A Middle Palaeolithic sequence from the Hula Valley, Israel

The palynological evidence indicates three main humid fluctuations during the first half of the "last Pluvial" in the Hula Valley. The first fluctuation is the most humid, the later ones displaying a drying trend.

The very humid initial phase is probably contemporary with the Negev early-Middle-Palaeolithic depositional phase, and the erosional phase which follows the early Middle Palaeolithic in the caves of northern Israel, which also reflect marked humid conditions.

The lack of late Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Central Negev is more easily explained by the local erosional regime, rather than by a long and extremely arid phase, for which there is no evidence in the Hula pollen sequence.