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70 - The Upper Palaeolithic in Cisjordan

from Part VI: - Humans in the Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

By
Anna Belfer-Cohen  and
A. Nigel Goring-Morris
Edited by
Yehouda Enzel  and
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

The chapter provides an overview of the history of research, as well as chronological and interpretative frameworks for Upper Palaeolithic developments in the Levant west of the Rift Valley, between ca. 48-25 ka cal BP (the latter corresponding with the onset of the Late Glacial Maximum) and posited relationships with adjacent and more distant regions. We highlight the different trajectories between the Mediterranean and the semi-arid zones in the Negev and Sinai in terms of settlement and subsistence patterns as well as the techno-typological characteristics of the different chipped stone industries. They include: the Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP), the Ahmarian, the Levantine Aurignacian, the Arqov/Divshon and the Atlitian entities, starting with a shift from the surficial approach during the Middle Palaeolithic to serial blade/let production from narrow-fronted cores in the Ahmarian. In general these entities appear to represent local, endemic developments, except the Levantine Aurignacian, which appears to document a brief intrusion into a restricted area of the Mediterranean zone from Europe, as indicated by both the lithics and the bone and antler industries.
Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
 , pp. 627 - 638
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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