Hayonim Cave Lithic Assemblages in the Context of the Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic

Abstract

The Near Eastern area is well-know for its high component of elongated blank production, already recognized for more than 40 years in the Middle Palaeolithic sequence. But it is only recently, with the progress in lithic technological studies and radiometric dating, that the importance and duration of the phenomenon have been recognized. In this context, excavations in Hayonim Cave by an international team conducted by O. Bar-Yosef, L. Meignen and B. Vandermeersch from 1992 to 2000, were initiated in order to provide new data concerning human behavior and technical knowledge over a period that seemed to correspond to the early Middle Paleolithic as documented by the previous excavations (Bar-Yosef 1991, Tchernov 1992). An interdisciplinary program was then undertaken, especially to establish the chronological frame and to gain a better understanding of the lithic blady assemblages already recognized. These new excavation program allowed us to expose a thick Middle Paleolithic sequence (more than 7m deep) which has been dated from 230 to 160 000 y, by TL and ESR dating methods (Mercier et al. 2007, Rink et al. 2004). The technological studies, following the concept of chaînes opératoires, have shown that the assemblages from Layer lower E and layer F are characterized by increasing frequencies of elongated products (blades and points) often retouched in elongated retouch points (the so-called Abou Sif points). But this elongated production is never exclusive, the assemblages from the different units always encompasse a short blank component produced by a separate core reduction strategy, most often the Levallois. The blady component itself clearly results from diversified production methods. Our technological studies in Hayonim have led to underscore different volumetric organizations of the core in the blade production. Besides the classical Levallois method for elongated blank production (blades and elongated points), our researches have shown evidence from 220/230 000 y ago, of other debitage systems that we have grouped under the name of the Laminar method. In term of geometric core construction (« volumetric concept » Boëda 1988 , 1994) they are close to those documented later in the Upper Paleolithic (prismatic and semi-prismatic cores), even if the productivity and the end-product regularity are clearly not the same. These results put in the context of the presently available data from the other Middle Paleolithic blade geared industries (Rosh ein Mor, Abou Sif, Hummal Ia, Tabun) show that in most cases, the 2 reduction strategies (Levallois and Laminar) were held simultaneously in each assemblage but not equally developed . Moreover, based on technological and typological backgrounds, Monigal recently recognized in the so-called Early Levantine Mousterian, two technical entities that she considered chronologically successive, with an abrupt technological break between them (Monigal 2002). The recent technological and dating results from Hayonim, put into the context of presently available data from different sites, will allow us to discuss this evolutive scheme, the variability of the Middle Paleolithic blady assemblages and the notion of « Early Levantine Mousterian ».