On Variability and Complexity
Lessons from the Levantine Middle Paleolithic Record
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7741010 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Erella Hovers (0000-0002-7855-6573), A Belfer-Cohen (0000-0003-3072-6657) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | S8 |
| Pages | S337-S357 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/673880 |
| OpenAlex | W2287111002 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 73 |
| References cited | 201 |
A century of research has led to the recognition of multiple levels of technological variability in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic (MP) that cannot be resolved through single-cause explanatory models. Recent ecological models argue for continual occupation of the region and competitive coexistence of Neanderthal and modern human populations. Current paleogenetic studies underline the feasibility of the latter scenario. The Levantine MP offers a perspective on the interface of historical circumstances and long-term evolutionary mechanisms that structured in-tandem trajectories of technological and behavioral changes as well as insights into the dynamics of nondirectional behavioral complexities in the archaeological record
Archaeological record · Archaeology · Biology · Economic geography · Evolutionary biology · Geography · Middle Paleolithic · Neanderthal · Perspective (graphical · Term (time · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Ecology · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Understanding the technological behaviour of humans in caves of the north part of central Europe in the early Middle Palaeolithic. A new perspective on the Biśnik Cave, Poland
Skills and technological innovations in the Middle Palaeolithic Levant
The Archaeozoological Record in a Changing Environment of the Late Middle to the Late Pleistocene
Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Sites
An Anthropological Review of the Upper Paleolithic in the Southern Levant
Neanderthal technological variability
The Ahmarian in the Context of the Earlier Upper Palaeolithic in the Near East
The Acheulo-Yabrudian – Early Middle Paleolithic Sequence of Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel
Behavioral Differences Between Near Eastern Neanderthals and the Early Modern Humans from Skhul and Qafzeh
The Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition
Are Lithics and Fauna a Match Made in (Prehistoric) Heaven
The Levallois Flaking System in Nesher Ramla Upper Sequence
Occupational Dynamics at Unit III of the Middle Paleolithic Site of Nesher Ramla, Israel
Local environmental change and fallow deer hunting at Amud Cave
The Early Middle Palaeolithic lithic industry of Dederiyeh Cave, Northwest Syria
More than blades. Early Middle Palaeolithic of the Levant
Garden of Eden or Desert Exile
Paleolithic caves and hillslope processes in south-western Samaria, Israel
Small artefacts for special activity? A better understanding of the variability within the Hummalian industry through lithic refitting, Hummal, Syria
How and why is Homo sapiens so successful
An Early Upper Palaeolithic Stone Tool Assemblage from Mughr El-Hamamah, Jordan
The Middle Paleolithic sequence of Wadi Mushkuna Rockshelter and its implications for hominin settlement dynamics in western Syria
The Hoslteinian period in Europe (MIS 11-9)
The Levantine Early Middle Palaeolithic in retrospect – Reassessing the contribution of Abou-Sif to the understanding of Palaeolithic record
Dispersals Out of Africa and Back to Africa
Lithic provisioning strategies at the Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nesher Ramla, Israel
Cut from the same cloth? Comparing Neanderthal processing of faunal resources at Amud and Kebara caves (Israel) through cut-marks analyses
The last Neanderthals of Eastern Europe
Raw material exploitation at the Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla, Israel
Opportunities, problems and future directions in the study of open-air Middle Paleolithic sites
Bagratashen 1, a stratified open-air Middle Paleolithic site in the Debed river valley of northeastern Armenia
Making a point
Novel chrono-cultural constraints for the Middle Paleolithic site of Rosh Ein Mor (D15), Israel
Frequency and production technology of bladelets in Late Middle Paleolithic, Initial Upper Paleolithic, and Early Upper Paleolithic (Ahmarian) assemblages in Jebel Qalkha, Southern Jordan
New Insights on an Old Excavation
Noisy beginnings
A multi-proxy approach to Middle Paleolithic mobility
Geoarchaeological Investigation of Site Formation and Depositional Environments at the Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Site of ‘Ein Qashish, Israel
Using multivariate techniques to assess the effects of raw material, flaking behavior and tool manufacture on assemblage variability
The end of the Lower Paleolithic in the Levant
Islands in a stream? Reconstructing site formation processes in the late Middle Paleolithic site of ‘Ein Qashish, northern Israel
Raw material exploitation around the Middle Paleolithic site of ‘Ein Qashish
Organization of lithic technology at ‘Ein Qashish, a late Middle Paleolithic open-air site in Israel
Palaeoenvironmental and chronological context of hominin occupations of the Armenian Highlands during MIS 3
Levallois
A Statistical Examination of Flake Edge Angles Produced During Experimental Lineal Levallois Reductions and Consideration of Their Functional Implications
Middle Palaeolithic raw material procurement and early stage reduction at Jubbah, Saudi Arabia
Nubian Levallois Technology During MIS 5
Innovative Technological Practices and their Role in the Emergence of Initial Upper Paleolithic Technologies
Acheulian shortcuts
The Initial Upper Paleolithic and Its Place Within the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic Transition of Southwest Asia
Skhul lithic technology and the dispersal of Homo sapiens into Southwest Asia
Fuel exploitation among Neanderthals based on the anthracological record from Abric Romaní (Capellades, NE Spain)
Diffusion with modifications”
Complexity and sophistication of Early Middle Paleolithic flint tools revealed through use-wear analysis of tools from Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel
Introduction to special issue
One size does not fit all
Early Upper Paleolithic chronology in the Levant
A series of Mousterian occupations in a new type of site
Acheulo-Yabrudian and Early Middle Paleolithic at Hayonim Cave (Western Galilee, Israel)
Climate variability in early expansions of Homo sapiens in light of the new record of micromammals in Misliya Cave, Israel
Lithic raw material acquisition and use by early Homo sapiens at Skhul, Israel
Site occupation dynamics of early modern humans at Misliya Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel)
The Evolutionary Implications of Variation in Human Hunting Strategies and Diet Breadth during the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa
Roots of the Middle Paleolithic in Eurasia
Back to base
The end of the Acheulo-Yabrudian and the Lower Paleolithic in the Levant
Change and Stasis in the Iberian Middle Paleolithic
Alternative Pathways to Complexity
Middle Palaeolithic stone toolmaking skill of experimental and archaeological Levallois flakes
Assessing seasonality and mobility from a fragmented faunal assemblage
The Muddle in the Middle Pleistocene
Technological Trends in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa between MIS 7 and MIS 3
The archaeology of society in the Holy Land
The definition and interpretation of Levallois technology
Random copying, frequency-dependent copying and culture change
The Emergence, Diversity and Significance of Mode 3 (Prepared Core) Technologies
Omnivorous Primates. Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution
The Foraging Spectrum
Early Use of Pressure Flaking on Lithic Artifacts at Blombos Cave, South Africa
Sea–land oxygen isotopic relationships from planktonic foraminifera and speleothems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their implication for paleorainfall during interglacial intervals
Use of red ochre by early Neandertals
Transitions or turnovers? Climatically-forced extinctions of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the east Mediterranean Levant
Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets
Ornaments of the earliest Upper Paleolithic
A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans
The climatic and physiographic controls of the eastern Mediterranean over the late Pleistocene climates in the southern Levant and its neighboring deserts
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial
An anthropological analysis of food-getting technology
Ethnoarchaeology in Action
Archaeology
Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands
Cultural Innovations and Demographic Change
Why Culture Is Common, but Cultural Evolution Is Rare
Site Formation Processes in Kebara and Hayonim Caves and Their Significance in Levantine Prehistoric Caves
“Now You See it, Now You Don't”—Modern Human Behavior in the Middle Paleolithic
The Chronology of the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant
An Energetics Perspective on the Neandertal Record
Bioenergetic perspectives on Neanderthal thermoregulatory and activity budgets
Economizing Behavior and the Concept of “Curation”
Pointes ou outils triangulaires ? Données fonctionnelles dans le Moustérien levantin [suivi des] Commentaires de J. Shea, A. Marks, J-M Geneste et de la réponse des auteurs
Givat Rabi East. a New Middle Paleolithic Knapping Site in the Lower Galilee (Israel)
The Evolved Apprentice
Not By Genes Alone
Neandertal cold adaptation
Introduction
Neandertals, competition, and the origin of modern human behavior in the Levant
Towards a theory of modern human origins
Mousterian Lithic Technology
Was the Emergence of Home Bases and Domestic Fire a Punctuated Event? A Review of the Middle Pleistocene Record in Eurasia
The consequences of Middle Paleolithic diets on pregnant Neanderthal women
Trees and ladders
Insights on Neanderthal fire use at Kebara Cave (Israel) through high resolution study of prehistoric combustion features
Niche Construction Theory and Archaeology
Processes of Formation and Alteration of Archaeological Fire Structures
Three-dimensional Distribution of Minerals in the Sediments of Hayonim Cave, Israel
Mode of Occupation of Tabun Cave, Mt Carmel, Israel During the Mousterian Period
New evidence of adhesive as hafting material on Middle and Upper Palaeolithic artefacts from Gura Cheii-Râşnov Cave (Romania)
Quantitative Phytolith Study of Hearths from the Natufian and Middle Palaeolithic Levels of Hayonim Cave (Galilee, Israel)
Programmed to Learn
Quneitra
Mousterian Tool Selection, Reduction, and Discard at Ghar, Israel
The Use of a Multivariate Graphic Display Technique as an Exploratory Tool in the Analysis of Inter-assemblage Lithic Variability
A case of techno-typological lithic variability & continuity in the late Lower Palaeolithic
Middle Palaeolithic subsistence in the Near East
Mousterian intra-site spatial patterning at Quneitra, Golan Heights
Raw material exploitation around the Middle Paleolithic site of ‘Ein Qashish
Spatial organization of Middle Paleolithic occupation X in Kebara Cave (Israel)
Far'ah II
Hunting and overhunting in the Levantine Late Middle Palaeolithic
Defining and measuring reduction in unifacial stone tools
Spatiotemporal dynamics of the Clovis–Folsom transition
The lithic tool arsenal of a Mousterian hunter
Early evidence of complexity in lithic economy
Measuring use-related fracture velocity in lithic armatures to identify spears, javelins, darts, and arrows
The geological occurrence of lithic material and stone tool production strategies
Formation processes of cemented features in karstic cave sites revealed using stable oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses
Molecular evidence of bitumen in the Mousterian lithic assemblage of Hummal (Central Syria)
Identification de chaînes opératoires lithiques du Paléolithique ancien et moyen
The evolution of hominin diets
Constructing Frames of Reference
Qesem Cave
Mobility patterns and core technologies in the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant
Neanderthals Revisited
When is technology worth the trouble
Mousterian Lithic Technology
Technological, elemental and colorimetric analysis of an engraved ochre fragment from the Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River Cave 1, South Africa
The Lithic Assemblages of Qafzeh Cave
The Exploitation of Plant Resources by Neanderthals in Amud Cave (Israel)
Hafted armatures and multi-component tool design at the Micoquian site of Inden-Altdorf, Germany
The origins of lithic projectile point technology
Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia
Transitions Before the Transition
Levallois Lithic Technology from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya
Stone tools for the hunt
Spear Points from the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant
Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel
Experimental Tests of Middle Palaeolithic Spear Points Using a Calibrated Crossbow
A new Palaeolithic discovery
The Excavations in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel [and Comments and Replies]
Selection and Heating of Colouring Materials in the Mousterian Level of Es‐skhul ( C . 100 000 Years Bp, Mount Carmel, Israel)
Technological Responses of Neanderthals to Macroclimatic Variations (240,000–40,000 BP)
Evolutionary Demography and the Population History of the European Early Neolithic
The Amud 7 skeleton—still a burial. Response to Gargett
Ecogeographic variation in Neandertal dietary habits
Neandertal and Early Modern Human Behavioral Variability A Regional‐Scale Approach to Lithic Evidence for Hunting in the Levantine Mousterian
Roots of the Middle Paleolithic in Eurasia
Paleoclimate Variability in the Mediterranean and Red Sea Regions during the Last 500,000 Years
Variability in the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa
Mousterian Technology as Adaptive Response
Stylistic Variation in Evolutionary Perspective
The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant
| Unique citing works | 73 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,21 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2026 (15) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 71 |