Ran Barkai

Cooperative hunting and meat sharing 400–200 kya at Qesem Cave, Israel

Zooarchaeological research at Qesem Cave, Israel demonstrates that large-game hunting was a regular practice by the late Lower Paleolithic period. The 400- to 200,000-year-old fallow deer assemblages from this cave provide early examples of prime-age-focused ungulate hunting, a human predator–prey relationship that has persisted into recent times. The meat diet at Qesem centered on large game and was supplemented with tortoises. These hominins hunted cooperatively, and consumption of the highest quality parts of large prey was delayed until the food could be moved to the cave and processed with the aid of blade cutting tools and fire. Delayed consumption of high-quality body parts implies that the meat was shared with other members of the group. The types of cut marks on upper limb bones indicate simple flesh removal activities only. The Qesem cut marks are both more abundant and more randomly oriented than those observed in Middle and Upper Paleolithic cases in the Levant, suggesting that more (skilled and unskilled) individuals were directly involved in cutting meat from the bones at Qesem Cave. Among recent humans, butchering of large animals normally involves a chain of focused tasks performed by one or just a few persons, and butchering guides many of the formalities of meat distribution and sharing that follow. The results from Qesem Cave raise new hypotheses about possible differences in the mechanics of meat sharing between the late Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic.

Uranium series dates from qesem Cave, Israel, and the end of the Lower Palaeolithic

Israel is part of a geographical ‘out of Africa’ corridor for human dispersals. An important event in these dispersals was the possible arrival of anatomically modern humans in the Levant during the late Middle Pleistocene. In the Levant the Lower Palaeolithic ends with the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex, characterized by technological developments, including the introduction of technological innovations such as the systematic production of blades and the disappearance of hand-axes. These reflect new human perceptions and capabilities in lithic technology and tool function. Qesem Cave, discovered in 2000, has a rich, well-preserved Acheulo-Yabrudian deposit holding great promise for providing new insights into the period. Here we report the dates of this deposit obtained by uranium isotopic series on associated speleothems and their implications. The results shed light on the temporal range of the Acheulo-Yabrudian and the end of the Lower Palaeolithic, suggesting a long cultural phase between the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulian and the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian phases, starting before 382 kyr ago and ending at about 200 kyr ago.

Middle pleistocene dental remains from Qesem Cave (Israel)

This study presents a description and comparative analysis of Middle Pleistocene permanent and deciduous teeth from the site of Qesem Cave (Israel). All of the human fossils are assigned to the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC) of the late Lower Paleolithic. The Middle Pleistocene age of the Qesem teeth (400-200 ka) places them chronologically earlier than the bulk of fossil hominin specimens previously known from southwest Asia. Three permanent mandibular teeth (C(1) -P(4) ) were found in close proximity in the lower part of the stratigraphic sequence. The small metric dimensions of the crowns indicate a considerable degree of dental reduction although the roots are long and robust. In contrast, three isolated permanent maxillary teeth (I(2) , C(1) , and M(3) ) and two isolated deciduous teeth that were found within the upper part of the sequence are much larger and show some plesiomorphous traits similar to those of the Skhul/Qafzeh specimens. Although none of the Qesem teeth shows a suite of Neanderthal characters, a few traits may suggest some affinities with members of the Neanderthal evolutionary lineage. However, the balance of the evidence suggests a closer similarity with the Skhul/Qafzeh dental material, although many of these resemblances likely represent plesiomorphous features.

Microwear analysis of early Neolithic (PPNA) axes and bifacial tools from Netiv Hagdud in the Jordan Valley, Israel

Abstract A sample of 76 bifacial lithic artifacts from the Sultanian assemblage at the Netiv Hagdud site (9900–9600 BP; American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 43, 1997) was examined for microwear and technological traces in order to determine the function of ground and flaked bifacial tools used during the PPNA period. Standardized axe types (flint tranchet axes and polished stone axes made of coarser-grained materials) are among the technological, typological, and functional innovations of the Sultanian culture. The ground stone celts do not seem to have been used as tools, but 78% of the flaked bifacial tools and 27% of the tranchet axe spalls in the microwear sample were used. Most (85%) of the utilized bifacial tools in the sample were used to work wood, and 91% of the utilized axe spalls had woodworking traces. In this article, methods of distinguishing woodworking tools from chipped stone hoes and scrapers are presented, and the significance of the evidence for light woodworking or carpentry at Netiv Hagdud and early Neolithic sites in the Levant is discussed.

Sitting on the tailing piles: creating extraction landscapes in Middle Pleistocene quarry complexes in the Levant

Abstract Discoveries in Israel during the last two decades indicate flint quarrying from primary geological sources as early as the Middle Pleistocene. One of the most characteristic expressions of this old extraction activity is ubiquitous stone tailing piles created during quarrying consisting of extracted rock waste. Workshop flint-knapping products are found within and on top of these piles. This paper discusses the creation of these piles in relation to the organization of quarrying and relevant human behavior at extraction sites. In the same context we speculate on the significance of these fascinating landscapes of extraction and the decision to work stone on top of the tailing piles.

A Canaanean Blade Workshop at Haruvim, Israel

Har Haruvim is an Early Bronze Age settlement located near Kibbutz Hazorea in central Israel (Fig. 1). The site was surveyed in the 1950s and 60s (Meyerhof 1960), and is well known for its many Canaanean cores. Ceramic sherds date the site to the early Bronze Age II-III. This article presents the flint assemblage collected in 1997 during a survey conducted by the authors on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. The survey covered only a small part of the early Bronze Age site, and concentrated on (and around) a heap of rocks located at the highest part of the site (Fig. 2). It is suggested that the heap reprsents the remains of a Canaanean blade workshop.

Form and function of early neolithic bifacial stone tools reflects changes in land use practices during the neolithization process in the levant.

For many, climate change is no longer recognized as the primary cause of cultural changes in the Near East. Instead, human landscape degradation, population growth, socioeconomic adjustments, and conflict have been proposed as the mechanisms that shaped the Neolithic Revolution. However, as Bar-Yosef noted, even if there is chronological correlation between climate changes and cultural developments, what is important is to understand how Neolithic societies dealt with these improving or deteriorating environments. Changes in bifacial stone tools provide a framework for examining some of these interactions by focusing on changing land use practices during the Neolithization process. The results of microwear analysis of 40 bifacial artifacts from early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (EPPNB) levels at Motza in the Judean hills document changes during the PPNA–PPNB transition at the onset of the Levantine Moist Period (ca. 8000 cal B.C.) when conditions for agriculture improved. EPPNB villagers added heavy-duty axes to a toolkit they had used for carpentry and began to clear forests for fields and grazing lands. Sustainable forest management continued for the duration of the PPN until the cumulative effects of tree-felling and overgrazing seem to have led to landscape degradation at end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC), when a cold, dry climatic anomaly (6600–6000 cal B.C.) may have accelerated the reduction of woodlands. Early PPNB components at sites like Motza, with data from nearly five millennia of Neolithic occupations, show how complex hunter–gatherers and early food producers were able to establish sustainable resource management systems even as climate changed, population increased, and social relations were redefined.

Resharpening and Recycling of Flint Bifacial Tools from the Southern Levant Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

This paper attempts at reconstructing the life cycle of flint bifacial tools in two major technological trajectories, each aimed at a different end. It is focused on discarded polished flint bifacial tools (axe, adze, chisel) and bifacial polished debitage items found in Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites (9th–6th millennium BP) from the Southern Levant. Recent studies of Holocene flint assemblages revealed special types of debitage items such as blades, flakes, cores and core trimming elements, all bearing traces of polish. The discovery of these polished debitage items in Levantine sites enabled a study of bifacial tool resharpening and recycling techniques, emphasising the exceptional attention paid to this tool category. Since polished bifacial tools appear in many old world Holocene archaeological contexts, the data and interpretation presented in this study have implications far beyond the Southern Levant and could relate to universal technological properties of flint axes and other bifacial tools.

Midsummer Sunset at Neolithic Jericho

Abstract The tower of Jericho is an architectural megalith dating roughly to 8300 BC, a time belonging to the Near East early Neolithic era, making it by far the oldest known monumental building. Ever since it was discovered there has been an unresolved debate for archaeologists and the general public alike regarding its function and purpose. The main three theories regarding the towers purpose are that it may be part of a fortification system, that it is a part of a flood-deflection system, or that it is some sort of symbolic monument. There are, however, flaws within the fortification and flood-deflector theories, and to claim that it is a symbolic monument seems too much of a default solution, as a real reason for this is yet to be given. This paper looks beyond the site to the surrounding environment and analyses the architectural design to show that the tower is in fact inherently aligned to celestial and geographical elements, and that the ancient Neolithic builders used it as a link between them, their town, and the universe.

Reintroducing Butt Scrapers (Racloirs Sur Talon): Another Look at a Non-Formal Tool Type

ABSTRACTButt Scrapers from a Pottery Neolithic 5th millennium B.C. (uncalibrated C-14) site in Israel are presented. Their definition as a tool type following Crowfoot-Payne (1983) and Debenath and Dibble (1994) is refined. Definitions of Middle and Upper Paleolithic scrapers by Bordes are used to discuss typological technological and functional aspects of this type. Technological characteristics seem to be central in defining this morphologically varied type.