Abstract
Situated at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia, the Levant is a crucial region for understanding the origins and spread of Upper Paleolithic (UP) traditions associated with the spread of modern humans. Of the two local Early Upper Paleolithic technocomplexes, the Ahmarian and the Levantine Aurignacian, the latter appears to be unique in the endemic UP sequence, exhibiting greater similarity to the West European ‘classic’ Aurignacian than to the local preceding and proceeding UP entities. Previous publications have mostly focused on the similarities between the two lithic industries and less on studies conducted on Levantine Aurignacian bone tools and ornaments. Here, we present an archaeozoological, technological and use-wear study of ornaments on animal teeth from the Levantine Aurignacian layers at Manot and Hayonim caves (the Galilee, Israel). The selection of taxa, the choice of teeth, the mode of modification, and the use-wear analysis exhibit clear similarities with the European Aurignacian. This, with the technology of the osseous raw material exploitation, the presence of antler simple-base points, and some lithic typotechnological features, suggest a link between the symbolic spheres of the Levantine and the European Aurignacian cultural entities. Such similarity also supports some contribution of European Aurignacians groups to the local cultural entities, intermingling with the local material culture features.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 102870 |
Journal | Journal of Human Evolution |
Volume | 160 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The analytical work was funded by CNRS UMR 7041 ArScAn équipe Ethnologie préhistorique (Director P. Bodu), MINECO project HAR 2017-86509, Grup de Recerca de Qualitat de la Generalitat de Catalunya SGR2017-00011 (Director J.M. Fullola), and the Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation (project “The Manot Cave's [Lower Galilee] osseous raw material exploitation in the setting of the EUP emergence and diffusion”. Director J.-M.T.). The Manot Cave excavations are supported by the Dan David Foundation , the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 338/14 ; 999/18 ), the Binational Science Foundation (grant. no. 2015303 ), Case Western Reserve University , the Irene Levi-Sala CARE Foundation , and the Leaky Foundation .
Funding Information:
The analytical work was funded by CNRS UMR 7041 ArScAn ?quipe Ethnologie pr?historique (Director P. Bodu), MINECO project HAR 2017-86509, Grup de Recerca de Qualitat de la Generalitat de Catalunya SGR2017-00011 (Director J.M. Fullola), and the Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation (project ?The Manot Cave's [Lower Galilee] osseous raw material exploitation in the setting of the EUP emergence and diffusion?. Director J.-M.T.). The Manot Cave excavations are supported by the Dan David Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 338/14; 999/18), the Binational Science Foundation (grant. no. 2015303), Case Western Reserve University, the Irene Levi-Sala CARE Foundation, and the Leaky Foundation. J.-M.T. benefited in 2005 from a training stay at New York University under the supervision of Randall White, focusing on the operational sequence of the Aurignacian ornaments. He would like to express his sincere thanks to Randy White for hosting him at the laboratory and for their very productive and stimulating discussions on Aurignacian personal ornaments. The authors are grateful to Vitaly Gutkin (The XPS Laboratory, the Unit for Nanocharacterization, the Harvey M. Krueger Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) for his help with SEM pictures. They thank Assaf Uzan for photographing the analyzed specimens of Hayonim (Fig. 5). Thanks are due to Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer for her contribution to the study of Levantine Aurignacian ornaments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Hayonim Cave
- Human symbolic behavior
- Levantine Aurignacian
- Manot Cave
- Upper Paleolithic
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Anthropology