleontological and archaeological sites formed in a sedimentary context of fluvial-lagoon origin during the end of the Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene.
The most important sites are:
- Ain Boucherit Units P/Q y R
- Ain Hanech
- El-Kherba
- El-Kherba- Puits
- Oued El-Attach
- Meheb Errih
These sites contain fossil remains from a wide variety of savanna animals such as elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, equids, various bovids and carnivores; as well as stone artefacts with a chronology extending from 2.2 million to 6,000 years ago, bearing witness to continuous human occupations, including: Oldowan (2.2-1.7 million years), Acheulean (1.6 million years), Middle Paleolithic (50,000 years) and Capsian (10,000-6,000 years). The Oldowan levels represent the oldest human occupations of North Africa.