Le Yabroudien en Syrie

Dating around 350,000 years, the Yabroudian is a regional archeaological culture of the Levant, stratigraphically situated between the Acheulean and the Mousterian. In Syria this facies is represented in several areas: in the Kalamoon, in central Syria (the region of El Kowm and Palmyra), in Bal’as and in the region of Afrin. The Yabroudian culture was described as a transitional lithic industry between the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, notably for the association of bifacial pieces and scalariform retouched scrapers. The Yabroudian is mainly oriented towards the production of thick flakes which have a wide and smooth platform, obtained by heavy percussion on stone. The use of the soft hammer was also employed for retouching and resharpening of the scrapers. Scalariform/yabroudian retouch is overwhelmingly dominant. Bifacial pieces are marginal and clearly distinct from Acheulean handaxes. These technical characteristics lead us to consider the Yabroudian as a specific culture, closer to the Middle Paleolithic than Lower Paleolithic.