A blade for all seasons? Making and using Amudian blades at Qesem Cave, Israel

The Qesem Cave prehistoric sequence consists of one dominant lithic industry - the Amudian, a part of the Acheulo-Yabrudian (late Lower Paleolithic) cultural complex. The Acheulo-Yabrudian complex comprises three major lithic industries - Acheulo-Yabrudian, Yabrudian and Pre-Aurignacian/Amudian. While the first two industries are dominated by typical Lower Paleolithic lithic traditions, namely flake production technologies, hand-axes and scrapers, the Amudian presents an innovative blade industry. This relatively poorly known industry is of importance being stratigraphically situated between the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian and the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian. The available radiometric dates for this entity indicate a range from ca. 400 to about 200 kyr. The Amudian in the Levant is characterized by systematic blade production and a major component of shaped blades. At Qesem Cave the majority of the lithic artefacts belong to the Amudian industry with distinctive blade-dominated assemblages throughout a stratigraphic sequence of 7.5 meters. During the 2006 excavation season a scraper-dominated Yabrudian assemblage was discovered, indicating variability and more complex human behaviour at the cave rather than specialized blade-related activities only. The Amudian at Qesem Cave is a very early blade production industry and it reflects technological choices of the artisans as well as specific modes of resource exploitation and subsistence activities. This paper will summarize the current state of research on the Qesem cave lithic assemblages, focusing on the composition of the rich Amudian assemblages, the reconstruction of Amudian blade production and the functional interpretation of Amudian blades. A short survey of the new Yabrudian assemblage will be provided as well. We finally discuss interpretations of Acheulo-Yabrudian lithic variability and the meaning of late Lower Paleolithic blade production as a technological, functional and cultural phenomenon.The Qesem Cave prehistoric sequence consists of one dominant lithic industry - the Amudian, a part of the Acheulo-Yabrudian (late Lower Paleolithic) cultural complex. The Acheulo-Yabrudian complex comprises three major lithic industries - Acheulo-Yabrudian, Yabrudian and Pre-Aurignacian/Amudian. While the first two industries are dominated by typical Lower Paleolithic lithic traditions, namely flake production technologies, hand-axes and scrapers, the Amudian presents an innovative blade industry. This relatively poorly known industry is of importance being stratigraphically situated between the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian and the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian. The available radiometric dates for this entity indicate a range from ca. 400 to about 200 kyr. The Amudian in the Levant is characterized by systematic blade production and a major component of shaped blades. At Qesem Cave the majority of the lithic artefacts belong to the Amudian industry with distinctive blade-dominated assemblages throughout a stratigraphic sequence of 7.5 meters. During the 2006 excavation season a scraper-dominated Yabrudian assemblage was discovered, indicating variability and more complex human behaviour at the cave rather than specialized blade-related activities only. The Amudian at Qesem Cave is a very early blade production industry and it reflects technological choices of the artisans as well as specific modes of resource exploitation and subsistence activities

Extended longevity of DNA preservation in Levantine Paleolithic sediments, Sefunim Cave, Israel

Paleogenomic research can elucidate the evolutionary history of human and faunal populations. Although the Levant is a key land-bridge between Africa and Eurasia, thus far, relatively little ancient DNA data has been generated from this region, since DNA degrades faster in warm climates. As sediments can be a source of ancient DNA, we analyzed 33 sediment samples from different sedimentological contexts in the Paleolithic layers of Sefunim Cave (Israel). Four contained traces of ancient Cervidae and Hyaenidae mitochondrial DNA. Dating by optical luminescence and radiocarbon indicates that the DNA comes from layers between 30,000 and 70,000 years old, surpassing theoretical expectations regarding the longevity of DNA deposited in such a warm environment. Both identified taxa are present in the zooarchaeological record of the site but have since gone extinct from the region, and a geoarchaeological study suggests little movement of the sediments after their deposition, lending further support to our findings. We provide details on the local conditions in the cave, which we hypothesize were particularly conducive to the long-term preservation of DNA—information that will be pertinent for future endeavors aimed at recovering ancient DNA from the Levant and other similarly challenging contexts

Renewed excavations of Tabun Layer B: a window into the complexity of Middle Paleolithic hominin population

peer reviewe