Isin Yalcinkaya

The Epi-Palaeolithic of Öküzini cave (SW Anatolia) and its mobiliary art

Late and Epi-Palaeolithic sequences are well known from field work and publications in southeast Europe and the Levant. Current research in Anatolia promises to shed new light on the vast region that connects these two areas. At Okuzini cave a detailed sequence of Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene assemblages contributes greatly to our understanding.

The Anatolian Middle Paleolithic: New Research at Karain Cave

The aims of this report are threefold: (1) to provide new information concerning the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of southern Turkey, (2) to present the shifts in lithic techniques evident in the sequence of Karain Cave during these periods, and (3) to demonstrate the significance of the new information for interpreting long-distance relations between Western Asia and Europe. In fact, in spite of the crucial geographic situation of Anatolia between the Near East and Europe, it has rarely been the subject of intensive excavations and publications concerning the Paleolithic periods. Recently obtained data are therefore of significant interest.

Début du Paléolithique supérieur à Karain (Turquie)

Beginning of Upper Palaeolithic at Karain (Turkey). Recent excavations have shown an interruption in the upper sequence of the local Mousterian. This industry disappears and is replaced by an assemblage analogous to the Zagros Aurignacian. Radiocarbon analyses place it at around 28 000 years B.P.

The endostructural pattern of a middle pleistocene human femoral diaphysis from the Karain E site (Southern Anatolia, Turkey)

OBJECTIVE The human femur from Karain E Cave (Turkey) exhumed from a Mousterian level provided the opportunity to make an incursion into the structural morphology of a late adolescent, or a young adult, femoral shaft from the late Middle Pleistocene of Anatolia. METHODS Considering the chrono-ecogeographical context, this study focuses particularly on the endostructural morphological similarities between Karain and Neanderthal fossils. RESULTS Comparative analysis shows that some femoral features of the Karain specimen are frequently observed in Neanderthals, in comparison to some Middle Pleistocene Homo and Middle/Upper Paleolithic modern humans. In particular, we note a high degree of circularity and a strong midshaft posteromedial reinforcement of cortical thickness on the medial side. According to the mapping of cortical thickness, this latter feature can be related to the medial spiral distribution pattern of cortical thickness in the mid-proximal shaft, which is present at Karain and in all Neanderthals available for this study. This spiral distribution was not identified in recent modern humans and may be absent from ancient Homo with femoral pilaster. CONCLUSIONS The endostructural signature of Karain could indicate a similar biomechanical strain system to that of Neanderthals that could be linked to body shape. However, the presence of posteromedial reinforcement in Berg Aukas may point to an ancestral feature and may be independent of latitude. A larger comparative sample should further clarify the taxonomical, biomechanical, and chrono-ecogeographical origins of the structural femoral features observed in an evolutionary Neanderthal context from MIS 7-9 in Karain.