The Aurignacian in the Zagros region: new research at Yafteh Cave, Lorestan, Iran

Otte, Marcel; Biglari, Fereidoun; Flas, Damien; Shidrang, Sonia; Zwyns, Nicolas; Mashkour, Marjan; Naderi, Rahmat; Mohaseb, Azadeh Fatemeh; Hashemi, Narges; Darvish, Jamshid; Radu, Valentin

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00094850

Cited by 75 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Panthera pardus was found at Sodmein Cave in the Egyptian Sahara (Moeyersons et al, 2002), P. leo at Lukenya Hill in Kenya (Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez, 1991;Marean, 1992) and both at El Harhoura 2 Cave in Morocco (Michel et al, 2009), suggesting a widespread distribution. The Eurasian large felid record is perhaps more abundant during the Late Pleistocene and both P. pardus and P. leo are known from numerous sites (Hooijer, 1961;Gilead, 1991;Griggo, 2004;Stiner, 2005;Otte et al, 2007;Patnaik et al, 2008;Trinkaus et al, 2008;Monchot et al, 2012). Both large (P. pardus and P. leo) and small felids (F. silvestris) were reported from Wezmeh Cave, Iran (Trinkaus et al, 2008).…”

Section: Felidaementioning

confidence: 99%

Middle and Late Pleistocene mammal fossils of Arabia and surrounding regions: Implications for biogeography and hominin dispersals

Stewart

Louys

Price

et al. 2019

Quaternary International

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Plio-Pleistocene faunal turnovers and their implications for hominin dispersals have recently received considerable attention. Exploration and palaeontological study of faunal exchanges has traditionally centred on East Africa, North Africa and the Levant in Southwest Asia. Despite this attention, considerable debate surrounding the timings, rates, and directions of hominin dispersals remain. Notwithstanding its close geographical proximity to these regions and a landmass of over 3 million km2, the Arabian Peninsula has largely been excluded from these discussions, mostly owing to the paucity of its Pleistocene vertebrate record. However, recent palaeoenvironmental studies have demonstrated that Arabia experienced periods of climatic amelioration during the Pleistocene, resulting in the establishment of large, perennial water sources and open-grasslands; conditions vastly different than today. This interpretation is further underpinned by archaeological and palaeontological data, and it is now clear this region is important for understanding faunal and hominin movements between Africa and Eurasia. Examination of the Arabian Middle to Late Pleistocene fossil record in a biogeographical context indicates the composite nature of the Arabian faunal record, with Eurasian and African intrusions present in addition to well-established endemics. Open grassland habitats and taxonomic similarities between Pleistocene Arabia on the one hand, and the Levant and Africa on the other, suggests that hominin dispersal into Arabia did not require significant behavioural and/or technological innovations, while subsequent climatic deterioration likely resulted in hominin retreat/extirpation

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Section: Felidaementioning

confidence: 99%

Middle and Late Pleistocene mammal fossils of Arabia and surrounding regions: Implications for biogeography and hominin dispersals

Stewart

Louys

Price

et al. 2019

Quaternary International

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“…Awls manufactured from bone-essentially, noneyed needles-are well-documented in the Aurignacian (Fig. 11) beginning around 40,000 years ago, from France to Russia (e.g., Anikovich et al 2007;Charles et al 2003;d'Errico et al 2003;Wild et al 2005), and from 35 to 33,000 years ago in the Zagros Mountains, Iran (Otte et al 2007) and also in the early Aurigancian of the Levant (Belfer-Cohen and Bar-Yosef 1981;Bergman 1988). In Africa, the earliest bone awls-perhaps the earliest in the world-occur during the MSA at Blombos Cave, South Africa, in levels assigned to MIS 5a/5b and towards the beginning of the very cold MIS 4, between 84,000 and 72,000 years ago (d' Errico and Henshilwood 2007).…”

Section: Eyed Needles and Awlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Prehistoric Development of Clothing: Archaeological Implications of a Thermal Model

Gilligan

2010

J Archaeol Method Theory

150

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This paper presents a thermal model for the prehistoric origin and development of clothing. A distinction is drawn between simple and complex forms of clothing, with broad implications for the interpretation of paleolithic technological transitions and the emergence of modern human behavior. Physiological principles and paleoenvironmental data are harnessed to identify conditions requiring simple, loosely draped garments and the more challenging conditions that demanded additional protection in the form of complex garment assemblages. No actual clothing survives from the Pleistocene, yet the archaeological record yields evidence for technological and other correlates of clothing-more evidence than is generally supposed. Major innovations and trends in the distributions and relative frequencies of lithic and other tool forms may reflect the changing need for portable insulation in the context of fluctuating ice age climates. Moreover, the nonthermal repercussions of complex clothing can be connected with archaeological signatures of modern human behavior, notably adornment. Alternative models are less parsimonious in accounting for the geographical and temporal variability of prominent technological and other behavioral patterns in association with environmental change.

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“…From an archaeological perspective, Straus and Bar-Yosef (2001 : 2) entertain the same possibility: "there is, however, no reason a priori to exclude the possibility that intercontinental contacts occurred on a two-way street, especially at Suez, via Sinai, or across the shallow Bab al Mandab, so close to that corridor to sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile." Marks (2005) and Otte et al (2007) envisage similar scenarios during the MP/UP transitions in the Near East and Zagros regions. Both scholars argue that the archaeological evidence from Eastern Europe and Western Asia indicate the expansion of European UP technologies radiated from these areas, rather than Africa, during early MIS 3.…”

Section: Demographic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 94%

The “Upper Paleolithic” of South Arabia

Rose

Usik²

2009

The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia

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The Aurignacian in the Zagros region: new research at Yafteh Cave, Lorestan, Iran

Cited by 75 publications

References 11 publications

Middle and Late Pleistocene mammal fossils of Arabia and surrounding regions: Implications for biogeography and hominin dispersals

Middle and Late Pleistocene mammal fossils of Arabia and surrounding regions: Implications for biogeography and hominin dispersals

The Prehistoric Development of Clothing: Archaeological Implications of a Thermal Model

The “Upper Paleolithic” of South Arabia

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