Ornaments of the earliest Upper Paleolithic: New insights from the Levant

Abstract

Two sites located on the northern Levantine coast, Ü çag ızlı Cave (Turkey) and Ksar 'Akil (Lebanon) have yielded numerous marine shell beads in association with early Upper Paleolithic stone tools. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates indicate ages between 39,000 and 41,000 radiocarbon years (roughly 41,000 -43,000 calendar years) for the oldest ornament-bearing levels in Ü çag ızlı Cave. Based on stratigraphic evidence, the earliest shell beads from Ksar 'Akil may be even older. These artifacts provide some of the earliest evidence for traditions of personal ornament manufacture by Upper Paleolithic humans in western Asia, comparable in age to similar objects from Eastern Europe and Africa. The new data show that the initial appearance of Upper Paleolithic ornament technologies was essentially simultaneous on three continents. The early appearance and proliferation of ornament technologies appears to have been contingent on variable demographic or social conditions.

The spread of modern humans in Europe

“…If the caves containing bone points traditionally assigned to the Szeletian industry (11) are considered part of the same phenomenon [and added to an isolated bone implement in layer 11 at Bacho Kiro (36)], nonstone implements in these sites are comparable to those in the related Emiran or IUP industry of the Levant (37). Indirect evidence for organizational adaptations in the form of personal ornaments also is present in Bacho Kiro and in the related Emiran or IUP sites of the Levant (10,36,24). The pattern indicates that although modern humans seem to have initially entered Europe during a warm climate interval (GI 12), both technological and organizational innovations, reflecting behavioral modernity, may have facilitated their colonization of new environments.…”

“…The latter include technology, which exhibits a pattern of accelerating innovation and expanding complexity during the Upper Paleolithic (23). The use of symbols also may have conferred some unique organizational abilities on modern humans (24), and the creation of novel technologies and organizational structures may have played a significant role in the dispersal of modern humans and their seemingly rapid colonization of a variety of habitats and climate zones.…”

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

“…Given this situation, I have suggested (Zilhão 2007 ) that the chronology of this technocomplex be anchored to the terminus post quem provided by the sequence of IUP (or Emiran) levels of the southern Turkish site of Üçağizli (Kuhn 2002(Kuhn , 2003Kuhn et al 2001Kuhn et al , 2009, where the Early Ahmarian overlies the IUP (as is always the case in the region when both are present, namely at Ksar' Akil). This approach implies a time of emergence for the Early Ahmarian no earlier than ~40.0-41.5 ka cal BP, in the range of the European Protoaurignacian.…”

“…In addition, the ornamental material in use at that time in the Levant consists entirely of marine shells, mostly Nassarius and similar small-sized species recovered in some of the region's Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) or Emiran contexts (Kuhn et al 2001 ). Even under the assumption that these technocomplexes are associated with modern humans, one can hardly see how their use of such beadwork material would have prompted Neandertals living thousands of kilometers away to start piercing the teeth of fox and other animals to use as neck pendants.…”

La explotación de variscita en el Sinforme de Terena: el complejo minero de Pico Centeno (Encinasola, Huelva)

“…(Kuhn et al 2001;Wright y Garrard 2003;Kuhn y Stiner 2007;Thomas 2011). Por ello el estudio de los adornos puede ofrecer una sustanciosa información para aproximarnos a las formas de organización social de las culturas ágrafas y especialmente los elaborados sobre materias primas raras o exóticas son un excelente indicador de la exhibición de desigualdades sociales.…”