Aspects of the Inner Mongolian Palaeolithic

The Hummal site, situated in the El-Kowm area of central Syria, is characterised by the presence of many artesian springs related to faults in the substratum, and by high-quality Lower Eocene flint outcrops. The Hummal site is in direct contact with the old artesian spring that supplied water to a pool of variable size. Attracted by the water, animals and raw material, humans settled continuously in the immediate vicinity of the source from the Lower to the Upper Palaeolithic, as attested by an archaeological record more than 20 metres deep. Systematic excavations in Hummal began in 1999 under the direction of J.-M. Le Tensorer and S. Muhesen (Le Tensorer 2000). More than 20 archaeological layers from Upper to Lower Palaeolithic were recognised and thousands of artefacts gathered. This in situ sequence, containing layers 6a, 6b, 6c and 7a, 7c, integrated the Hummalian. A blade industry was additionally discovered in a massive sand deposit, subsequently labelled alpha h. From 2001 systematic excavation of the upper sequence of the Hummalian was undertaken under the direction of the author. The excavation area reached 26m2, and more than 7000 lithic objects and more than a hundred faunal remains were collected. The excavated area was divided into two distinct parts: West and East. In 2009 the new Sondage S1 was opened in the southern part of the site and a surface of about 2m2 was excavated. The Hummalian blade industry excavated in all three sectors is subdivided into stratified archaeological layers and is clearly positioned between the Yabrudian and Mousterian complexes. Taphonomic factors such as erosion, diagenesis and trampling, alongside the probable lack of sedimentation, had a destructive effect on a number of the archaeological remains. The common flaking technique is direct percussion with a hard hammer. The unidirectional flaking system dominates in all layers, but bidirectional is also well represented, especially in Sand alpha h and layers 6c-2 and 7c. The goal of production was elongated blanks regardless of their size. The blank blades encompass a number of specimens with different morphologies. These blanks, although looking morphologically different – either prismatic or Levallois-like – seem to be the result of a single reduction strategy involving different kinds of core volume management. It seems that the flint knapper moved from Laminar debitage to Levallois-like debitage when the volume of cores decreased, with the core becoming flatter and requiring more preparations to control the manufacture of blanks. But many times the morphology of cores seems to have remained constant despite the diminishing size, showing that the core volume management was maintained from the early stage through to exhaustion. As blank production was carried out until exhaustion of the core, the assemblage includes blanks with a size scale ranging from elongated blades to small bladelets. But there was also a separate production of bladelets from burin-cores, and of bladelet cores and small flakes from truncated-faceted pieces. Their presence cannot be solely interpreted as being aimed at maximising the productivity of the flint. The end-products obtained during their flaking must have represented a desired supplementary element next to implements manufactured by the main reduction strategy. All these elements indicate a level of complexity in blank production. The importance of recycling in the Hummalian is demonstrated by double patinated tools, the reuse of broken items and debris for bladelet manufacturing, and Yabrudian scrapers as cores. The retouched tools made on flakes and blades seem to be quite standardised in their metrical and non-metrical attributes, both between the assemblages and the tools categories. The estimated TL age for Hummalian is approximately 200 ka (Richter 2006, Richter et al. 2011) and is comparable to those of the Laminar phenomenon highlighted at Hayonim layer ‘F top’ and ‘F base’, which have mean TL-dates on heated flint of 210 ± 28 ka and 221 ± 21 ka, respectively (Mercier et al., 2007), or with Tabun’s unit IX (Tabun D-type), with its mean TL dates of 256 ± 26 ka, and Rosh Ein Mor, dated 200 ka (Rink et al. 2003). These assemblages were discovered at different site types that varied in their use of Laminar and Levallois reduction strategies and in their production of diverse tools. The collections from Tabun and Rosh Ein Mor, in contrast to the Hummalian, seem to be dominated by the Levallois method (Meignen 1994, 143, Hauck 2010, 200). At present it seems that the lithic industries from Hayonim layers F and E (Meignen 1998, 2000) and the undated Abu Sif layers B and C (Neuville 1951) show the greatest resemblance to the Hummalian industry.

Paleolithic lithic assemblages are traditionally described on the bases of presence of a variety of tool types(typology) and of different knapping technologies. In this study we tried to investigate whether the presence ofdifferent groups of scrapers in the Mar-Tarik site assigned to the Middle Paleolithic represent specific function orjust different stages of the reduction process and constant changes as the result of accessibility to the rawmaterials. In this research Dibble's scrapers reduction model which was proposed for the first time based onBisitun rock shelter Middle Paleolithic assemblages, was tested using the Geometric Index of Reduction methodfor the unifacial scrapers. The results indicate that similarities in the dimensions of the different types of scrapersin Mar-Tarik and Bisitun might be a result of using small size raw materials. Meantime different functionalaspects of these two sites might have been responsible for differences in the intensity of retouch on their artifacts.

We here report the first results from a systematic research project in Mani (Southern Greece), which includes survey and test excavations. Forty-six caves, rockshelters and open-air sites in lowland settings were surveyed. Geomorphological data were collected in order to assess how geological processes affect the preservation of sites and bias site distribution patterns. Artifacts manufactured from non-local rock indicate potential raw material transfers and suggest links among the different regions of Mani, related to mobility patterns. Our research in the Mani has nearly doubled the number of known Middle Palaeolithic sites from the region and confirmed that the peninsula has the strongest ‘Neanderthal signal’ identified to date in Greece. Almost all sites are located at coastal areas. Despite the influence of Pleistocene landscape dynamics, this distribution emerges as a persistent pattern, perhaps indicating a preference for coastal locations. The Neanderthal occupation of Mani can illuminate importan...

Keywords: Carpathian-Dniester space, symbiotic industries, Preaurignacian, Brânzeni culture, ancient Upper Paleolithic, recent Upper Paleolithic Includes a summary in French.

An Experiment in Exhibition: "The Palaeolithic Age" in the Hungarian National Museum

The Paleolithic of Mongolia

Safeguard of the Archaeological Heritage in Ethiopia: Satellite Photogrammetry for the Archaeological Map of Melka Kunture Palaeolithic Site

Reconstructions of the late Quaternary paleogeography of Greece and the Aegean show that at 18,000 years B.P. the northern Aegean and northern Adriatic formed large coastal plains traversed by many rivers. Broad plains also existed off the coast of Elis and the present Gulf of Korinth, and along the Anatolian coast. Many islands, such as Kerkira, Euboea, and the northern Sporadhes, were connected with the mainland, and most of the Cycladic islands were joined together in a Cycladic semi-peninsula. The post-glacial rise of sea level beginning ca. 15,000 B.P. restored around 9,000 B.P. the coastal geography to approximately its present configuration. The late Quaternary paleogeography and its subsequent changes have many archeological implications that are worth serious consideration. The well-watered northern coastal plains may have furnished subsistence for a plains population quite independent of the resources of the northern mountain regions, and they constituted easy access to the Greek peninsula from the NE and NW. Loss of coastal plain land during the post-glacial rise of sea level drastically changed the resource base in many areas. The island of Melos, known source of obsidian for toolmaking since at least 10,000 B.P., may have been discovered considerably earlier when access to the island was largely over land.

Understanding the post-depositional taphonomic history of faunal remains from the 3 colluvium level of Isernia La Pineta (Molise, Italy) through GIS application Rich evidence of archaeological artefacts such as lithic tools and faunal remains have been recovered from the open-air, Middle Pleistocene, Palaeolithic site of Isernia La Pineta, situated in south-central Italy. GIS, in the context of faunal remains, has previously been applied to archaeosurfaces and other levels from this site and concentrated mainly on the distribution of different species and their representative skeletal parts. However, recently, 3 colluvium level (TNR- 6193) was subjected to spatial queries with archaeozoological and taphonomical variables selectively in association with the surrounding matrix, the presentation of results of which forms the focus of this paper.

The Middle Palaeolithic in Dhofar

Replication and Depiction in Paleolithic Art

Hadza actualistic case study, Plane dwelling herbivores maximum speed, Comparison of Levant's Acheulian to Acheulo-Yabrudian, East Africa Early - Late MP, France Mousterian - Aurignacian, African herbivores fat content, Net caloric return by animal weight

This chapter examines the evolutionary biology of the human mind. The earliest known examples of external thought emerged approximately 1.5 million years ago in the form of carved stone objects called bifaces. These tools achieved an externalized mental representation status since they bear little resemblance to the natural object from which they were made, having been transformed by human hands according to a certain mental template. The appearance of bifaces indicates the emergence of the proto-mind, since during this time humans began to find themselves in a landscape populated by thoughts in an extremely literal sense. Three observations were made on the workings of the proto-mind: first, it is capable of thinking beyond the internal; second, it is lacking of what Noam Chomsky calls the “core property” of language; and finally, it is a collective enterprise.

Environment at the transition Middle and Late Palaeolithic in South of France. The archeosequence of the Tournal cave (Bize-Minervois, France)

Early Palæolithic Sites of Markkleeberg, near Leipzig