Research report: Chronology and Funerary Practices Associated with Antennae Tumuli in Western Sahara

Archaeologists have directly dated a burial inside an antennae tumulus in northern Western Sahara, placing the human interment and the construction of the monument between 4417 and 4100 calibrated years before present. The result, obtained from two accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon measurements of human bone, provides the first absolute chronology for this distinctive stone monument type in the Atlantic Sahara. The monument was excavated in April 2018 at Wadi Lawash el Telli, on the eastern edge of the Sluguilla Lawash rock-art site in the country’s northern region.

Researchers call those projections antennae, and similar monuments are documented across Western Sahara and more widely from the Atlantic coast toward the central Sahara. Although antennae tumuli are relatively common in survey inventories, the form had rarely been investigated through excavation, leaving both its function and its position in the regional funerary sequence uncertain. The excavation showed that the tumulus contained a single inhumation.

Beneath an irregular outer covering of limestone slabs and blocks lay a convex structure made from slabs exceeding one metre in length. Under this protective layer, the skeleton of one person rested directly on the natural ground, which contained ochre coloration, calcite crystallizations, ferruginous concretions and siliceous material. No cut pit, constructed chamber, cremation, bone selection or other alteration was identified.

The absence of evidence for disturbance or reuse, together with the body’s position within the primary burial deposit, led the team to classify the deposition as an undisturbed primary inhumation. The individual lay on the back along a north–south axis, with the head toward the south. The lower limbs were folded laterally toward the west, the side opposite the direction in which the monument’s antennae extended.

The skeleton was extremely fragmentary because of the harsh arid preservation conditions, but dental wear placed the person at approximately 25 to 35 years old at death. Sex could not be determined because the pelvis was not sufficiently preserved. Measurements suggested a relatively gracile build, although the researchers emphasized that assigning female sex would be speculative.

The remains also displayed dental calculus on a lower first molar and an osteophyte on a phalanx that may be associated with repetitive manual activity. Only four artifacts were recovered from the burial: annular beads made from the eggshell of the ostrich, Struthio camelus. The beads were found in direct contact with the skeleton and most likely belonged to ornaments worn by the deceased.

Their presence nevertheless offered little help for identifying the burial’s cultural affiliation, because similar ornaments were widely distributed during the later prehistory of the Atlantic Sahara. The scarcity of grave goods illustrates a persistent problem in Western Saharan archaeology: individual burials rarely contain assemblages precise enough to establish cultural attribution on their own. Direct dating therefore became essential for placing the tomb within a regional funerary sequence.

Initial attempts to date collagen from the skeleton in 2018 were unsuccessful, first with a 1.9-gram sample and then with a larger 19.1-gram sample. The researchers returned to the remains in 2025 and sampled their mineral fraction, or bioapatite, following successful applications of this method to other burials in Western Sahara and funerary monuments in the Nigerian Sahara. Fragments of the left humerus and left femur were sent to the CIRAM laboratory.

Their carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, used as indicators of preserved collagen quality, fell outside the optimal range of 2.9 to 3.6, confirming that bioapatite dating was the only available option. The two calibrated results were consistent with one another, providing what the authors described as a high degree of confidence in the assigned age. Calibration with OxCal version 4.4.4 and the IntCal20 curve placed the burial in the middle of the fifth millennium cal BP.

In the study’s regional sequence, this date falls at the end of the Late Neolithic phase of stone-built funerary monuments. It also establishes a temporal overlap with mounded crescent-shaped tombs, including one dated monument in southern Tiris whose two interments fell within ranges of 4522–4259 and 4233–3986 cal BP. The new evidence therefore helps place antennae tumuli within the first phase of monumental burial traditions in Western Sahara, before later phases represented by alignments of stelae and stepped structures known as bazinas.

The comparison is chronological and typological; the study does not establish that the two monument types shared a single cultural identity. The result is important because it changes antennae tumuli from a predominantly survey-based category into a chronologically and functionally documented monument type. An earlier excavated example from Wadi Tasua had yielded no archaeological material, while the Lawash el Telli excavation now directly demonstrates inhumation within the structure.

Its chronology also offers a useful comparison with two radiocarbon-dated V-antennae monuments from the Libyan Tanezrouft region, dated to 3957–3693 and 3357–3078 cal BP. Those examples are both later and morphologically different, and the wide separation between their dates prevents a firm comparison. The new Western Saharan date is nevertheless a foundational point for future regional studies.

Distribution may provide another line of inquiry, but it does not by itself establish shared chronology or identity. Field surveys and satellite imagery indicate that antennae tumuli and other monuments with antennae are especially abundant in northern Western Sahara. Certain rock-art styles also have a northern distribution, prompting proposals that particular funerary monuments and pictorial traditions might be associated.

The authors stop short of treating that overlap as proof. Antennae tumuli and related forms extend much farther across the Sahara than the northern Western Saharan pictorial styles, making a clear cultural relationship difficult to demonstrate. The excavation instead supplies a dated anchor against which future comparisons of monuments, engravings and regional settlement patterns can be tested.

Construction at Lawash el Telli apparently did not require specialized quarrying, transport infrastructure or a large workforce. Local Devonian limestone was available in the immediate area, and apart from the slabs covering the burial, the blocks used in the mound and antennae were generally less than a metre in any dimension and could have been carried by one person. The antennae were formed by alignments of slabs and blocks placed directly on the ground, often without contact between pieces and without elaborate terminals.

This contrast suggests that the extended monument could have been built relatively quickly while its central burial was still given a distinct protective arrangement. The new chronology comes from one excavated burial and therefore does not establish a fixed age for every antennae tumulus in the region. The study’s chronology also depends on a typological sequence drawn from a limited body of directly dated monuments, and the excavation recovered only minimal anthropological and artifactual evidence because the remains were badly deteriorated.

A sediment sample intended for exploratory pollen analysis produced only two Pinus grains at 6.3 grains per gram, far below the concentration and pollen-sum thresholds required for meaningful environmental reconstruction; the result mainly indicates poor preservation. Even with those limitations, the paired radiocarbon measurements securely anchor one antennae tumulus in time. By confirming both its funerary role and its fifth-millennium position, the Lawash el Telli excavation provides a concrete starting point for reconstructing the emergence and chronology of prehistoric stone mortuary traditions in the Atlantic Sahara.

Subject of Research: Radiocarbon dating and funerary evidence from a Western Saharan antennae tumulus

Article Title: Chronology and Funerary Practices Associated with Antennae Tumuli in Western Sahara

Article References: Soler, J., Ventura, H., Rufí, I., Coromina, N., Revelles, J., Saña, M., Moll, L., & Soler, N. (2026). Chronology and Funerary Practices Associated with Antennae Tumuli in Western Sahara. African Archaeological Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-026-09666-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10437-026-09666-8

Keywords: Western Sahara, antennae tumuli, radiocarbon dating, bioapatite, prehistoric burial, Late Neolithic, Atlantic Sahara, human inhumation, stone funerary monuments, Chronology, Funerary, Practices