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Between 2015 and 2018, a joint venture of the Universities of Basel (Switzerland), Jordan, and Yarmouk (Jordan) conducted a survey project along the eastern margins of the Jordan Valley between Sulaykhat and Adassiyyah. The three field seasons, which aimed to document archeological sites, saw a number of important Paleolithic artifacts discovered. Study of the stone artifacts focused on the identification of cultural clusters based on techno-typological characteristics of particular well-known cultural units from highly stratified sites in the Levant. Alongside this, conservation conditions of lithics from open-air sites were a focus. Using such benchmarks, 140 Lower and Middle Paleolithic open-air sites were identified. In this paper, we focus only on the finds from Late Lower and Early Middle Paleolithic. The analysis showed that the newly discovered open-air sites for blade production can be defined as workshop sites, with the massive production of blanks but very little evidence of formal tools. The lithic assemblages reveal a specific debitage system similar to the Hummalian production strategy recognized at Hummal, Syria. Alongside these, Yabrudian sites were also identified and labeled as former settlements. Their stone assemblages show techno-typological traits typical for the Yabrudian cultural units already observed in the Levant. Furthermore, the identification of the source of raw material permitted a better understanding of the settlement dynamics in the region. more...

Hummal, located in the El-Kowm area of Central Syria, is a reference site for the Palaeolithic in the interior Levant due to its archaeological sequence of deposits from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The open-air site offers an exceptional opportunity to study patterns of continuity and variability within the lithic assemblages of its eponymous industry, the Hummalian. The particular lithic assemblage recovered from Layer 7 is the focus of an attempted refitting and provides the data used in the research presented here. The collected pieces allowed the reconstruction of several chipped stone tool manufacturing episodes and reveals details of the technological working processes and the life cycle of archaeological objects through this refitting. It alludes to, after the primary blade reduction, the manufacturing of small debitage pieces which in turn testifies to the technological variability within the Hummalian. Combined with other studies such as attribute analysis, distribution patterns and geomorphological analyses they contribute to a greater understanding of the occupational history of the site as well as site disturbance processes. Furthermore, the Hummalian is the part of the Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) record and the presented refittings give evidence of the diverse technological behaviour of prehistoric humans not only within the Hummalian occupations themselves but also in comparison to other contemporary archaeological sites discovered in this and neighbouring regions. This case study contributes to the growing record of the EMP technological behaviour patterns and indicates the flexibility and dynamics of the technological organisation of prehistoric toolmakers from this period. more...

The site of Sutz-Lattrigen Aussen has yielded a high quality series of tools made from bone, antler and teeth. Thus this remarkable assemblage led us to consider the importance of carrying out functional studies. The recorded 601 worked pieces have been analysed typologically and technologically in a separate report. In this paper we explore the potential for use-wear analysis on the artefacts. They are well conserved and therefore seem to be perfectly suited for such examinations. Preliminary results show that they were used in a variety of activities including processing wood, bark, hide and pottery. This short investigation demonstrates how significant the use of the micro-wear analysis might be, together with technological and experimental studies to elucidate the principal economic and technological activities of Neolithic populations. more...

Recent research reveals that the production of elongated blanks using different flaking techniques is an important part of the Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) industries in Near Eastern sites dated between 250 and 160 ka ago. The excavation at Hummal located in the arid steppe of Central Syria produced blade industries located in the stratigraphy between the Yabrudian and Levalloiso-Mousterian and this sequence is dated to about 200 ky. This paper presents data on the Hummalian culture from its discovery in 1980 to the systematic excavation of in situ archaeological layers between 1997 and 2010. Today the Hummalian industry is seen as a single, but very complex reduction strategy related to both the Laminar and the Levallois-like system of debitage. It is a unique reduction system containing diverse types of core volume management within which blanks of different morphologies have been produced from a single core using a direct, hammer percussion. Though, the Hummalian still shares many techno-typological similarities with the others laminar, lithic assemblages found on the Early Middle Palaeolithic sites in Levant, the same chronological and stratigraphical position and similar land-use strategies. As the EMP blade industries in Levant are preceded by the Acheulo-Yabrudian techno-complexes, the shift between both these lithic complexes, already seen in their chronological boundary, may also imply a technological discontinuity and possibly differing human populations. more...

The excavation of the spring site at Hummal, located in the region of El Kowm (Central Syria) is a reference site for the Palaeolithic in the interior Levant due to its archaeological sequence of deposits from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. This paper presents some principal data on the Hummalian culture, originating from the systematic excavation of in situ archaeological layers between 2001 and 2010. While the Hummalian is synonymous for the primary production of large-sized blades, another interesting feature that needs to be highlighted is the variation of reuse during on-site production. The practice is documented throughout Hummalian occupations and is observed through the recycling of blanks and by-products of the main reduction strategy for production of secondary blanks, patinated items for shaping new tools, using the Yabrudian scrapers as a cores and shaping exhausted cores for tool use. The main focus here will be on the presence of numerous core-burins and cores on flake including truncated-faceted pieces. The former are in the author's opinion the evidence of recycling and their end products, namely bladelets represent desired components supplementary to the repertoire of various specimens recovered from Hummalian layers and could suggest easily portable implements. The latter group, cores on flake, seems to represent a subdivision of the reduction system carried out on-site rather than a concept of recycling. more...

The El Kowm oasis in the desert steppe of Central Syria is one of the oldest settlement centers in the Middle East and is significant worldwide for its great density of Paleolithic sites. About 180 open-air sites dating between about one million and 10,000 years ago testify that humans regularly resided at or near the springs. The region represents a unique archive where the long-term cultural history and the development of the landscape can be observed. The sites of Nadaouiyeh and Hummal are the main focus of our research. Geoarchaeological studies on both sites have defined the formation of different sediment types, such as limnic, littoral, and terrestrial deposits. Those sediments provide evidence of eolian processes, but also post-depositional transformations like the precipitation of silica or pedogenesis. Additional archaeological layers give answers concerning the depositional environment, anthropogenic influence, and post-sedimentary changes. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. more...

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