The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

[Euclides]

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

John J. Shea
Anthropology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4364; john.shea@sunysb.edu

Abstract

This paper reviews recent developments in geochronology, archaeology, and behavioral interpretations of the Middle Paleolithic Period (ca. 47–250 Kyr) in the East Mediterranean Levant. Neandertals and early modern humans both occupied the Levant during this period. Both these hominids are associated with the Levantine Mousterian stone tool industry and similar sets of faunal remains. The Levant has long been seen as preserving evidence for the origin of modern humans out of Neandertal ancestors. Recent radiometric dates for Levantine Middle Paleolithic contexts challenge this hypothesis. Instead, they suggest the evolutionary relationships between these hominids were far more complicated. Proposed models for Neandertal and early modern human coevolutionary relationships are examined. Intense competition between Neandertals and early modern humans for a narrow human “niche” may be the context out of which the Upper Paleolithic behavioral “revolution” arose.

[morfrain_encilgar]

Here is a dating, to around 400,000 years ago, of the Middle Paleolithic tool industry called Yabrudian, which precedes the Mousterian in the Levant.