Ammon News - Archaeologists in Morocco have discovered the remains of a 4,200-year-old settlement that predates the Phoenicians — a surprise given that this region was thought to be uninhabited at that time.

The Phoenicians are famous for settling northern Africa and later battling Rome, but new excavations at the archaeological site of Kach Kouch reveal that northwestern Morocco was inhabited long before the Phoenicians arrived around 800 B.C.

The finds challenge "the notion of north-western Africa as terra nullius [uninhabited area] prior to Phoenician arrival," a team wrote in a study published Feb. 17 in the journal Antiquity. The excavations also suggest that when the Phoenicians arrived, they didn't just take over the site. Instead, evidence indicates that ancient people there built houses using a mix of Phoenician and local architectural styles.