http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=150 Numéros en texte intégral fr Mon, 18 Nov 2024 10:09:46 +0100 Fri, 06 Dec 2024 14:48:05 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=150 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=155 Mon, 18 Nov 2024 10:13:12 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=155 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=560 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:07:32 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=560 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=562 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:15:56 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=562 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=563 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:18:43 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=563 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=564 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:20:31 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=564 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=566 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:25:32 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=566 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=567 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:29:37 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=567 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=568 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:34:43 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=568 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=570 This paper presents an analysis of the lithic artifacts of the Upper Paleolithic (UP) cultural sequence of Baaz Rockshelter in the Qalamun region of southwestern Syria. The site was discovered during a regional survey in Damascus Province conducted by a multidisciplinary team from the University of Tübingen and excavated between 1999 and 2004. We compare the UP of Baaz to the nearby site of Yabroud II. The archaeological record of the Qalamun region supports a discontinuity between the Middle Paleolithic (MP) and Early UP. The first phase of the Qalamunian UP is characterized by lithic assemblages with an emphasis on bidirectional reduction and the production of blades, as represented by layers KS 7 and 6 at Yabroud II, but not at Baaz. In contrast, the second phase of the Qalamunian UP is characterized by an emphasis on unidirectional reduction and the production of bladelets as seen in Baaz layers AH VII to IV and Yabroud II KS 5 to 1. We hypothesize that the Qalamunian UP record points to an early replacement of blade technologies with an increased emphasis on the production of bladelets around 38,000 cal BP. The orientation towards bladelet production as well as the related technological characteristics remains almost unchanged in the later UP phases for about 15,000 years (Baaz AHs V to IV, Yabroud II KS 4 to 1). Comparisons with other Levantine UP sites suggest that the Qalamunian UP sequence reflects a broader geographical phenomenon with regard to the occurrence of bladelet oriented technologies. Finally, we conclude that the Qalamunian UP record cannot easily be explained by the two-tradition model, which questions the pan-Levantine validity of the two-tradition model. Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:50:42 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=570 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=572 In 1996, well preserved deer bones, antler fragments and black grouse bones were found in a filled karst crack. Those animal remains were discovered in a limestone quarry in the Jura Mountains near Dittingen (canton Basel-Landschaft, Northwest Switzerland). The site is located in a gully of a dry valley beneath a loess covered high plain. In the framework of an archaeological excavation, the karst crack filling and overlying sediments (hill-washed loess, soils and colluviums) were documented. Samples for granulometry, geochemistry, micromorphology and palynology were analysed. The animal remains derived from the karstic fissure were radiocarbon dated to the early Bølling Interstadial (14’800 to 14’200 cal. BP). In addition, the palynological study shows that the overlying gully sediments were deposited between the Younger Dryas and the Middle Ages. The interdisciplinary investigation of the sediments revealed new insights into early soil formation processes, morphogenetic events and the vegetation history of periglacial environments. The new results clearly show that soil formation started immediately in the early Late Glacial. Decalcification and clay illuviation quickly developed in the course of intense vertical water flow through the sediment. It is therefore evident that luvisol development took place during the Late Glacial Interstadial (Bølling-Allerød Interstadial). Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:39:03 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=572 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=576 Les niveaux perses de la forteresse de Tell el-Herr (Migdol) dans le nord-ouest du Sinai ont livré une faune relativement abondante qui permet de comprendre l’alimentation des occupants du 5e au 4e siècle avant J.-C. Parmi les espèces du cheptel, l’âne est bien représenté et ses proportions augmentent de la phase ancienne à la phase récente. Ces animaux sont de petite taille et d’un poids inférieur à 200 kg. Les mâles adultes sont dominants. Plusieurs ossements portent des traces de découpe qui témoignent de la consommation de cet Equidé mais aussi de ses os comme supports technologiques. Persian levels of the fortress of Tell el-Herr (Migdol) in the northwest of Sinai delivered a relatively abundant fauna which allows to study the alimentation of the occupiers from the 5th to the 4th century BC. Among species of the livestock, the donkey is well represented and his proportions increase from the ancient to the recent stage. These animals are small and weighting less than 200 kg. Adult males are predominant. Several remains carry traces of cutting which testify of the consumption of this Equid but also of bones used for technological support. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 09:56:01 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=576 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=578 Les représentations des animaux de l’art paléolithique sont le plus souvent très fidèles au point de vue anatomique. Il en va différemment des représentations humaines. Les auteurs ont étudié un détail graphique, habituellement non traité dans les publications : les phanères. Chez l’Homme, les phanères sont les cheveux, les divers poils (visage, corps, creux axillaires et pubis) et les ongles. Il est habituel d’en rapprocher les dents, pourtant d’origine et de composition bien différentes, mais faisant également partie de l’ectoderme. The depictions of animals in Palaeolithic art are most often very faithful from the anatomical point of view. The situation is very different where human representations are concerned. The authors have studied a graphical detail that is not usually discussed in publications : skin appendages. In Man, these comprise the head of hair, the other various hairs (face, body, armpits and pubis) and the nails. It is usual to include the teeth, although they are of very different origin and composition, because they are also part of the ectoderm. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 10:08:12 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=578 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=581 After more than 80 years of Yabrud II rock-shelter excavations by A. Rust in Syria, the site’s Levantine Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic archaeological sequence does not have yet a unanimous archaeological interpretation. The present paper tries to propose new understanding for the sequence and, as a result, it appears to be of a “dotted line” character with no continuity at all except the layer 5-2 Levantine Aurignacian A / Phase 3 industry sequence. The latter industry is suggested to have its origin in a specific facies of Southern Levantine Early Ahmarian and being then transformed into Levantine Aurignacian B / Phase 4 industry, a possible “industrial starting point” for European Proto-Aurignacian. “Leaving aside for the moment the chronological approach, let us try something rather different. Wherever the place of origin of the Aurignacian may be, we ought in that region to find an earlier culture stage from which it could have developed” (Garrod 1953:32). Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:04:12 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=581 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=582 Canids are extremely rare in the in the artistic record of the Palaeolithic, as Leroi-Gourhan (1992) remarked. Here we describe an engraved wolf on a pebble from Grotta Polesini near Rome, discovered in the middle of last century by A.M. Radmilli, a professional archaeologist of the time. Not only is it an exceptional depiction, but ever since Radmilli (1954, 1957, 1974) described it as an outstanding example of hunting magic, it has been often quoted recurrently as supporting evidence of this magic activity, and even as a “smoking gun” validating the theory itself. We discuss how this theory arose, some of its critics, and why the engraved wolf in question is not a case of hunting magic. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:15:26 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=582 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=585 Parmi l’abondante faune livrée par les gisements paléolithiques de Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar et Hummal (El Kowm, Syrie centrale), dominée par les ongulés, figurent une dizaine de restes de carnivores. Six d’entre eux, attribués à Canis cf. lupus et à deux représentants du genre Panthera provenant d’horizons oldowayens, acheuléens et yabroudiens, font l’objet de cette brève contribution. Une mandibule découverte dans un horizon oldowayen de Hummal attribuée à Panthera cf. leo, appartient au premier lion connu au Proche-Orient et témoigne de la présence du grand félin hors d’Afrique au Pléistocène inférieur déjà. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:22:32 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=585 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=863 The earlier Acheulean is often thought of as characterized by large bifaces, but small bifaces occur in assemblages even in early phases of the tradition more than a million years ago. We discuss here the presence at Kilombe in Kenya of extremely small specimens which can be termed ‘diminutive bifaces’ or ‘minibifaces’. The paper analyses the whole spectrum of bifaces in the site, and finds that the ultrasmall specimens are the tail of the distribution, and in effect the mirror-image of the length distribution of very long bifaces. They are therefore an integral part of the assemblage, but its extreme expression. They support the idea that Homo erectus often made tools that morphed across categories, rather than having sharp boundaries between types, and that the species was able to focus on delicate tasks as well as heavy-duty work. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:25:06 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=863 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=869 Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:30:13 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=869 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=872 A peculiar stone with the shape of a heart caught the attention of a young girl in 1916. Her father put it on display together with other fossils they had collected. Only after the collection was offered to the local museum in the early 1920s, was the piece recognized as a paleolithic biface. From the beginning however, doubts were raised as to the source of the raw material used and as to the unstratified position on a ‘Lower Terrace’ of the High Rhine River. A new analysis of the raw material reveals that it is a silcrete which can be traced to local sources in the Buntsandstein. A microwear analysis of the preserved edge reveals a specific stepped retouch and traces which provide evidence that indicate what the biface was potentially used for. According to the morphotype and size the cordiform biface is attributed to the ‘Upper/Final Acheulean’. A scenario of the quaternary environment on the promontory northwest of Bad Säckingen is presented. So, Neandertals were attracted to the area, with skills to knap an exceptional cordiform biface from a raw material outcropping in the region close by. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:35:11 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=872 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=901 Since 2009 the German Albanian Palaeolithic project (GAP) examines two open-air and three cave sites in different parts of Albania. The data obtained allow a first assessment of the potentials as well as challenges posed by these archives. While evidence for human occupation in the postglacial period and subsequent Holocene is plentiful, older traces are still scanty. Multiple factors are responsible for this bias of which to mention above all is climatic impact and postglacial landscape modification. Two cave sequences in the northern part of Albania show a reworking or erosion of MIS 3 and older deposits. Disturbance of open-air sites in the coastal lowlands is principally caused by weathering and sediment aggradation. While such observations are important for future research strategies, the preserved Palaeolithic sequences already provide the basis for a robust Palaeolithic database. It bears a rich and well-preserved record of Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic occupations. Our investigations give a first insight into human land-use shortly after the Last Glacial Maximum. We thereby add important data to the growing record of Epigravettian and Mesolithic sites in the wider scope of the Eastern Adriatic. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 16:06:52 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=901 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=906 Fri, 29 Nov 2024 16:11:35 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=906 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=951 This paper presents an overview of the Syrian antiquities which have been exposed to systematic vandalism. During the Syrian conflict, which enters its seventh year, large parts of the Syrian cultural heritage have been destroyed. There are many reasons behind this vandalism. Some of them are related to the religious ideologies caused by fundamentalist groups, while other are related to financial reasons, purely for profit. At the same time some of them are linked to distorting and falsifying a part of the Syrian history. Despite the lack of many required information, this paper focuses on sites of Aleppo city, where they have been heavily damaged. It will also report all local and international scientific efforts that have been achieved in order to preserve the Syrian cultural heritage. This study will try to determine appropriate actions in order to limit this vandalism as well those which can be useful in the reconstructing and rebuilding phases after the war. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:27:36 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=951 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=954 In the southern End of the Rhine Graben near Basel (Switzerland), an up to 3 m thick stratigraphy of loess deposits and palaeosols was investigated in a construction pit. Field studies in combination with sedimentology, micromorphology and OSL-dating provided insights on the processes of loess deposition, formation of cambisols (brown earth) and periglacial phenomena around 45 (±5.7) ka. A succession of tundra soils on loess preserving locally foliated organic material can be attributed to the time period between 30.8 (±3.7) ka and 29.4 (±3.4) ka. Furthermore the basal deposit of weathered loess yielded an OSL age which dates back to the Eemian interglacial or the very begining of the last glaciation. The outcrop of Basel-Schäublinstrasse provided further information to the ongoing studies on loess deposits, regional landscape evolution and environmental conditions during the late Pleistocene in the southern part of the Upper Rhine Plain. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:45:15 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=954 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=958 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:23:29 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=958 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=961 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:33:17 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=961 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=964 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:37:35 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=964 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=967 Our excavations of the site of Dmanisi, Georgia, bring new knowledge about evolutionary history of early Homo. Over the past decade, this site has yielded a treasure of a unique series of 1.8 million year old cranial and postcranial hominin fossils. Along with many well-preserved animal fossils and quantities of primitive stone artifacts this is the richest and most complete collection of indisputable early Homo remains from any single site with a comparable stratigraphic context. The discoveries document the first expansions of hominins out of Africa and into Eurasia, and demonstrate that this was neither due to increased brain size, nor to improved technology. Dmanisi re-shaped many hypotheses on early hominin phylogeny, palaeoecology and biogeography. Despite certain anatomical differences between the Dmanisi specimens, we do not presently see sufficient grounds to assign them to more than one hominid taxon. Thus, the Dmanisi assemblage offers a unique opportunity to study variability within an early Homo population the research presented new evidence on the evolutionary biology of early Homo and challenges the existence of different Homo linages in Africa. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:43:36 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=967 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=969 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:49:44 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=969 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=971 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:53:41 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=971 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=972 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:38:17 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=972 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=974 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:40:57 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=974 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=978 Le nord-est du département du Lot-et-Garonne constitue une province dont la géologie a permis la formation de pièges sédimentaires dans lesquels l'homme et divers prédateurs ont laissé des traces de leurs passages. Si les rongeurs sont abondants dans certains sites, leur nombre plus restreint dans d'autres est dû au fait que leur collecte n'a pas été assez poussée. Ces restes de rongeurs permettent de proposer une reconstruction ou une simple ébauche de caractérisation du climat et de l'environnement qui président à la mise en place des remplissages sédimentaires. Si le campagnol des champs et le campagnol des hauteurs marquent par leur abondance beaucoup de cortèges, d'autres espèces, un peu plus rares, ont également un intérêt du fait de leur simple présence tel le campagnol de Lenke ou le lemming gris des steppes. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:48:34 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=978 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=979 The paleontology of the genus Camelus is poorly known. The fossil species Camelus thomasi Pomel 1893 was described in Tighennif, Algeria (late Early Pleistocene), but has since been widely reported in Northern Africa and in the Middle East. However, the type material from this locality has never been studied in detail. Another locality rich in camelid fossils awaiting description is the Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar, Syria (Middle Pleistocene). Comparing the samples of the two locality, it is clear that Camelus thomasi is not present in Nadaouiyeh, nor is there in fact any reliable identification of this species outside of the Maghreb. The camel from Nadaouiyeh belongs therefore to a new species. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:05:31 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=979 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=981 The impact of past environments is often considered central to our understanding of formation and change in past societies. This is particularly apposite in marginal landscapes like the Middle East, where small environmental changes can have dramatic impacts on flora and fauna. Changing conditions may provide compelling answers to crucial questions, such as where, when, why, and how people lived. However, a heavy emphasis on environmental factors can also detract from a multiplicity of other factors. In recent years the palaeoenvironment has become a central research theme within Qatar and the wider Arabian Peninsula. Between 2008 and 2015 the Qatar Museums supported the University of Birmingham to develop a bespoke Historic Environment Record for Qatar, known as the Qatar Cultural Historic Information Management System (QCHIMS). This was populated with more than 7,000 archaeological sites and 25,000 references and photographs. The initial analysis of this data provides an important contextual framework for further palaeoenvironment research. This paper briefly examines the dynamics of prehistoric and early Islamic societies within this contextual framework. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:17:23 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=981 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=985 Yabrudian lithic assemblages, defined with materials from the late Lower Palaeolithic sites of the Central Levant, have rarely been found in the Northern Levant. This paper reports the discovery of comparable lithic assemblages at the Dederiyeh Cave, northwest Syria. A techno-typological analysis of the materials from the 2005 season’s excavations revealed their strong affinities with the Yabrudian of the Central Levant, indicating the distribution of this industry up to the northern end of the Levant. This finding provides a regional perspective to help interpret the variability of the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex encompassing Yabrudian, as well as the Yabrudian industry itself. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:23:34 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=985 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=987 Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:26:31 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=987 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=993 In the Mio-Plio-Pleistocene sequence of Casablanca which covers the last six millions years, the oldest lithic assemblages are found in late Lower Pleistocene deposits, circa 1 Ma, in unit L of Thomas Quarry I, and consist of artefacts made from quartzite and flint. They document the First Regional Acheulean (FRA). More recent units from Thomas - Oulad Hamida and Sidi Abderrahmane Quarries yielded numerous remains of Homo heidelbergensis/ rhodesiensis and lithic techno-complexes which characterize the Second Regional Acheulean (SRA) variability. This bi-partition of the Regional Acheuleans offers useful data for comparison with other areas of Africa and Middle East where hominids appeared and developed and should be considered in the debate about the earliest occupations of Europe. The Maghreb is rich in testimonies of ancient populations. Numerous works carried out in Morocco since the beginning of the last century have yielded highly significant results about Quaternary stratigraphy and Prehistory, Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology as well (see Biberson, 1961a and b). However, many questions concerning the very first peopling of the extreme Northwest of Africa still remain unanswered. If an old human presence is indisputable and if we can assume that it could be even older, we still ignore how and when hominins came and which route they followed. Most of the propositions on this topic remains widely speculative. The Casablanca coast has been slowly uplifting since the end of the Miocene and a huge piling of marine and continental formations has preserved an exceptional record (Fig. 1). The Casablanca long sequence begins nearly 6 Ma ago in the Upper Miocene and spreads over the Plio-Quaternary times with an extremely detailed registration of the global climatic cycles (Biberson 1961a; Stearns 1978; Raynal et al. 1995, 1999; Lefèvre 2000; Lefèvre and Raynal 2002). In the upper Early and Middle Pleistocene portion of this late sequence, controlled excavations were performed in the archaeological sites of Sidi Abderrahmane and mainly Thomas-Oulad Hamida Quarries within the France-Morocco cooperative program Casablanca associating the French archaeological “Mission littoral” (Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et du Développement International) and the Moroccan National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences (Ministry of Culture). They have yielded rich lithic assemblages that represent the only North Africa First Acheulean recorded in an undisputable stratigraphic context (Raynal and Texier, 1989; Raynal et al. 2001). In previous papers, we used, without a great conviction, a classical subdivision of the regional Acheulean in three stages, i.e. lower, middle and upper Acheulean. We prefer here to consider two groups on stratigraphic and chronologic basis : First Regional Acheulean (FRA) and Second Regional Acheulean (SRA) (Raynal et al. in press). When necessary, we will refer to the different units of the New Casablanca Lithostratigraphic Scale (NCLS) which synthetize all observations and interpretations (Texier et al., 1994, 2002; Lefèvre, 2000; Lefèvre and Raynal op cit) (Fig. 5). In the introduction, we will briefly question the supposedly pre-Acheulean artefacts in Western Morocco and then present the key-sites for FRA and SRA at Casablanca. Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:58:49 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=993 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1219 The chronological positions of the technological and typological variants of the Mousterian in southwest France have been the subject of debate for over fifty years. While some relative stratigraphical sequences provide a (regional) pattern, which could be interpreted at least in parts as chronological succession, chronometric dating appears to falsify this hypothesis. On a linear time scale much of the data suggests broadly overlapping Mousterian variants in the late Middle Palaeolithic. New thermoluminescence data for a less common Mousterian variant (Asinipodian) are presented for Pech de l’Azé IV and discussed within the framework of similar assemblages from Roc-de-Marsal. The two Asinipodian assemblages at Pech de l’Aze IV provide TL mean ages for Layers 6A and 6B of 74 ± 4 ka and 70 ± 4 ka, respectively. This data fits well into the previously established geochronological framework for the site and the weighted context TL-age of 72 ± 3 ka is in excellent agreement with OSL age estimates for the same layer. The Asinipodian assemblage from layer 6 and the similar small flake assemblages at Roc de Marsal thus can be placed in MIS 5a to 4. The outstanding concurrency between several chronometric dating methods for the sequence of Pech IV, as well as for the cluster of Pech sites and elsewhere, suggests that chronometric ages provide reliable estimates for the interpretation of the timing of the dated occurrences. However, coherence on a chronostratigraphical succession of the technocomplexes/facies is only achieved on a local scale for the Pech sites and elsewhere. The Mousterian variants, as they are defined, overlap considerably in time, and call into question their interpretation as a succession of chronological units on a larger geographical scale, while a correlation with climate change of the technological units is not clear either. The agreement in chronometry and interpretation of the lithic sequences on identical analytical grounds of these two sites might indicate that differences in lithic analysis/definitions at least contribute to, if not are, the general problem. Fri, 06 Dec 2024 10:39:08 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1219 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1224 Fri, 06 Dec 2024 10:44:36 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1224 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1225 More than 80 years after it was first excavated, Tabun Cave remains a key reference sequence for the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of the Levant. A large part of the sequence at Tabun consists of assemblages termed Yabrudian, Pre-Aurignacian/Amudian and Acheulo-Yabrudian/Acheulian that comprise Jelinek’s Mugharan Tradition. Investigators have assigned these assemblages to either the Lower or the Middle Paleolithic. Alternative classifications reflect changes in prevailing theoretical frameworks for explaining technological and typological variation as well as in the ways larger periods themselves are conceived. Choices to place them within either the Lower or Middle Paleolithic in turn have important consequences for how cultural and biological transitions in the Levant are understood. Fri, 06 Dec 2024 10:53:40 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1225 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1228 Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:06:05 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1228 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1230 Numerous well-preserved finds were excavated in an archaeological level within the Lower Palaeolithic part of the Sequence of Hummal, in El Kowm (Syria). The rich archaeological level shows a remarkable high find density, a lithic assemblage dominated by pebble tools, simple flake tools and handaxes. The faunal remains are numerous but fragmented due to post-depositional processes. This taphonomic study of the lithic and faunal assemblage proves the integrity of the assemblage and shows that it was deposited and covered in a short time episode. Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:10:31 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1230 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1231 Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:16:19 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1231 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1233 Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:18:45 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1233 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1707 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 10:29:13 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1707