Systematic blade production at late Lower Paleolithic (400-200 kyr) Qesem Cave, Israel

Qesem Cave is assigned to the Acheulo-Yabrudian cultural complex of the late Lower Paleolithic period. The 7.5 m deep stratigraphic sequence is dated to 400-200 ka (thousands of years ago). It is mostly attributed to the Amudian blade-dominated industry, one of the earliest blade production technologies in the world. In this paper, we present the results of a detailed study of five Amudian assemblages from Qesem Cave and suggest two trajectories for the production of blades at the site. We argue that the reduction sequences of blades at Qesem Cave represent an innovative and straightforward technology aimed at the systemic and serial production of predetermined blanks. We suggest that this predetermined blank technology shows planning and intensity that is not significantly different from Middle Paleolithic Mousterian technological systems. Furthermore, this well-organized serial manufacture of cutting implements mainly for butchering might indicates that a significant change in human behavior had taken place by the late Lower Paleolithic period.     

Timing of the Lower to Middle Paleolithic boundary: new dates from the Levant

This paper reviews the numerical dates available for the late Lower Paleolithic and early Middle Paleolithic in the Levant. We also present here new electron spin resonance dates for the late Lower Paleolithic sites of Holon, Yabrud I and Oumm Qatafa. Irrespective of dating techniques used, the ages of these sites converge on oxygen isotope stage 7 at roughly 215+/-30 ka. Similarly, dates for early Middle Paleolithic sites in the region, with the exception of Tabun, fall within oxygen isotope stage 7, suggesting a relatively rapid transition from Lower to Middle Paleolithic. In the light of these findings, the "early chronology" for the region, based on the TL dates on burned flint from Tabun, is discussed.     

Dating the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Levant: A view from Misliya Cave,Mount Carmel,Israel

The transition from the Lower to the Middle Paleolithic in the Levant is a crucial event in human evolution, since it may involve the arrival of a new human population. In the current study, we present thermoluminescence (TL) dates obtained from 32 burnt flints retrieved from the late Lower Paleolithic (Acheulo-Yabrudian) and Early Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) layers of Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. Early Middle Paleolithic industries rich in Levallois and laminar products were assigned mean ages ranging from ∼250 to ∼160 ka (thousands of years ago), suggesting a production of this industry during MIS 7 and the early part of MIS 6. The mean ages obtained for the samples associated with the Acheulo-Yabrudian (strengthened by an isochron analysis) indicate a production of this cultural complex ∼250 ka ago, at the end of MIS 8. According to the Misliya TL dates, the transition from the Lower to the Middle Paleolithic in the site took place at the limit MIS 8/7 or during the early part of MIS 7. The dates, together with the pronounced differences in lithic technology strongly suggest the arrival of a new population during this period.     

The Early Middle Palaeolithic lithic industry of Dederiyeh Cave,Northwest Syria

The Lower-to-Middle Paleolithic transition of the Levant has attracted much attention, particularly because the early Middle Paleolithic is the period when the earliest anatomically modern humans fossils known to date in Eurasia have been attested in that part of Asia . The associated lithic assemblages are a significant source of information for investigating the cultural landscape of this important transition. This paper presents a new dataset from the 2003–2009 excavations at Dederiyeh Cave, northwest of Syria. A techno-typological analysis of the lithic industry reveals a common practice of blade blank production, which corroborates the other known early Middle Paleolithic assemblages of the Levant. However, its strong emphasis on Levallois core reduction and sidescraper manufacturing is noteworthy. The significance of this finding deserves further research from multiple viewpoints, including the functional and spatio-temporal variability of hominin activities in this period. It will be also important to interpret the techno-typological diagnostics of the early Middle Paleolithic assemblage of Dederiyeh considering its geographic location at the northern end of the Levant, distant from the previously known sites in the central and southern Levant.     

Predetermined Flake Production at the Lower/Middle Paleolithic Boundary: Yabrudian Scraper-Blank Technology

While predetermined débitage technologies are recognized beginning with the middle Acheulian, the Middle Paleolithic is usually associated with a sharp increase in their use. A study of scraper-blank technology from three Yabrudian assemblages retrieved from the early part of the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex of Tabun Cave (ca. 415–320 kyr) demonstrates a calculated and preplanned production, even if it does not show the same complexity and elaboration as in the Levallois technology. These scraper dominated assemblages show an organization of production based on an intensive use of predetermination blank technology already in place at the end of the Lower Paleolithic of the Levant. These results provide a novel perspective on the differences and similarities between the Lower and Middle Paleolithic industries. We suggest that there was a change in the paradigm in the way hominins exploited stone tools: in many Middle Paleolithic assemblages the potential of the stone tools for hafting was a central feature, in the Lower Paleolithic ergonometric considerations of manual prehension were central to the design of blanks and tools.     

Neandertals,competition, and the origin of modern human behavior in the Levant

The East Mediterranean Levant is a small region, but its paleoanthropological record looms large in debates about the origin of modern humans and the fate of the Neandertals. For most of the twentieth century, the Levantine paleoanthropological record supported models of continuity and evolutionary transition between Neandertals and early modern humans. Recent advances in radiometric dating have challenged these models by reversing the chronological relationship between Levantine Neandertals and early modern humans. This revised chronostratigraphy for Levantine Middle Paleolithic human fossils raises interesting questions about the evolutionary relationship between Neandertals and early modern humans. A reconsideration of this relationship moves us closer to understanding the long delay between the origin of morphologically modern‐looking humans during the Middle Paleolithic (>130 Kyr) and the adaptive radiation of modern humans into Eurasia around the time of the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic (50 to 30 Kyr).     

Os fossiles humains des grottes Muierii et Cioclovina, Roumanie

This paper presents the cultural and archaeological context of the human fossil bones from Muierii Cave, dated by us to the age of 30 150 ± 800 ¹⁴C years BP (Before Present) or 34 810 ± 927 cal years BP (calibrated years Before Present), and from Cioclovina Cave, dated to the age of 29 000 ± 700 ¹⁴C years BP or 33 540 ± 832 cal years BP, in the Southern Carpathians. These are among the most ancient dated human fossil remains from Central and South-Eastern Europe and are described in conjunction with other sites with Mousterian assemblages of the recent Neanderthal population, and sites with Aurignacian assemblage of early modern humans, from Romanian region, for the interval of time 34,000-26,000, the transitional period from the Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic.     

Modern hunting behavior in the early Middle Paleolithic: faunal remains from Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel

Understanding the behavioral adaptations and subsistence strategies of Middle Paleolithic humans is critical in the debate over the evolution and manifestations of modern human behavior. The study of faunal remains plays a central role in this context. Until now, the majority of Levantine archaeofaunal evidence was derived from late Middle Paleolithic sites. The discovery of faunal remains from Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel (>200 ka), allowed for detailed taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses of these early Middle Paleolithic remains. The Misliya Cave faunal assemblage is overwhelmingly dominated by ungulate taxa. The most common prey species is the Mesopotamian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica), followed closely by the mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella). Some aurochs (Bos primigenius) remains are also present. Small-game species are rare. The fallow deer mortality pattern is dominated by prime-aged individuals. A multivariate taphonomic analysis demonstrates (1) that the assemblage was created solely by humans occupying the cave and was primarily modified by their food-processing activities; and (2) that gazelle carcasses were transported complete to the site, while fallow deer carcasses underwent some field butchery. The new zooarchaeological data from Misliya Cave, particularly the abundance of meat-bearing limb bones displaying filleting cut marks and the acquisition of prime-age prey, demonstrate that early Middle Paleolithic people possessed developed hunting capabilities. Thus, modern large-game hunting, carcass transport, and meat-processing behaviors were already established in the Levant in the early Middle Paleolithic, more than 200 ka ago.     

旧石器时代的火塘与古人类用火

火塘作为旧石器时代反映古人类行为的重要遗迹一直受到学术界的关注。迄今为止, 我国已经发现了丰富的火塘遗迹及其相关遗留物, 但早期发现的火塘受限于本身保存不完整、当时技术手段的缺乏等客观因素及研究者的重视程度不够, 对其研究并不深入。近年来, 随着新遗址、新发现的增多, 发掘、保存和信息提取手段的完善, 越来越多的火塘信息被保存下来, 为开展旧石器时代火塘研究提供了基础和机遇。本文主要介绍近年来学术界对火塘及其遗留物的研究手段和成果, 同时列举了西方一些学者的研究实例, 简要论述火塘在研究史前人类行为中的重要作用。     

Lower Paleolithic hominin ecology at the fringe of the desert: Faunal remains from Bizat Ruhama and Nahal Hesi, Northern Negev, Israel

The Southern Levant is a pivotal area for the study of hominin paleoecology during the Lower Paleolithic, because of its location on the out-of-Africa dispersal route and its significant ecological diversity. Important information has been gained by archaeofaunal studies, which usually reveal that exploitation of diverse Mediterranean environments with woodlands, marshes and lake margins, represents a dominant subsistence strategy for Lower Paleolithic hominins. Here, we present new taxonomic and taphonomic data from two sites in the southern coastal plain of the Southern Levant, at the fringe of the Negev Desert: Bizat Ruhama (Early Pleistocene) and Nahal Hesi (Middle Pleistocene). The sites preserve anthropogenic faunas, with the former signaling a marrow-exploitation strategy, perhaps related to scavenging from carnivore kills, and the latter showing evidence for primary access to fleshed ungulate carcasses. The species composition of these Northern Negev sites is unique for the Levantine Lower Paleolithic in that these sites lack typical woodland and riparian species, probably indicating an open, relatively uniform environment with patchy water sources and trees, much like this semiarid region today. Bizat Ruhama and Nahal Hesi are among the only Levantine Lower Paleolithic faunas associated with such a setting, thereby widening the known spectrum of environments exploited by hominins in the region. It is suggested that the two sites, coupled with the nearby Late Pleistocene evidence, reflect a largely stable semiarid environment on the northwestern fringe of the Negev Desert throughout much of the Pleistocene.     

辽东半岛的旧石器文化

辽东半岛旧石器研究可追溯至20世纪30年代, 但较大的进展则在70年代以后所取得。迄今为止, 包括以庙后山石器工业和营口金牛山人类化石为代表的旧石器早期、以海城小孤山下层石器工业为代表的旧石器中期和以海城小孤山中层石器工业、骨角制品和前阳人类化石为代表的旧石器晚期组成的辽东旧石器文化发展序列已经初步建立起来。从古生态环境和石器技术、类型学而言, 辽东半岛旧石器文化和华北同期文化存在密切的联系。     

San Bernardino Cave (Italy) and the Appearance of Levallois Technology in Europe: Results of a Radiometric and Technological Reassessment

The introduction of Levallois technology in Europe marked the transition from the Lower to the early Middle Paleolithic. This new method of flake production was accompanied by significant behavioral changes in hominin populations. The emergence of this technological advance is considered homogeneous in the European archaeological record at the Marine isotopic stage (MIS) 9/MIS 8 boundary. In this paper we report a series of combined electron spin resonance/U-series dates on mammal bones and teeth recovered from the lower units of San Bernardino Cave (Italy) and the technological analyses of the lithic assemblages. The San Bernardino Cave has yielded the earliest evidence of Levallois production on the Italian Peninsula recovered to date. In addition to our results and the review of the archaeological record, we describe the chronological and geographical differences between European territories and diversities in terms of technological developments. The belated emergence of Levallois technology in Italy compared to western Europe corresponds to the late Italian Neanderthal speciation event. The new radiometric dates and the technological analyses of San Bernardino Cave raise the issue of the different roles of glacial refugia in the peopling and the spread of innovative flaking strategies in Europe during the late Middle Pleistocene.     

关于“中国旧石器时代中期”的探讨

本文探讨了中国旧石器时代中期考古学研究的若干问题,包括研究历史、资料现状、年代学手段、石器技术的特点及发展变化,以及与西方旧石器时代考古学的历史渊源及现状比较。通过对“中国旧石器时代中期”这一术语的来源及其所涵盖的时限及文化内涵的演变,对这一时代界定所采取的原则和方法,以及中国旧石器时代文化特点的考察,作者认为“中国旧石器时代中期”不是一个严格和有意义的学术概念,因而中国旧石器时代考古学应摒弃传统的3期断代模式,而改为早、晚两期的2分法。文章并对中国旧石器时代早期延续时间的长久和晚期出现新的文化内容的动因进行了讨论。     

The Big Deal about Blades: Laminar Technologies and Human Evolution

Despite the rapid expansion of archaeological knowledge of the Paleolithic over the past several decades, some generalized interpretive frameworks inherited from previous generations of researchers are remarkably tenacious. One of the most persistent of these is the assumed correlation between blade technologies, Upper Paleolithic industries, and anatomically (and behaviorally) modern humans. In this paper, we review some of the evidence for the production of early blade technologies in Eurasia and Africa dating to the late Lower and the Middle Paleolithic. The basic techniques for blade production appeared thousands of years before the Upper Paleolithic, and there is no justification for linking blades per se to any particular aspect of hominid anatomy or to any major change in the behavioral capacities of hominids. It is true that blades came to dominate the archaeological records of western Eurasia and Africa after 40,000 years ago, perhaps as a consequence of increasing reliance on complex composite tools during the Upper Paleolithic. At the same time, evidence from other regions of the world demonstrates that evolutionary trends in Pleistocene Eurasia were historically contingent and not universal. [Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, blade technology, human evolution, hominid behavior and capacities]     

Changes in the ‘Connectedness’ and Resilience of Paleolithic Societies in Mediterranean Ecosystems

Human predator‐prey relationships changed dramatically in the Mediterranean Basin between 250,000 and 9,000 years ago. Many of these changes can be linked to increases in Paleolithic human population densities. Small game species are particularly diagnostic of increases in human hunting pressure and are a major source of evidence for demographic change after 40–45,000 years ago. Biomass-corrected data on prey choice also indicate increasing use of those species that possess higher reproductive efficiencies. Step-wise, apparently irreversible shifts in human predatory niche are apparent in the Mediterranean Basin, beginning with the earliest Upper Paleolithic in the east and spreading westward. Evidence of demographic pressure and greater use of resilient prey populations is followed by technological innovations to exploit these animals more efficiently. The zooarchaeological findings suggest that Middle and Lower Paleolithic reproductive units probably were not robust at the micropopulation scale, due to the rather narrow set of behavioral responses that characterized social groups at the time, and thus localized extinctions at the micropopulation level were likely to have been common. Upper Paleolithic groups were the quintessential colonizers and, in addition, uniquely good at holding on to habitat gained. Upper Paleolithic archaeological “cultures” had shorter histories of existence than those of earlier periods, but they were even more widespread geographically. The demographic robustness of the Upper Paleolithic systems may stem from wholesale strategies for evening-out or sharing risk and volatility in technology. Micropopulations were larger and often denser on landscapes, more connected via cooperative ties, and thus more robust.     

The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in the Iranian Zagros. A taphonomic approach and techno-economic comparison of Early Baradostian assemblages from Warwasi and Yafteh (Iran)

Southwest Asia is a key region in current debates surrounding the appearance of the first cultures attributed to anatomically modern humans, particularly the Aurignacian and preceding cultural units of the Iranian Zagros, Levant, and the Balkans (Baradostian, Ahmarien, Kozarnikien, etc.). The Zagros mountain range encompasses an immense territory that remains understudied with regard to the Upper Paleolithic as well as the first bladelet industries traditionally presumed to be the work of anatomically modern humans. Concerning the emergence of the Aurignacian, the sites of Warwasi rockshelter and Yafteh cave in the central Zagros are considered to show evidence of in situ evolution of the Upper Paleolithic from the local Mousterian. This hypothesis is tested by way of a taphonomic, techno-typological and economic approach applied to the Upper Paleolithic levels of Warwasi (spits LL–AA) and Yafteh (the series from the lower part of the sequence). A comparison of the techno-economic features of both assemblages demonstrates a conceptual bond with contemporaneous techno-complexes from Levant and Europe (Ahmarian, Protoaurignacian, etc.). The techno-typological Middle Paleolithic character of the Warwasi lithic assemblage permits a discussion of a possible in situ dependence/continuum from the Mousterian or perhaps particular activities linked to the type of the occupation of the site. However, bladelet technology cannot be considered as rooted in the Zagros Mousterian. Consequently the origin of the Aurignacian sensu stricto has to be reconsidered.     

Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel

The Amudian (late Lower Paleolithic) site of Qesem Cave in Israel represents one of the earliest examples of habitual use of fire by middle Pleistocene hominids. The Paleolithic layers in this cave were studied using a suite of mineralogical and chemical techniques and a contextual sedimentological analysis (i.e., micromorphology). We show that the lower ca. 3m of the stratigraphic sequence are dominated by clastic sediments deposited within a closed karstic environment. The deposits were formed by small-scale, concentrated mud slurries (infiltrated terra rosa soil) and debris flows. A few intervening lenses of mostly in situ burnt remains were also identified. The main part of the upper ca. 4.5 m consists of anthropogenic sediment with only moderate amounts of clastic geogenic inputs. The deposits are strongly cemented with calcite that precipitated from dripping water. The anthropogenic component is characterized by completely combusted, mostly reworked wood ash with only rare remnants of charred material. Micromorphological and isotopic evidence indicates recrystallization of the wood ash. Large quantities of burnt bone, defined by a combination of microscopic and macroscopic criteria, and moderately heated soil lumps are closely associated with the wood-ash remains. The frequent presence of microscopic calcified rootlets indicates that the upper sequence formed in the vicinity of the former cave entrance. Burnt remains in the sediments are associated with systematic blade production and faunas that are dominated by the remains of fallow deer. Use-wear damage on blades and blade tools in conjunction with numerous cut marks on bones indicate an emphasis on butchering and prey-defleshing activities in the vicinity of fireplaces.     

Seasonal variations of the middle-upper paleolithic transition at El castillo, Cueva Morín and El pendo (Cantabria, Spain)

With debate escalating in regard to the prolonged contemporaneity of neandertal and modern human groups in the Franco-Cantabrian region on the one hand, and the late persistence of neandertals (until ca. 28-30,000 B.P.) and Mousterian industries in southern Iberia on the other; sites with Mousterian-Upper Paleolithic sequences from northern Spain play a pivotal role in the ongoing investigation of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in western Europe. An important line of inquiry into the nature of social and economic change from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic is the monitoring of shifts in land use and resource procurement patterns. The recognition of short-term, seasonal patterning in settlement and resource provisioning may provide insights into changes in mobility, territoriality, and social organization that might otherwise be missed. This paper presents results of a seasonality study of fauna from archaeological levels spanning the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition from the sites of El Castillo, El Pendo, and Cueva Morín in Cantabrian Spain. Data concerning season of death and age at death of prey animals presented here are derived from dental growth mark (increment, annuli) analysis. These data, along with other artifactual and faunal evidence suggest to us that: (1) economic strategies and technologies pervasive in the Upper Paleolithic are rooted in the Cantabrian Middle Paleolithic; and, (2) the apparent increase in deposits from the Middle through Upper Paleolithic may be the signature of a gradual increase in logistical economic strategies including the heightened level of social organization required for their implementation.     

Man the fat hunter: the demise of Homo erectus and the emergence of a new hominin lineage in the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 400 kyr) Levant

The worldwide association of H. erectus with elephants is well documented and so is the preference of humans for fat as a source of energy. We show that rather than a matter of preference, H. erectus in the Levant was dependent on both elephants and fat for his survival. The disappearance of elephants from the Levant some 400 kyr ago coincides with the appearance of a new and innovative local cultural complex--the Levantine Acheulo-Yabrudian and, as is evident from teeth recently found in the Acheulo-Yabrudian 400-200 kyr site of Qesem Cave, the replacement of H. erectus by a new hominin. We employ a bio-energetic model to present a hypothesis that the disappearance of the elephants, which created a need to hunt an increased number of smaller and faster animals while maintaining an adequate fat content in the diet, was the evolutionary drive behind the emergence of the lighter, more agile, and cognitively capable hominins. Qesem Cave thus provides a rare opportunity to study the mechanisms that underlie the emergence of our post-erectus ancestors, the fat hunters.