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This paper focuses on new findings from Middle Paleolithic Geula Cave, Israel, located in the northern part of Mt. Carmel. The cave, consists of several small chambers that are remnants of a larger cave system, initially excavated between 1958 and 1964. The occupation at the cave was ascribed to Middle Paleolithic modern humans. In 2016, a salvage excavation was conducted in areas of the cave that were not previously explored. Analyses of the new excavation revealed a consistency in lithic technology throughout the new excavation areas, with an emphasis on Levallois production using mainly bidirectional and centripetal core preparation modes. The faunal study identified intensive hyena and porcupine activities in small chambers, probably at the back part of the cave, while fractured bones in association with flint artifacts were found at what appears as the living area in the cave. Luminescence ages indicated that Geula Cave was occupied as early as 175 ka, but that the major occupation was from 120 to 100 ka. The major occupation at Geula chronologically overlaps with the Skhul and Qafzeh Caves thus reinforcing the notion that Homo sapiens dominated the southern Levant during early MIS 5. This study demonstrates the importance of reinvestigating and reevaluating past excavated prehistoric sites and their contents to enhance our understanding of the regional, cultural and biological history.

Nahal Rahaf 2 (NR2) is an Early Upper Paleolithic (ca. 35 kya) rock shelter in the southern Judean Desert in Israel. Two excavation seasons in 2019 and 2020 revealed a stratigraphical sequence composed of intact archaeological surfaces attributed to the ‘Arkov-Divshon’ cultural entity of the arid southern Levant. We present the faunal assemblages from the site, which are rare among the desert sites due to preservation problems. Our results suggest that the residents of the site exploited prime adult caprines (Capra cf. Capra ibex), but were also engaged in hunting of gazelles (Gazella cf. Gazella gazella), whose carcasses were selectively transported to the site and processed for within-bone nutrients. Long-range hunting trips are suggested by the body-part selection in relatively small bovids, and by the presence of species representing wetter habitat patches 20-30 km north of the site. The bi-focal emphasis on generalized gazelle and age-specific caprine hunting, is unique among Late Pleistocene sites from the Levant. The proportion of caprines increases through the stratigraphic sequence, suggesting more specialized economy through time and in inverse relations to site use intensity.

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Middle Pleistocene Homo in the Levant Our understanding of the origin, distribution, and evolution of early humans and their close relatives has been greatly refined by recent new information. Adding to this trend, Hershkovitz et al. have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown archaic Homo population, the “Nesher Ramla Homo ” (see the Perspective by Mirazon Lahr). The authors present comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analyses of fossilized remains from a site in Israel dated to 140,000 to 120,000 years ago indicating the presence of a previously unrecognized group of hominins representing the last surviving populations of Middle Pleistocene Homo in Europe, southwest Asia, and Africa. In a companion paper, Zaidner et al. present the radiometric ages, stone tool assemblages, faunal assemblages, and other behavioral and environmental data associated with these fossils. This evidence shows that these hominins had fully mastered technology that until only recently was linked to either Homo sapiens or Neanderthals. Nesher Ramla Homo was an efficient hunter of large and small game, used wood for fuel, cooked or roasted meat, and maintained fires. These findings provide archaeological support for cultural interactions between different human lineages during the Middle Paleolithic, suggesting that admixture between Middle Pleistocene Homo and H. sapiens had already occurred by this time. Science , abh3169 and abh3020, this issue p. 1424 and p. 1429 ; see also abj3077, p. 1395

The discovery of an Early Upper Palaeolithic rockshelter, Nahal Rahaf 2, in the southern Judean Desert revives the debate about whether the Levantine Aurignacian extended into the arid regions of the Southern Levant.

Salvage excavations at the Middle Paleolithic flint workshop Giv'at Rabi East, Lower Galilee, Israel aimed at obtaining chronometric ages for the site's exploitation, reconstructing the process of its formation and collecting an assemblage of diagnostic flint items for testing the conjectured connection with nearby Qafzeh Cave. The excavations revealed two archaeological units, the lower one directly overlaying the calcrete bedrock formation and separated from the upper one by a sterile layer of clay sediments. The sequence of four OSL ages fall within the time-range of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic and correspond to MIS 6 and most of MIS 5. The assemblage of flint artefacts included hundreds of Levallois debitage items alongside bifacial fossiles directeurs of the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian, found mostly in the lower archaeological unit. While parameters reflecting the degree of core exploitation, i.e., size, number of scars and amount of cortex support the hypothesized connection between the workshop and Qafzeh Cave - OSL dates suggest that the beginning of the workshop’s existence predates that cave’s occupation. Moreover, the possibility that the upper archaeological unit in GRE represents re-deposited part of the original accumulation of flint artefacts reduces even more the likelihood of the connection between the workshop and the cave. These results suggest that additional and more remote sites were probably involved in the workshop formation and allow for a variety of scenarios concerning acquisition and management of flint resources during the Middle Paleolithic in the Lower Galilee. Chronometric dates within the sequence of the Middle Paleolithic, the indication of nearly in situ deposition of the lower archaeological unit alongside physical condition of different artefact groups suggest that the bifacial type fossils of the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian may have been recycled by Middle Paleolithic hominids.

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.

Handaxes, the hallmark of the Acheulian cultural complex, were occasionally recycled at the end of the Lower Paleolithic period as cores for the production of predetermined blanks. It appears that Late Acheulian flint knappers were well acquainted with both handaxe manufacture and the application of prepared core technologies. Following previous suggestions, we propose here that Late Acheulian knappers took advantage of handaxes convexities as a “shortcut” in the reduction sequence, enabling the detachment of predetermined blanks with minimal preparatory steps. The two phases of use of late Acheulian handaxes, first as handaxes and later as cores, were documented at several late Acheulian sites in the Old World and seem to be integral to late Acheulian lithic technologies and core reduction systems. The multi-layered late Acheulian site of Revadim and the newly discovered late Acheulian site of Jaljulia (both in Israel) yielded rich lithic assemblages typical of the late Acheulian Levant. The assemblages include handaxes but are mostly dominated by flake-production technologies and flake tools. Both sites provide late Acheulian evidence for what is termed here “proto-Levallois” core technology that later, in fully fledged form, characterized the Middle Paleolithic Levallois method. Here we consider handaxes transformed into cores for the production of predetermined blanks from these two sites and discuss this phenomenon in the framework of human cultural evolution. We further propose that these two key cultural markers, the Lower Paleolithic handaxes and the Middle Paleolithic Levallois method, which are linked by means of this special late Acheulian reduction strategy, can be seen as an early archaeological example of cumulative culture.

Lower Paleolithic bifaces are one of the most ubiquitous and persistent stone tools in prehistory, proliferating from Africa through Eurasia from as early as 1.75 Mya and remaining in use for over 1.5 million years. Numerous studies have thus far focused on Acheulean handaxes’ technological characteristics, underlining their relevance in terms of early human technology, behavior and cognition. Moreover, many experimental studies have investigated the use of handaxes, highlighting their exceptional efficiency in carcass processing tasks and in other activities. However, issues of preservation have often prevented a thorough and accurate functional interpretation of Lower Paleolithic bifaces, thus limiting our current knowledge regarding their actual use. This paper presents initial results from the functional analysis of two biface assemblages originating from the Late Lower Paleolithic sites of Revadim and Jaljulia (Israel). Our analysis of use wear traces shows that handaxes at both sites appear to have been employed mainly for carcass processing. We identified differences in biface utilization at the two sites, most probably attributable to the type of animal processing activities for which these tools were employed. We also designed a dedicated experimental framework in which biface replicas were utilized in different tasks on animal, vegetal and mineral materials. This made it possible to test the efficiency of the tools and build a use-wear reference collection to which the traces observed on the archaeological specimens were compared. We thus provide a solid and reliable functional interpretation of the use of bifaces at Revadim and Jaljulia, contributing to our current understanding of the role that these tools played in the adaptation of early human groups in the Levant.

A recently discovered site at Nesher Ramla, Israel (170–80 ka BP) is an open-air, eight-meter-thick Middle Paleolithic sequence situated in a deep karst sinkhole that acted as a sedimentary basin in which colluvial deposition was intermittent with in situ human activities. Presence of combustion features, excellent preservation of lithic artifacts and animal bones, and distinct concentrations of bones, lithics, and manuports point to the in situ human activities in the sinkhole.