Anna Belfer-Cohen

Hebrew University of Jerusalem | HUJI · Institute of Archaeology

A longstanding debate concerns the function of carinated elements in both, the Levantine, and European Aurignacian. The present study aims to contribute to this topic with the evaluation of the carinated assemblage from layer D in Hayonim Cave, Western Galilee, Israel, one of the type sites of the Levantine Aurignacian. An operational chain reconst...

Antler is one of the primary animal raw materials exploited for technical purposes by the hunter-gatherer groups of the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic (UP) all over the ecological range of deers, and beyond. It was exhaustively employed to produce one of the most critical tools for the survival of the UP societies: hunting weapons. However, antler imp...

With the onset of the Near Eastern Neolithic during the 12th millennium cal BP, and thereafter, one can observe growing sedentary tendencies, as well a significant increase in populations and community sizes, all reflected in the Neolithic demographic transition. At that time (and even somewhat earlier in certain areas) a notable tendency for withi...

Internal and external bony tissues from diverse mammalian taxa are one of the primary animal raw materials exploited for technical and symbolic purposes by Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. Identifying the source species used for osseous raw material is critical to gain insights into these populations' behaviour, technology, and subsist...

Symbol making involves active agency, as it is, by definition, intentional and aims to deliver messages, worldviews, and social contents to designated audiences. As archaeology can specify only elements of behavior that are expressed as material objects, it must focus on material objects and their contexts. Accordingly, this chapter does not aim to...

The continued and consistent presence of cemeteries observed in the Levantine Natufian (ca. 15,000–11,600 years cal BP) relates most probably to the fact that the Natufians were the first local society to adopt a sedentary existence, thus becoming partial to a plethora of changes and innovations that such a transformation implies. To enable people...

Summing up the data deriving from the Natufian burials at Hayonim Cave which incorporates information pertaining to the last grave uncovered on site (Grave XVII), the paper endeavours to understand the role of burials within the evolving Natufian society at large. It seems that certain sites—Hayonim Cave being a case in point— served as special loc...

Networking during the early stages of the Levantine Neolithic appears to have been encouraged by increasing demands for exotics, i.e. non-local commodities. The actual exchange of merchandise stimulated also transmission of knowledge, i.e. innovations. Together these were instrumental in affecting the social fabric of society. It appears that speci...

Upper Palaeolithic (late) in the arid part of Southern Levant

The research of the Kaizer Hill site (the Hilltop and its Terraces), recognized as a Pre Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) quarry site, involved studies of the rock damage associated with the quarrying activities as well as of the recovered material remains, mostly chipped stone artifacts. We present here the results of our on-site explorations (excavatio...

It is assumed that the Levantine inter-group networks that enabled the transfer of knowledge and innovation throughout the region are a distinguishing characteristic of the Near Eastern Neolithic. However, careful examination of the archaeological record indicates that long-distance networks among hunter-gatherer groups can be identified much prior...

The region of western Georgia (Imereti) in the Southern Caucasus has been a major geographic corridor for human migrations during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Data of recent research and excavations in this region display its importance as a possible route for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) into northern Eurasia. Nevertheles...

Cave sediments have been shown to preserve ancient DNA but so far have not yielded the genome-scale information of skeletal remains. We retrieved and analyzed human and mammalian nuclear and mitochondrial environmental “shotgun” genomes from a single 25,000-year-old Upper Paleolithic sediment sample from Satsurblia cave, western Georgia:first, a hu...

Archaeological sediments have been shown to preserve ancient DNA, but so far have not yielded genome-scale information of the magnitude of skeletal remains. We retrieved and analysed human and mammalian low-coverage nuclear and high-coverage mitochondrial genomes from Upper Palaeolithic sediments from Satsurblia cave, western Georgia, dated to 25,0...

This paper examines the nature of initial neolithisation indications during the terminal Pleistocene and earliest Holocene in the Southern Levant. This interval corresponds to a period of significant and geographically variable environmental changes in the region. Various lines of evidence are provided to demonstrate the long durée (~15 000 years)...

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 endem...

Lithic artifacts and animal bones form the bulk of the material remains of the Paleolithic. This has led archeologists to interpret these two types of finds as tethered components of subsistence systems. Differences observed through time and space in the lithic repertoire were considered as functional adjustments, designed to maximize gains from a...

The excavations at Kebara Cave (Mt. Carmel, Israel) revealed an important archaeological sequence of late Middle Paleolithic units superimposed by Early Upper Paleolithic ones. This sequence provides important insights concerning our knowledge of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Levant. Here we present a detailed description of the li...

Social “connectivity” through time is currently considered as one of the major drivers of cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Within this framework, the interactions within and between groups are impacted by individuals’ distinction of social relationships. In this paper, we focus on changes in a major aspect of social perceptions, “other...

The emergence of the Upper Palaeolithic in Southwest Asia is considered a unique phenomenon in relation to other parts of the Old World. Besides the local circumstances that are particular to each region, this is the only region outside Africa with the clear presence of modern humans producing Middle Palaeolithic industries. Still, it seems that al...

The second half of the seventh millennium BC saw the demise of the previously affluent and dynamic Neolithic way of life. The period is marked by significant social and economic transformations of local communities, as manifested in a new spatial organization, patterns of architecture, burial practices, and in chipped stone and pottery manufacture....

The Levantine Epi-Palaeolithic (ca 23,000–9,650 cal. BC) is chronologically subdivided into Early, Middle and Late phases. Various paradigms (culture history, functional, etc.) have been proposed to explain the lithic variability present within and between the phases. We follow the culture history paradigm in believing that techno-typological varia...

The appearance of art as a constant component of human culture is attributed to several Upper Paleolithic traditions. The record of earlier artistic manifestations is rather scanty and chronogeographically varied, although crucial for studies of human behavioral evolution. Here we describe an engraved bone from the Middle Paleolithic site of Quneit...

Metagenomic analysis is a highly promising technique in paleogenetic research that allows analysis of the complete genomic make-up of a sample. This technique has successfully been employed to archaeological sediments, but possible leaching of DNA through the sequence limits interpretation. We applied this technique to the analysis of ancient DNA (...

Excavations at Nahal Neqarot rock-shelter (NQR) in the central Negev were conducted with a view to investigate the initial interpretation upon discovery that the site contained both in situ Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic components (Belfer-Cohen et al. 1991, 1993). The rock-shelter appeared to provide a unique opportunity to investigate con...

The Social Archaeology of the Levant - edited by Assaf Yasur-Landau December 2018

The earliest ancient DNA data of modern humans from Europe dates to ~40 thousand years ago, but that from the Caucasus and the Near East to only ~14 thousand years ago, from populations who lived long after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ~26.5-19 thousand years ago. To address this imbalance and to better understand the relationship of Europeans an...

Burial is a uniquely human behavior and can be observed in the Paleolithic archaeological record. This record allows the tracing of a worldwide evolutionary trajectory from simple caching to increasingly complex and elaborate practices. Ethnographic analogies as well as contextual and taphonomic analyses suggest that what motivated burial was first...

Significance The emergence and diffusion of Upper Paleolithic (UP) typo-technical traditions are among the most debated topics related to anatomically modern humans’ colonization of and establishment in Eurasia. The Levantine Aurignacian represents one of the UP cultural entities in the Near East, and its origins, spread, and interrelationships wit...

There is a general consensus that the Ahmarian techno-complex represents an endemic Upper Palaeolithic entity that emerged in south-western Asia. Its entrenchment in the region is apparent over a long chronological span and a wide geographic range, as is most especially apparent in the Levant. Notwithstanding diachronic and synchronic variability,...

With the advance of sedentism during the late Epipalaeolithic Natufian the sense of territoriality was amplified. Archaeological evidence testifies to an increase in group identity and processes of intensifying self-identity can be observed at the community level. Still, groups were bound to share a viable gene pool through different social mechani...

small bone-tool assemblage was found at the Natufian burial site of Hilazon Tachtit, Israel. This site served as a locus for funerary rituals, enabling us to consider the role of bone tools within a unique ritual context. The bone tool assemblage comprises 65 pieces; mostly modified fragments and tools, but also a few blanks and manufacture waste....

The MIS 3/2 transition (Denekamp interstadial and beginning of the LGM) is a crucial point in time for understanding adaptation of modern humans to climate. The Southern Caucasus is a unique place to study human ecology within this time period because it served as a refugium during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and thus allows us to study how huma...

Dental morphology and morphometrics of Upper Paleolithic human remains from Dzudzuana and Satsurblia caves, western Georgia

The Natufian culture is of great importance as a starting point to investigate the dynamics of the transition to agriculture. Given its chronological position at the threshold of the Neolithic (ca. 12,000 years ago) and its geographic setting in the productive Jordan Valley, the site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEG II) reveals aspects of the Late Natufian...

Edwards Phillip C. (ed.). Wadi Hammeh 27: an early Natufian settlement at Pella in Jordan. xxvi+410 pages, 331 b&w illustrations, 87 tables. 2013. Leiden & Boston (MA): Brill; 978-90-04-23609-7 hardback € 164 & $228. - Volume 87 Issue 338 - Anna Belfer-Cohen

We extend the scope of European palaeogenomics by sequencing the genomes of Late Upper Palaeolithic (13,300 years old, 1.4-fold coverage) and Mesolithic (9,700 years old, 15.4-fold) males from western Georgia in the Caucasus and a Late Upper Palaeolithic (13,700 years old, 9.5-fold) male from Switzerland. While we detect Late Palaeolithic–Mesolithi...

Current Middle & Upper Palaeolithic research in the southern Caucasus - Volume 76 Issue 294 - Nicholaz Tushabramishvili, Daniel S. Adler, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Anna Belfer-Cohen

The region of western Georgia (Imereti) has been a major geographic corridor for human migrations during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (MP/UP). Knowledge of the MP and UP in this region, however, stems mostly from a small number of recent excavations at the sites of Ortvale Klde, Dzudzuana, Bondi, and Kotias Klde. These provide an absolute chro...

This is a short account of recycling observed in Levantine Aurignacian assemblages in Kebara and Hayonim cave sites in Israel. It appears that the makers of the Aurignacian industries made use of flint pieces collected outside the caves, to modify them a new. Thus Upper Palaeolithic morphotypes were modified either on Mousterian tools or Mousterian...

The Aceramic Neolithic (PPN) in the Near East corresponds to revolutionary transformations in the human condition, setting the stage for later developments prior to the emergence of urban life. Theoretical constructs to explicate these processes vary from climatic determinism, through human vitalism, to demographic and social triggers, co-evolution...

For years there has been an ongoing debate about which region played a more pivotal role during the various stages of the Neolithization processes, the southern or the northern Levant. As more data accumulates through the larger region of West Asia it becomes clear that evolutionary developments coexisted, portraying individual local rhythms and va...