Using lithic assemblages to trace human dispersals; did the Nile Valley always act as a corridor between Africa and the southern Levant?
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
During the late Pleistocene several events of technological diffusion, possibly due to human dispersals are recorded in the lithic assemblages of eastern Africa, the Nile Valley and the southern Levant. Most notably is the spread/diffusion of the Nubian technology associated with MIS 5. During this time of climatic amelioration and blurring of desert borders, the Nile Valley seems to have acted as a corridor, facilitating a possible route for human dispersals 'out of Africa'.
In this presentation I will focus on two late Middle Paleolithic open air sites located in the Negev; Rosh Ein Mor (Crew 1976) and Farah II (Gilead and Grigson 1984). Both assemblages portray a mix of technological traditions dominated by Levallois and single platform reduction sequences. This intra-site technological variability is suggested to reflect behavioral flexibility which allowed for the evolvement of new technologies and the onset of the Upper Paleolithic. The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, as seen by the refitted cores from at the site of Boker Tachtit (Volkman 1983) is reflected by a technological change; the Levallois technology disappears and new volumetric, blade-oriented technologies prevail. The Nile Valley, on the other hand, seems to display a continuation of MP/MSA technological traditions alongside the appearance of new blade-oriented technologies.
These differences in the pace and manner of technological transitions between the Nile Valley and the southern Levant suggests that during the end of MIS 4 and MIS 3 the Nile Valley acted more as a refugium than as a corridor.
References:
- Crew, H.L., 1976. The Mousterian site of Rosh Ein Mor. In Marks A.E. (Ed.), Prehistory and paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. I (pp.75-112), Dallas, Southern Methodist University Press.
- Gilead I., & Grigson C. (1984). Far’ah II: a Middle Palaeolithic open-air site in the northern Negev, Israel. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 50, 71–91.
- Volkman, P. (1983). Boker Tachtit: Core reconstructions. In A.E. Marks (Ed.), Prehistory and paleoenvironments in the central Negev, Israel, Vol. III (pp.127-190). Dallas, Southern Methodist University Press.
