On the Nature of Transitions: the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Revolution

This article discusses two major revolutions in the history of humankind, namely, the Neolithic and the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic revolutions. The course of the first one is used as a general analogy to study the second, and the older one. This approach puts aside the issue of biological differences among the human fossils, and concentrates solely on the cultural and technological innovations. It also demonstrates the issues that are common-place to the study of the transition from foraging to cultivation and animal husbandry can be employed as an overarching model for the study of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic. The advantage of this approach is that it focuses on the core areas where each of these revolutions began, the ensuing dispersals and their geographic contexts.Anthropolog

The Walls of Jericho: An Alternative Interpretation

Anthropolog

The Impact of Radiocarbon Dating on Old World Archaeology: Past Achievements and Future Expectations

Anthropolog

Guest Editorial: East to West—Agricultural Origins and Dispersal into Europe

Anthropolog

The Natufian Culture and the Origin of the Neolithic in the Levant

Anthropolog

Early and Middle Pleistocene Faunal and Hominins Dispersals through Southwestern Asia

This review summarizes the paleoecology of the Early and Middle Pleistocene of southwestern Asia, based on both flora and fauna, retrieved from a series of ‘windows’ provided by the excavated sites. The incomplete chrono-stratigraphy of this vast region does not allow to accept the direct chronological correlation between the available sites and events of faunal and hominin dispersals from Africa. It also demonstrates that hominins survived in a mixed landscape of open parkland with forested surrounding hills. In addition, the prevailing environmental conditions are not sufficient to explain successful adaptations to new ecological niches away from the African savanna of the bearers of ‘core and flake’ and the Acheulian industries, The differences in knapping and secondary shaping of stone artifacts probably reflect the learned traditions of different groups of hominins. The current distribution of lithic industries across Eurasia is undoubtedly incomplete due to lack of cultural continuities as well as paucity of field research in several sub-regions. This observation supports the contention that what we view as a constant stream of migrants was actually interrupted many times. The continuous occupation of southwestern Asia by the makers of the Acheulian is in contrast with neighboring regions such as the Iranian plateau and Eastern Europe. A more complex model is required to explain the recorded Eurasian archaeological–cultural mosaic.Anthropolog

Nile Valley-Levant interactions: an eclectic review

Anthropolog

The Legumes: The Earliest Domesticated Plants in the Near East?

Anthropolog

The Chaine Operatoire Approach in Middle Paleolithic Archaeology

Since the pioneering days of Paleolithic archaeology in western Europe, the making of stone tools has received special attention. Numerous studies were aimed at creating systematic typologies of artifacts based on descriptions of their technical features and morphological attributes. Recently, the concept of chaine operatoire, or "operational sequence" (sometimes called "core reduction sequence"), borrowed from French social anthropologists, has been introduced into the study of Old World prehistory. Its conceptual framework is focused on the recognition of the overall technology and the practical skills of the prehistoric knapper in employing a particular technique responsible for the transformation of raw material to tools. Although the stone objects of all periods received attention, those of the Middle Paleolithic-due to issues such as the significance of lithic variability in retouched tools, the demise of the Neanderthals, or the emergence of "modern behavior"-have been at the forefront. This paper discusses the definition of chaine operatoire and its practice and demonstrates that as a system of classification, it is overformalized and provides but an illusion of reading the minds of prehistoric knappers. The need to pay more attention to the recognition of patterning in the technological information is essential if we wish to go beyond a formal type list of knapping products. We argue that an elaborate, complex typology of core reduction products and discrete chaines operatoires is an approach that impedes informed behavioral interpretations by forcing a rigid framework of "technical" definitions on the prehistoric lithic technologies.Anthropolog