Ostracodic evidence of a Neolithic food crop practice on Dhar Oualata (SE-Mauritania)

Micropaleontological analysis of sediments sampled in the paleolakes of Khn eivissa and in the preserved soils of the neolithic village compounds at th e top of Dhar Oualata (Hodh region, southeastern Mauritania) revealed ident ical ostracodic assemblages. This consistency of both microfacies and micro faunal assemblages can only be explained by an anthropic dressing of lacust rine sediments from the foot of the cliff in order to constitute an arable soil on the edge of a Paleozoic sandstone relief. These artificial soils pr otected from the wind erosion by drystone walls constitute a set of enclose d gardens in the close periphery of the village compounds.