Editing Morocco (section)

=== Prehistory and antiquity ===
The area of present-day Morocco has been inhabited since at least [[Paleolithic|Paleolithic times]], beginning sometime between 190,000 and 90,000&nbsp;BC.<ref>[http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/files/irhoud.htm Field Projects – Jebel Irhoud ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112002657/http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/files/irhoud.htm |date=12 January 2017}}. Department of Human Evolution. [[Max Planck]] Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</ref> A recent publication has suggested that there is evidence for even earlier human habitation of the area: ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' fossils that had been discovered in the late 2000s near the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic coast]] in [[Jebel Irhoud]] were recently dated to roughly 315,000 years ago.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/news/oldest-homo-sapiens-fossil-claim-rewrites-our-species-history-1.22114 Oldest Homo sapiens fossil claim rewrites our species' history ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116175722/http://www.nature.com/news/oldest-homo-sapiens-fossil-claim-rewrites-our-species-history-1.22114 |date=16 November 2017 }} News. [[Nature Magazine]], International Weekly Journal of Science</ref>  During the [[Upper Paleolithic]], the [[Maghreb]] was more fertile than it is today, resembling a [[savanna]], in contrast to its modern arid landscape.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rubella |first=D. |title=From hunters to farmers the causes and consequences of food production in Africa |year=1984 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0520045743 |pages=41–56 |editor=J.D. Clark & S.A. Brandt |chapter=Environmentalism and Pi Paleolithic economies in the Maghreb (c. 20,000 to 5000 B.P.)}}</ref>

DNA studies of [[Iberomaurusian]] peoples at [[Taforalt]], Morocco dating to around 15,000 years ago have found them to have a distinctive Maghrebi ancestry formed from a mixture of [[Near East]]ern and African ancestry, which is still found as a part of the genome of modern Northwest Africans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=van de Loosdrecht |first1=Marieke |last2=Bouzouggar |first2=Abdeljalil |last3=Humphrey |first3=Louise |last4=Posth |first4=Cosimo |last5=Barton |first5=Nick |last6=Aximu-Petri |first6=Ayinuer |last7=Nickel |first7=Birgit |last8=Nagel |first8=Sarah |last9=Talbi |first9=El Hassan |last10=El Hajraoui |first10=Mohammed Abdeljalil |last11=Amzazi |first11=Saaïd |last12=Hublin |first12=Jean-Jacques |last13=Pääbo |first13=Svante |last14=Schiffels |first14=Stephan |last15=Meyer |first15=Matthias |date=2018-05-04 |title=Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aar8380 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=360 |issue=6388 |pages=548–552 |doi=10.1126/science.aar8380 |pmid=29545507 |bibcode=2018Sci...360..548V |issn=0036-8075}}</ref> Later during the [[Neolithic]], from around 7,500 years ago onwards, there was a migration into Northwest Africa of [[Early European Farmers|European Neolithic Farmers]] from the Iberian Peninsula (who had originated in [[Anatolia]] several thousand years prior), as well as pastoralists from the [[Levant]], both of whom also significantly contributed to the ancestry of modern Northwest Africans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=Luciana G. |last2=Günther |first2=Torsten |last3=Martínez-Sánchez |first3=Rafael M. |last4=Vera-Rodríguez |first4=Juan Carlos |last5=Iriarte |first5=Eneko |last6=Rodríguez-Varela |first6=Ricardo |last7=Bokbot |first7=Youssef |last8=Valdiosera |first8=Cristina |last9=Jakobsson |first9=Mattias |date=2023-06-15 |title=Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=618 |issue=7965 |pages=550–556 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06166-6 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=10266975 |pmid=37286608|bibcode=2023Natur.618..550S }}</ref> The [[Proto-Berber language|proto-Berber]] tribes evolved from these prehistoric communities during the late [[Bronze Age|Bronze]]- and early [[Iron Age|Iron]] ages.<ref>Mário Curtis Giordani, ''História da África. Anterior aos descobrimentos.'' Editora Vozes, Petrópolis (Brasil) 1985, pp. 42f., 77f. Giordani references Bousquet, ''Les Berbères'' (Paris 1961).</ref>

In the early part of [[Classical Antiquity]], Northwest Africa and Morocco were slowly drawn into the wider emerging [[Mediterranean]] world by the [[Phoenicians]], who established trading colonies and settlements there, the most substantial of which were [[Chellah]], [[Lixus (ancient city)|Lixus]], and [[Mogador]].<ref>{{cite web |author=The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map |url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17926 |title=C. Michael Hogan, ''Mogador: Promontory Fort'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham |publisher=Megalithic.co.uk |access-date=2 June 2010 |archive-date=5 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805181526/https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17926 |url-status=live }}</ref> Mogador was established as a Phoenician colony as early as the 6th century BC.<ref>Moscati, Sabatino (2001) ''The Phoenicians'', Tauris, {{ISBN|1-85043-533-2}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2013}}

[[File:Volubilis Longshot II.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Roman ruins of [[Volubilis]]]]
Morocco later became a realm of the Northwest African civilisation of [[ancient Carthage]], and part of the Carthaginian empire. The earliest known independent Moroccan state was the [[Mauretania|Berber kingdom of Mauretania]], under King [[Baga (king)|Baga]].<ref>[[Livy]] ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita Libri]]'' 29.30</ref> This ancient kingdom (not to be confused with the modern state of [[Mauritania]]) flourished around 225&nbsp;BC or earlier. [[Mauretania]] became a [[Client state|client]] kingdom of the [[Roman Empire]] in 33 BC. Emperor [[Claudius]] annexed Mauretania directly in 44 AD, making it a [[Roman province]] ruled by an imperial [[governor]] (either a ''procurator Augusti'', or a ''legatus Augusti pro praetore'').

[[Christianity]] in Morocco appeared during the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] times, when it was practiced by [[Berber Christians]] in Roman [[Mauretania Tingitana]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Asiwaju | first=A.I. |date=January 1985 | title=Partitioned Africans: Ethnic Relations Across Africa's International Boundaries | publisher=C. Hurst & Co |isbn=0-905838-91-2 | page=237 }}</ref> During the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], parts of Mauretania were reconquered by Berbers. By the late 3rd century, direct Roman rule had become confined to a few coastal cities, such as Septum ([[Ceuta]]) in [[Mauretania Tingitana]] and [[Cherchell]] in [[Mauretania Caesariensis]]. When, in 429 AD, the area was devastated by the [[Vandals]], the Roman Empire lost its remaining possessions in Mauretania, and local [[Mauro-Roman kingdom|Mauro-Roman kings]] assumed control of them. In the 530s, the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], under Byzantine control, re-established direct imperial rule of Septum and [[Tingi]], fortified Tingis and erected a church.