Middle And Upper Paleolithic Sites In The Eastern Hemisphere

This book provides an overview of the archaeological sites and cultural assemblages in the world and presents an archaeological database that has been established through two large-scale research projects conducted between 2010 and 2022. The projects were Replacement of the Neanderthals by Modern Humans (2010–2015) and The Cultural History of PaleoAsia (2016–2022), both of which were carried out with the aid of the Japanese Government. They deal with multi-disciplinary studies of the demise of more archaic hominins and the survival of anatomically modern humans. Although the database is designated PaleoAsiaDB, which may imply a focus on Asia, it incorporates the dataset collected from Africa and Europe by the Replacement of the Neanderthals by Modern Humans project. PaleoAsiaDB provides a list of more than 3,300 sites and 7,600 cultural assemblages of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (Middle and Late Stone Age) of the Eastern Hemisphere as of 2020. This database is the first attempt of its kind to document the related sites of 200-20ka. The full version of the database is available at the University Museum on the University of Tokyo homepage.

This volume brings together prominent archaeologists working in areas outside Western Europe to discuss the most recent evidence for the origins of the early Upper Paleolithic and its relationship to the origin of modern humans. With a wealth of primary data from archaeological sites and regions that have never before been published and discussions of materials from difficult-to-find sources, the collection urges readers to reconsider the process of modern human behavioral origins. Archaeological evidence continues to play a critical role in debates over the origins of anatomically modern humans. The appearance of novel Upper Paleolithic technologies, new patterns of land use, expanded social networks, and the emergence of complex forms of symbolic communication point to a behavioral revolution beginning sometime around 45,000 years ago. Until recently, most of the available evidence for this revolution derived from Western European archaeological contexts that suggested an abrupt replacement of Mousterian Middle Paleolithic with Aurignacian Upper Paleolithic adaptations. In the absence of fossil association, the behavioral transition was thought to reflect the biological replacement of archaic hominid populations by intrusive modern humans. The contributors present new archaeological evidence that tells a very different story: The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transitions in areas as diverse as the Levant, Eastern-Central Europe, and Central and Eastern Asia are characterized both by substantial behavioral continuity over the period 45,000-25,000 years ago and by a mosaic-like pattern of shifting adaptations. Together these essays will enliven and enrich the discussion of the shift from archaic to modern behavioral adaptations. Contributors: O. Bar-Yosef, A. Belfer-Cohen, R. L. Bettinger, P. J. Brantingham, N. R. Coinman, A. P. Derevianko, R. G. Elston, J. R. Fox, X. Gao, J. M. Geneste, T. Goebel, E. Güleç, K. W. Kerry, L. Koulakovskaia, J. K. Kozlowski, S. L. Kuhn, Y. V. Kuzmin, D. B. Madsen, A. E. Marks, L. Meignen, T. Meshveliani, K. Monigal, P. E. Nehoroshev, J. W. Olsen, M. Otte, M. C. Stiner,J. Svoboda, A. Sytnik, D. Tseveendorj, L. B. Vishnyatsky

The Buekk Mountain region of southeast central Europe has been the main area for studying transitional' cultures between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic like that identified at the Szelta Cave in Hungary.

by Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild and Angela E. Close INTRODUCTION roughly contemporaneous with the later part of Isotope Stage 7; most sites occur in sediments dated between 100 The Middle Paleolithic is potentially one of the most and 130 ka and fall early in the Last Interglacial; the most interesting periods in human history. It marks a major recent Middle Paleolithic site dates between 70 and 80 ka. at break from the long period of the Lower Paleolithic when the end of the Last Interglacial. there was essentially no change for several hundreds of thousands of years, and it was during the Middle THE MODERN ENVIRONMENT Paleolithic, and probably early in that stage, that the The two depressions of Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East are modem form of human being first appeared in Africa (Stringer and Andrews 1988). We do not know whether the near the center of the southern Libyan Desert. They are earliest modem Africans behaved differently from Middle about 350 km southwest of Kharga Oasis, and the same Paleolithic people elsewhere in the world and of different distance west and slightly north of Abu Simbel, at 22°55'N, physical types, but we should find out. A study of human 28°45'E.

Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies provides a detailed examination of the Paleolithic procurement and utilization of the most durable material in the worldwide archaeological record. The volume addresses sites ranging in age from some of the earliest hominin occupations in eastern and southern Africa to late Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene occupations in North American and Australia. The Early Paleolithic in India and the Near East, the Middle Paleolithic in Europe, and the Late Paleolithic in Europe and eastern Asia are also considered. The authors include established researchers who provide important synthetic statements updated with new information. Recent data are reported, often by younger scholars who are becoming respected members of the international research community. The authors represent research traditions from nine countries and therefore provide insight into the scholarly present as well as the Paleolithic past. Attempts are frequently made to relate lithic procurement and utilization to the organization of societies and even broader concerns of hominin behaviour. The volume re-evaluates existing interpretations in some instances by updating previous work of the authors and offers provocative new interpretations that at times call into question some basic assumptions of the Paleolithic. This book will be invaluable reading for advanced students and researchers in the fields of palaeolithic archaeology, geoarchaeology, and anthropology.

At first glance, the archaeological record of Moravia has been quite visible in the Anglophone world. Bits and pieces of this record have repeatedly made headlines in both the general and the specialized press for close to a century. First, it was the discovery of a mass grave of some 21 individuals found at the Upper Paleolithic site of Pfedmosti, then the oldest evidence for ceramic technology reported in the first quarter of this century in the Illustrated London News. Later on, the site of Petfkovice, dating some 23,000 B. P. , produced evidence for the oldest burning of coal for fuel, while more recently the New York Times informed us that imprints in clay at Pavlov I attest to the oldest evidence for the making and use of textiles. This list of cultural innovations documented from Moravia can be expanded to include the use of ground stone technology to make stone pendants (e. g. , at Pfedmosti), oflarge ground-stone rings whose use remains enigmatic (e. g. , at Bmo II, Predmosti, and Pavlov I)-but which if found in more recent contexts would pass as querns-as well as of possible needles (again at Predmosti).

Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide surveys the lithic record for the East Mediterranean Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and adjacent territories) from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago. It is intended both as an introduction to this lithic evidence for students and as a resource for researchers working with Paleolithic and Neolithic stone tool evidence. Written by a lithic analyst and professional flintknapper, this book systematically examines variation in technology, typology, and industries for the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic; the Epipaleolithic; and Neolithic periods in the Near East. It is extensively illustrated with drawings of stone tools. In addition to surveying the lithic evidence, the book also considers ways in which archaeological treatment of this evidence could be changed to make it more relevant to major issues in human origins research. A final chapter shows how change in stone tool designs points to increasing human dependence on stone tools across the long sweep of Stone Age prehistory.

"The papers in this volume were initially prepared for a symposium held in 1987 at the Fifty-second annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Toronto"--P. v.