Interwoven with the debate regarding the biologic replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans is the question of the degree to which Neanderthals and modern foragers differed behaviorally. We consider this question through a detailed spatial analysis of artifacts and related evidence from stratified living floors within a 49–69 k.y.a. rock shelter site, Tor Faraj, in southern Jordan. The study involves a critical evaluation of living floors, the identification of site structure, and the decoding of the site structure in an effort to understand how the inhabitants of the shelter organized their behaviors. The site structure of Tor Faraj is also compared to occupations of modern foragers in ethnographic and archaeological contexts. When the information from the excavation of Tor Faraj is considered with evidence from other late Middle Paleolithic sites, there seems to be little basis for the claims that constraints in the behavioral organization of Neanderthals led to their replacement by modern foragers.

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In this article we examine the basis of primary flaking technology, the particularities of the Levallois-based industries of the transitional period from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic in the Near East (Southern Levant) and Central and Eastern Europe (southern Moravia and western Ukraine). An analysis is presented of the possible technological "generic" links between the Middle Palaeolithic Levallois industries and those of the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic. Elements of similarity and difference are determined for the corresponding industries in the Near East and Europe, with regard to changes in core reduction strategies and typologies in the course of development from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Transitional industries.

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