The Chronology of the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant

Bar‐Yosef, Ofer

doi:10.1007/0-306-47153-1_3

Cited by 50 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although it is badly crushed, its morphology appears to match that of H. sapiens [122,123]. Qafzeh 9 is contemporaneous with the Skhul individuals [137], providing further evidence that modern morphology evolved in a mosaic fashion in the Middle East.…”

Section: The Evolution Of the Modern Human Pelvismentioning

confidence: 94%

The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation

Gruss

Schmitt

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The fossil record of the human pelvis reveals the selective priorities acting on hominin anatomy at different points in our evolutionary history, during which mechanical requirements for locomotion, childbirth and thermoregulation often conflicted. In our earliest upright ancestors, fundamental alterations of the pelvis compared with non-human primates facilitated bipedal walking. Further changes early in hominin evolution produced a platypelloid birth canal in a pelvis that was wide overall, with flaring ilia. This pelvic form was maintained over 3-4 Myr with only moderate changes in response to greater habitat diversity, changes in locomotor behaviour and increases in brain size. It was not until Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and the Middle East 200 000 years ago that the narrow anatomically modern pelvis with a more circular birth canal emerged. This major change appears to reflect selective pressures for further increases in neonatal brain size and for a narrow body shape associated with heat dissipation in warm environments. The advent of the modern birth canal, the shape and alignment of which require fetal rotation during birth, allowed the earliest members of our species to deal obstetrically with increases in encephalization while maintaining a narrow body to meet thermoregulatory demands and enhance locomotor performance.

show abstract

Section: The Evolution Of the Modern Human Pelvismentioning

confidence: 94%

The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation

Gruss

Schmitt

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The most significant development was the use of thermoluminescence (TL), electron-spin resonance (ESR), and U-series methods to date MP contexts (Bar-Yosef, 1989). In lithic analysis, the 1980s-1990s witnessed the introduction of chaîne opératoire analytical methodology (Meignen, 1995).…”

Section: History Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The succession of Levantine Mousterian lithic assemblages is usually described in terms of a three-phase model proposed by Copeland and modeled after the major lithostratigraphic divisions of Tabun Cave (Bar-Yosef, 1998a;Henry, 1998b;Kaufman, 1999;Meignen, 1998b). Some researchers combine Copeland's Phases 2 and 3 into a single "Later Levantine Mousterian," but retain her Phase 1 as an "Early Levantine Mousterian" (Jelinek, 1982a;Marks, 1992a;Ronen, 1979).…”

Section: Lithic Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

Shea

2003

Journal of World Prehistory

149

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This observation demonstrates the weakness of the common practice of diagnosing Levallois technological systems from the "products" alone. It also departs somewhat from the general view of the EMP that emphasized the production of points and blades and downplayed the importance of other components (e.g., Bar-Yosef 1998;Monigal 2001Monigal , 2002. It is of note that while Meignen (1994) clearly stated that blades, points, and flakes could have been manufactured as part of a single reduction sequence, in her general syntheses she repeatedly emphasizes the production of blades and elongated points (e.g., Meginen 1998Meginen , 2000Meginen , 2007aMeginen , 2007b and it is this impression that dominates the current literature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Untitled

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Following the stratigraphic sequence described by D. Garrod in her pioneering excavations at Tabun Cave, the Levantine Mousterian is traditionally divided into three sub-stages (B, C, D) according to changes in modal forms of Levallois production. Despite the ubiquity of this terminology, none of these three stages from Tabun has been described in detail. Furthermore, our knowledge of variability in technology and chronology within the Levantine Middle Paleolithic has increased markedly in the last three decades. This variation is especially apparent in the Early Middle Paleolithic, when both Levallois and non-Levallois laminar methods appear in most sites but with different frequencies. In this paper we provide a reconstruction of the Levallois technology in the early Middle Paleolithic of Tabun Cave using assemblages from Jelinek's excavations in Unit IX (Garrod's layer D). In contrast to many other contemporary sites, where non-Levallois laminar production is strongly represented, the assemblage of Unit IX is dominated by a recurrent, unipolar Levallois technology. Understanding the specific character of the "prototype" of Tabun D is an important step towards assessing inter-and intra-assemblage variability within the Levantine Early Middle Paleolithic. Appreciating this variation is in turn essential for explaining the apparently sudden appearance of these early Mousterian assemblages between 200 and 250 kya. The method used at Tabun Unit IX is both flexible and efficient, yielding both large numbers of blanks and a range of products while reducing the waste of material involved in shaping and maintaining of the core. In these assemblages, blades, flakes and Levallois points, and a variety of other products, were produced through systematic exploitation of different parts of the core's surface. In this respect the technology of Tabun Unit IX differs from the 'laminar method' known from other early Levantine assemblages in the organization of production and in its economic features and the range of products. INTRODUCTIONA rcheological studies at Tabun Cave over the past 75 years have fundamentally shaped perceptions of the Middle and Lower Paleolithic in the eastern Mediterranean (e.g., Garrod 1956;Garrod and Bate 1937;Grün and Stringer 2000;Jelinek et al. 1973;Jelinek 1975Jelinek , 1977Jelinek , 1982a Jelinek , b, 1990McCown and Keith 1939;Mercier and Valladas 2003;McPherron 2006). The first phase of work at the site resulted in the standard tripartite division of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic, in which the earliest phase ('Tabun D') is characterized by the abundance of blades and elongated points (Copeland 1975; Garrod and Bate 1937: 77-78; Jelinek 1982a,b; Shea 2003 and references therein). Despite the site's significance, and despite important subsequent work by Jelinek et al. (1973), Meignen (1994 and Monigal (2002), the character of lithic production in the Early Middle Paleolithic (henceforth EMP) of Tabun has not been fully explored. In apparent contrast to many other EMP sites in this r...

show abstract

The Chronology of the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant

Cited by 50 publications

References 46 publications

The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation

The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

Untitled

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About