Two Possible Upper Paleolithic Sites on the Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey

Abstract

Turkey, as a major geographical interface between Asia and Europe, is critical to understanding the lifeways and dispersal of early Homo sapiens populations in Eurasia. However, the Upper Paleolithic period in Turkey continues to remain an archaeological enigma. In contrast to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, which are relatively well represented across the country, the Upper Paleolithic is still largely missing from the archaeological record in most areas, impeding even a superficial understanding of the distribution and technologies of early Homo sapiens populations. To help close the gap in the archaeological evidence for the Upper Paleolithic in Turkey in general, this contribution presents the discovery of and finds from two open-air sites on the Karaburun Peninsula, near Izmir, in coastal western Turkey, which we identify as Upper Paleolithic in age. The lithic assemblages display a flake-blade industry characterized by prismatic and discoid cores, side-scrapers, atypical end-scrapers, and blanks with parallel removals. Lacking the typical Aurignacian or Gravettian characteristics, these assemblages support the notion that Anatolia was very diverse in terms of Upper Paleolithic lithic technologies. We introduce the lithic material from these sites to open a discussion on the variability of Anatolian Upper Paleolithic industries.