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Excavations in the lower chamber of Yanmburgaz cave, located a short distance west of the city of Istanbul, have yielded a large assemblage of stone artifacts and a fauna dominated by Ursus deningeri. The strata yielding these materials are of probable Middle Pleistocene age. The lithic assemblage consists primarily of steeply retouched and often e...
Contexts in source publication
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... cave is situated in Thrace (western or European Turkey), a short distance west of the modern city Istanbul ( fig. 1). The archaeological potential of this large site has been known to the scientific community for decades, and small excavations have been carried out there since the late 1950s'. Prior to 1986, however, the later prehistoric (Chal- colithic) and historic (Greek and Byzantine) occupations of the cave had received greatest attention. ...
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... wide variety of core forms were recovered at Ya nmbur ga z (Table 6, fig. 8). The largest single category is that of "tested pebbles", natural cobbles with between one and three removals. The most abundant formal cores are centripetally- worked or discoid specimens ( fig. 8 : 1-3). The discoid cores tend to have relatively flat faces of detachment, and the majority have been worked on one face only. Platforms may be either plain or cortical. Consistent with the scarcity of faceted platforms on flakes and tool blanks, few of the cores preserve any traces of platform faceting. Other, less abundant forms include ...
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... and Тотн, 1993. it has been termed the "unifacial discoid" method21. In the Tarn River sites, assemblages of flakes with cortical platforms are associated with residual cores called épannelé or "truncated cobbles"22, which appear to be a logical residue of the kind of centripetal core reduction technology illustrated in figure 10. While a few similar specimens were found at Yarimburgaz (i.e., fig. ...
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... the abundance of cortical platforms, it is also clear that the variety of centripetal flake production used to work flint involved little systematic preparation or adjustment of the platform. A schematic illustration of one possible means of produci ng the observed patterns is shown in figure 10. The reconstructed sequence of operations begins with the splitting of a flint pebble into two more-or-less hemispherical sections. ...
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... newly created surface by blows directed at the cortical margins of the core, either directly towards or at a tangent to the core's center. If detached early in the sequence, the resulting flakes would be relatively flat (e.g., fig. 9 : 4 and 5), while pieces struck off later in the sequence may be more wedge-shaped in l ongi tudi nal section ( fig. 9:1). The presence of single-facet, dihedral, or even a few faceted butts on some flint flakes suggest that platforms were shaped and even prepared on occasion. Since some residual cores bear traces of at least minor platform modification (compare fig. 8 : 1-3, 7), it may be that platforms were often adjusted late in the reduction of a ...
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... pieces struck off later in the sequence may be more wedge-shaped in l ongi tudi nal section ( fig. 9:1). The presence of single-facet, dihedral, or even a few faceted butts on some flint flakes suggest that platforms were shaped and even prepared on occasion. Since some residual cores bear traces of at least minor platform modification (compare fig. 8 : 1-3, 7), it may be that platforms were often adjusted late in the reduction of a ...
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... Simple core/ pebble and flake industries mark the period of MIS 12-11 in the region, at sites like Dealul Guran in Romania (Iovita et al. 2012) and Marathousa 1 in Greece , with industries comparable to the Bilzingsleben-Vértesszőlős small flake industries or the so-called 'Pre-Mousterian complex' (Doronichev & Golovanova 2010). A similar industry seems to continue well into the late Middle Pleistocene (broadly dating to MIS 9-6) at the site of Yarımburgaz (Turkish Thrace), with an assemblage characterised by simple centripetal and ad hoc reduction of pebbles and a predominance of steeply retouched flakes (Kuhn et al. 1996). On the other hand, dated assemblages with Acheulean bifacial elements are extremely rare in South-eastern Europe, present only at Rodafnidia on the island of lesvos, the minimum age of which is broadly MIS 8-6 (Galanidou et al. 2013(Galanidou et al. , 2016, and perhaps at Kokkinopilos with minimum pIRIR 1 ages of >170-200 ka (Tourloukis et al. 2015), both of which are in Greece. ...
The strategic geographical position of the Balkan Peninsula, at the crossroads between southwest Asia and central and western Europe, make of this territory a key area for understanding the different human migrations into Europe during the Pleistocene. This long-time neglected area for the Palaeolithic research, last years has experienced a blossoming in terms of research projects and key discoveries. Only in the past decade, sites from the Balkan Peninsula have yielded, for instance, the oldest anatomically modern human occupations in Europe, the first human remains of our species in the continent, the first confirmation of interbreeding between us and Neanderthals and evidence of Palaeolithic rock art, a phenomenon traditionally restricted to South-western Europe. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the previous data and new discoveries, addressed by an international list of contributors among the most renowned scholars developing archaeological researches in this territory. It summarises the state of the art for the Early Prehistory Archaeology of one of the most important emerging territories for the discipline.
... 22 Güleç et al. 2002;Özer and Baykara 2009;Güleç et al. 2009. 28 Kuhn et al. 1996;Arsebük 1998;Koenigswald et al. 2010. are also frequently used. ...
... Simple core/ pebble and flake industries mark the period of MIS 12-11 in the region, at sites like Dealul Guran in Romania (Iovita et al. 2012) and Marathousa 1 in Greece , with industries comparable to the Bilzingsleben-Vértesszőlős small flake industries or the so-called 'Pre-Mousterian complex' (Doronichev & Golovanova 2010). A similar industry seems to continue well into the late Middle Pleistocene (broadly dating to MIS 9-6) at the site of Yarımburgaz (Turkish Thrace), with an assemblage characterised by simple centripetal and ad hoc reduction of pebbles and a predominance of steeply retouched flakes (Kuhn et al. 1996). On the other hand, dated assemblages with Acheulean bifacial elements are extremely rare in South-eastern Europe, present only at Rodafnidia on the island of lesvos, the minimum age of which is broadly MIS 8-6 (Galanidou et al. 2013(Galanidou et al. , 2016, and perhaps at Kokkinopilos with minimum pIRIR 1 ages of >170-200 ka (Tourloukis et al. 2015), both of which are in Greece. ...
This paper reviews the Middle Palaeolithic of South-eastern Europe in light of the results obtained by recent research. A large territory from Slovenia in the north to Greece in the south and from Croatia in the west to Bulgaria and Romania in the east is covered by the chapter. The chronology and characteristics of defined technocomplexes from MIS 7 till MIS 3 are presented and discussed in their functional and environmental context. Examples of these technocomplexes include the so-called South-eastern European (Balkan) Charentian, so-called Micromousterian as both Charentian and a kind of Denticulate Mousterian, Typical Mousterian with Levallois technology and often with bifacial points and other industrial variants that appeared in the region during this period. We primarily consider aspects of technology, typology and stone raw-material procurement in chronological and regional context but also included are aspects of palaeoecology and other patterns in our interpretations.
... In the Yarımburgaz (Istanbul, Northwestern Anatolia) Lower Paleolithic, different raw materials have been observed to have been preferred for different tools: chert for retouched flakes, and quartz/quartzite for pebble cores. Bipolar knapping appears to have been used within the industry and is mostly associated with quartz/quartzite (Kuhn et al., 1996). This lithic assemblage is dated to the middle of the Middle Pleistocene, between 390 and 220 ka (Arsebük & Özbaşaran, 1999). ...
After the discovery of Homo erectus remains (circa 1.2 Ma) in Denizli, through examination of their surviving material culture, many sites containing lithics which could be attributed to Homo erectus have been located. It have revealed quartz assemblages in the parts of Denizli connected to the Menderes and Gediz Massif. The assemblages detected in Buldan and Güney associate with Mode 1 and Mode 2 techno-complexes. As the first systematic bipolar knapping study in the Paleolithic of Turkey, techno-typological analyses supported by experimental analyses will be a guide for future studies. As a result of these analyses, bipolar knapping, freehand technique, and the alternate use of both could be suggested as strategies for dealing with environmental raw material limitations or as a technical behavioral choice. In this context, the lithic assemblages in question, with their specific characteristics, shed new light on the dispersal of the early hominins out of Africa.
For full access: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EDDRHINZPHTXUTQSNKJM/full?target=10.1080/01977261.2022.2095491
... Core tools made of quartzite pebbles are less common than flake tools. There is no bifacial tool production, and no Levallois technology (Kuhn et al., 1996). With these features, the Yarımburgaz industry reflects European traditions seen in Bulgaria rather than Near Eastern traditions (Otte and Yalçınkaya, 2009). ...
Turkey is one of the rich countries in terms of the Lower Palaeolithic period. The favourable climatic and environmental conditions and quality stone raw material resources in the Pleistocene period caused the country to be heavily occupied by the people of the Lower Palaeolithic. Turkey has biface and flake industries of the Lower Palaeolithic period. Biface industries are more common in open-air sites and are often linked to the Acheulean. Biface tools are only found in the deposits of Karain Cave. The eastern and south-eastern parts of Turkey are the densest regions in terms of biface industries. This density decreases towards the west. However, this general appearance may have resulted from the insufficient level of excavations and surveys of Palaeolithic archaeology throughout the country. In this article, we try to draw a general framework of the Lower Palaeolithic period in Turkey, based on the important Lower Palaeolithic settlements in the country.
... Artefact assemblages found in various locations in Anatolia suggest that hominins passed through or occupied the area since the arrival of one the first members of the genus Homo. Although relatively many localities with Lower Palaeolithic artefacts have been identified in Turkey, systematic research is still limited to a few sites, such as Dursunlu , Kaletepe Deresi-3 (KD3; Slimak et al., 2008), Yarımburgaz Cave (Kuhn et al., 1996), and Karain Cave . Our study adds substantially to evidence that Anatolia was settled by hominin palaeo-demes. ...
The province of Van in north-eastern Turkey served as a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia during the Palaeolithic. The region is of particular relevance for understanding the movement of hominins between these continents. This study concerns the lithic remains from a locality at Gürgürbaba Hill, named Locality 010, north of the village of Ulupamir (Erciş district). Locality 010 was dated to 311±32 kya by terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides method, which coincides with Marine Isotope Stage 9 (MIS 9), a Middle Pleistocene interglacial period. The assemblage from this site is attributed to the Late Acheulean and resembles that of the southern Caucasus. This similarity indicates that the artefacts from Locality 010 were probably produced by late Lower Palaeolithic technology in a broad sense. These findings suggest local adaptations of late Middle Pleistocene hominins to high plateau environments.
... La grotte de Yarimburgaz, en Thrace (partie européenne de la Turquie) a été fouillée en 1988-1990, pour les niveaux anciens, par une équipe turcoaméricaine dirigée par Güven Arsebük (université d'Istanbul) et Clark Howell (université de Californie, Berkeley) livrant une industrie sur éclats (denticulés et encoches, en silex et quartz) et quelques galets aménagés sur quartzite, associés à une faune (Ursus deningeri, Ursus spelaeus, Ursus cf. arctos) de la deuxième moitié du Pléistocène moyen (Howell et al., 1996). Une synthèse récente des données anciennes et un réexamen de la faune et de l'industrie lithique montrent que la grotte a surtout été occupée par des ours, les Hommes n'y effectuant que des passages éphémères. ...
Par sa position centrale au cœur de l’Eurasie et à la sortie de l’Afrique,
via le corridor levantin, il était attendu que la Turquie joue un rôle majeur dans l’histoire des premiers peuplements humains. Paradoxalement, les vestiges mis au jour jusqu’à présent pour retracer cette préhistoire ancienne sont rares. La raison principale en est la primauté de l’Antiquité qui s’impose par le nombre et la qualité de ses vestiges. L’intérêt pour des périodes plus reculées dont les témoignages sont plus sobres (pierres taillées, ossements d’animaux, quelques fossiles humains...) se voit de fait limité. D’autre part, si pour la période antique, les chantiers sont souvent permanents, peu de fouilles sont conduites à long terme pour le Paléolithique. Le manque de chercheurs en position académique, les contraintes administratives et financières imposées par le ministère de la Culture sont sans doute en cause, conduisant à la multiplication des prospections de surface, plus faciles à mener à bien. Mais, si elles donnent une idée du potentiel archéologique d’une zone, ces opérations ne permettent pas la mise au jour de sites dits stratifiés, c’est-à-dire conservant en place des vestiges préhistoriques qu’il serait alors possible de positionner chronologiquement et d’interpréter en termes de comportements humains.
... In comparison, chopper or chopping tools, typical of those found from Eksino, do not occur in Rodafnidia. Excavations at Yarimburgaz, dated between 390 ± 40 to 220 ± 20 ka., show a high frequency of retouched flake tools dominated by denticulate and side-scrapers as well as chopper or chopping tools (Kuhn et al. 1996). Chopper and chopping tool are abundant in Turkish Thrace as well as Bozyer near the Lake Marmara in the province of Manisa, except for the two unique atypical bifaces (Dinçer 2016;Roosevelt et al. 2019;Runnels & Özdoğan 2001). ...
Eksino, on the island of Gökçeada (Imbros) in the Northeast Aegean, is a new open-air site with evidence of Palaeolithic cultural remains. Stone tools collected by an initial survey have clarified an assessment of the site from the Lower Palaeolithic, and brought to light new evidence from the Middle Palaeolithic as well as transition to the Upper Palaeolithic. Eksino is probably one of the most significant Lower Palaeolithic tool collections in the North Aegean, and finds such as chopper or chopping tools and Acheulean bifacial handaxes from the site show that the North Aegean may be another possible dispersal route from hominids to Europe via the East and Northeast Mediterranean during the Lower Palaeolithic. Middle Palaeolithic finds are frequent in the site and finds resemble the typical Mousterian type which is characterized by discoidal cores, Levallois cores and flakes, scrapers, denticulates, notches and points. Upper Palaeolithic finds are rare in the site, and a bifacial leaf point and large crescent-shaped backed pieces made on blades may reveal the presence of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition on the island. This new data from Palaeolithic Gökçeada is likely to fill key geographic gaps associated with the initial dispersal of hominins through the northeast Aegean islands.
... The Turkish path is probably the easiest route to take from Africa to Europe. Turkey offers a potential of sites such as Kocabas and probably many others yet to be discovered even though currently only Middle Pleistocene sites are known like Yarimburgaz (Howell et al., 1996). On the other bank of the Bosphorus, Kozarnika, Rodniki Bogatyri and Kermek sites are witnesses of another possible path north to Black Sea. ...
A reliable chronology for the oldest settlements of Europe from the Early to the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene is an important requirement for understanding human evolution and especially the routes used to reach Western Europe from Africa. The paucity of sites, plus the limited number of available samples for dating, and the many contexts which do not favor the use of particular dating methods, further complicate the picture. This contribution addresses several questions: Which dating methods are relevant for establishing the chronology of the main sites? Are the first settlements older than the Jaramillo event? Which routes were used to enter Europe? Were the earliest human occupations intermittent or continuous?
... Analysis of the small mammal fauna demonstrates that the Palaeolithic occupation occurred during a cold phase in the middle of the Middle Pleistocene (Koenigswald et al., 2010). Furthermore, Kuhn et al. (1996) and Kuhn (2010b) and Dinçer (2016: 223) argue in favour of a Middle Palaeolithic chronology for the stone tool assemblage, rather than a LP one, based on the strikingly low number of core tools and the high frequency of retouched flake tools. ...
This thesis explores possibilities for hominin movement and occupation over the exposed dry land landscapes of the Aegean region during the Early and Middle Pleistocene (focusing more on the Middle Pleistocene ca. 0.8- 0.2 Mya). The point of departure and inspiration is the recent palaeogeographical reconstructions from the study area. Geological evidence reveals the existence of extended terrestrial landscapes, with attractive environments, connecting western Anatolia to Europe via the Greek mainland, during the glacial lowstands of the Middle Pleistocene, and possibly during certain interglacials. These lands are now lost, lying underwater, but, in spatial terms, a completely new spectrum of possibilities opens up for hominins moving across or settling over this part of Eurasia, affecting the wider narrative regarding the early settlements out of Africa. Yet, the research potential of the submerged landscapes of the Aegean has not been fully integrated in the way(s) we study and interpret the Lower Palaeolithic evidence from this region.
The discussion about the early colonisation of Europe has been long focused on the western part of the continent due to the abundance of available evidence. The wider Aegean region was excluded, until recently, as a ‘cul de sac’ that blocked movement and dispersal towards the west, representing a gap in the European Lower Palaeolithic archive, with very little to contribute in terms of material culture or hominin fossil evidence. Advances in palaeogeography and geoarchaeology and exciting new finds urging now for a reconsideration. Could the Aegean exposed lands provide land bridges for movement and favourable niches for occupation, offering perhaps an eastern gateway to Europe during the Early and Middle Pleistocene? In order to answer these questions I drew information from archaeology and palaeoanthropology, palaeozoology and palaeoenvironments, and geology and palaeogeography. These multiple lines of evidence have been synthesised within an affordance-based GIS framework, which centres on the relationship between the hominins and their ‘affording’ world. The new methodological scheme developed here led to new hypotheses and scenarios of movement and occupation, predicting areas in the Aegean, onshore and offshore, with increased research potential for the Lower Palaeolithic, based on the level of suitability for the hominin survival, subsistence and dispersal.
The findings of my study suggest that despite the serious methodological challenges imposed by landscape dynamics, temporal limitations and extensive discontinuities in the archaeological record, a cross - and inter - disciplinary approach can help us gain valuable insights into the nature of the past landscapes and land use by hominins. In this respect, the complex topography concept and the concept of affordances constitute the backbone of my approach. The first, by setting out the background against which suitability was built, and the second, by attributing a lived and experienced element into the past landscape.
The contribution of this study is twofold: (a) offers a framing heuristic, to the newly founded discipline of the continental shelf prehistoric research, for testing further ideas on hominin movement and occupation in dynamic environments; and (b) proposes trans-Aegean corridors of opportunity for dispersal and occupation areas, complementing the current Lower Palaeolithic narrative with a potential eastern gateway to Europe.
