Absolute Age of Pleistocene and Holocene Deposits in the Haua Fteah

THE general characteristics of the large coastal cave site known as the Haua Fteah, in north-eastern Libya, have already been described, together with a brief résumé of the most important results obtained up to 1952 1,2 . A further season's work in 1955 provided additional fossil human remains associated with Middle Palæolithic occupation débris 3 a,b , enabled a much closer analysis of the stratigraphy, and, by opening up a wider area, made possible the excavation of a deep sounding into earlier cultural horizons than any hitherto examined, down to a total depth of 42.5 ft. In the past six years a detailed programme of study of the cultural, palæontological and other collections has been carried out in this Department, and further samples for carbon-14 analysis have been processed.