Yossi Zaidner

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• PhD
• Professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The south Levantine mid-Middle Palaeolithic (mid-MP; ~130–80 thousand years ago (ka)) is remarkable for its exceptional evidence of human morphological variability, with contemporaneous fossils of Homo sapiens and Neanderthal-like hominins. Yet, it remains unclear whether these hominins adhered to discrete behavioural sets or whether regional-scale...

Stratified Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in Central Asia are rare. The recently discovered Soii Havzak rockshelter, in the Zeravshan Valley in northern Tajikistan, is a stratified site that contains several phases of Palaeolithic occupation rich in lithic, faunal and charcoal remains that help establish chronology of the region.

Recent excavations at the Middle Paleolithic site of Tinshemet Cave, Israel, showcase hominin burials and associated material culture that uniquely provide new information on hominin behavior in the south Levant around 120–100 ky ago. This study presents the site's stratigraphy in association with findings from sediment micromorphological analyses,...

*Highlights* *Nesher Ramla (NR) is an MIS 5 open-air Levantine site with an 8 m-thick sequence. *Latest phase fauna was deposited by natural deaths, human and carnivore predations. *Ungulates came to the site from afar to drink from the seasonal waterhole. *High ungulate diversity of the faunal assemblage suggests opportunistic hunting. *Auroc...

The obtention and use of mineral pigments, or ochres, in a symbolic context in the Middle Palaeolithic and the Middle Stone Age records has been previously discussed. This includes the preferential extraction of ochres of red colors, as well as by the obtention of red color by intentionally heating chunks of originally yellow hues. The new Levantin...

One important aspect affecting variability in core reduction technology is the degree of expertise of knappers. In the present paper, we show that, at the Middle Palaeolithic open-air site of Nesher Ramla, the degree of expertise of ancient knappers played a major role in shaping the composition of the lithic assemblage. Using robust markers of kna...

In July-August 2018-2019, the third and fourth excavation seasons were conducted in Tinshemet Cave (License Nos. G-68/2018, G-71/2019; map ref. 197122/656269; Fig. 1). The excavation, conducted under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and funded by the Israel Science Foundation and the Leakey Foundati...

Marom and Rak claim, on the basis of a few mandibular features, that the Nesher Ramla (NR) Homo is a Neanderthal. Their comments lack substance and contribute little to the debate surrounding the evolution of Middle Pleistocene Homo. Limitations and preconceptions in their study prevented them from achieving resolution beyond a dichotomous interpre...

In our original paper we claimed for a possible symbolic value of the engraved aurochs bone shaft found at the Unit III of the Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla. In his comment to our original paper, Hodgson (2021) presents a contradictory interpretation, which mostly involved a proto-aesthetic source for early engravings. Here we clarify our...

The mid-Middle Paleolithic (late Marine Isotope Stage 6 and Marine Isotope Stage 5) is the documented phase of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic (MP), especially concerning flint provisioning strategies. Our study of raw material exploitation at Nesher Ramla karst sinkhole (central Coastal Plain, Israel) provides an intriguing glimpse into the decis...

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 Perspecti...

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 Perspecti...

In the archaeological record, Ground Stone Tools (hereafter GST) represent an important tool group that provides invaluable data for exploring technological development and changes in resource exploitation over time. Despite its importance, Lower and Middle Paleolithic (MP) GST technology remains poorly known and understudied. The MP record of the...

Ground Stone Tools (GST) have been identified in several Levantine archaeological sites dating to the Middle Paleolithic. These tools, frequently made of limestone, are often interpreted based on their morphology and damage as having been used for knapping flint, and sometimes for breaking animal bones or processing vegetal materials as well. Howev...

In the archaeological record, Ground Stone Tools (hereafter GST) represent an important tool group that provides invaluable data for exploring technological development and changes in resource exploitation over time. Despite its importance, Lower and Middle Paleolithic (MP) GST technology remains poorly known and understudied. The MP record of the...

Ground Stone Tools (GST) have been identified in several Levantine archaeological sites dating to the Middle Paleolithic. These tools, frequently made of limestone, are often interpreted based on their morphology and damage as having been used for knapping flint, and sometimes for breaking animal bones or processing vegetal materials as well. Howev...

This paper presents the results of the wood charcoal analyses from the Middle Paleolithic open-air site at Nesher Ramla, on the central coastal plain of Israel. The study focuses on the interpretation of the charcoals left by fires used by Middle Paleolithic hominins during early Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5. Moreover, this study sheds light on the...

Nesher Ramla is an open-air Middle Palaeolithic site located in central Israel, whose entire archaeological sequence is dated to the end of MIS 6 and MIS 5. This paper focuses on the analysis of the Levallois system along the 5-m-thick Upper sequence of the site (units I–II). The Levallois system at Nesher Ramla is characterised by the use of the c...

The Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP) is a less-studied phase of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic, attributable to the small number of sites discovered. Drawing on the dense archaeological accumulations at Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, the present study seeks to trace EMP daily activities and behavioral patterns through the prism of use-wear ana...

This paper communicates the results of a detailed use-wear analysis of flint tools from Unit III of Nesher Ramla, central Israel, an open-air Middle Paleolithic site, dated to Marine Isotope Stage 5. The analyzed sample consists of 966 artifacts that represent major techno-typological categories; scrapers, tools with a lateral tranchet blow, natura...

The affordance of raw materials around prehistoric sites can affect knappers’ decision-making process regarding raw material procurement. The Levant presents a rich flint affordance area in which a case study on the organizational decisions of hunter-gatherers regarding raw materials can be tested. Here we examine Unit IIb from the Nesher Ramla sit...

While abundant evidence for the use of fire has been identified for the Paleolithic period in the Levant, little evidence has come from open-air sites. This scarcity has brought into question the preservation potential of fragile fire remains at this type of site, which is normally exposed to wind deflation and fluvial erosion, and whether or not f...

During the Middle Paleolithic in Eurasia, the production of deliberate, abstract engraving on bone or stone materials is a rare phenomenon. It is now widely accepted that both anatomically modern humans and hominins that predate them have produced deliberate engravings associated with symbolic behavior. Within the Levantine Middle Paleolithic conte...

The open-air Middle Paleolithic site at Nesher Ramla, Israel, dated to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 6 and Marine Isotope Stage 5, is characterized by extensive use of the lateral tranchet blow technique. This technique consists of the removal of an elongated thin spall along the retouched edge of the blank. In Nesher Ramla, this technique is use...

Glycymeris shell beads found in Middle Palaeolithic sites are understood to be artifacts collected by modern humans for symbolic use. In Misliya Cave, Israel, dated to 240–160 ka BP, Glycymeris shells were found that were neither perforated nor manipulated; nevertheless, transportation to the cave is regarded as symbolic. In about 120 ka BP at Qafz...

Space use in Middle Paleolithic (MP) camps has been suggested as a source of information on the intensity and repetition of occupations and, by extension, of demographics. In the Levant, clear evidence for differential intrasite use and maintenance was important in viewing the late MP Neanderthal sites as base camps inhabited for a significant dura...

Interpreting human behavioral patterns during the Middle Paleolithic in the Levant is crucial for better understanding the dispersals and evolution of Homo sapiens and their possible interactions with other hominin groups. Here, we reconstruct the technological behavior, focusing on the centripetal Levallois method at Nesher Ramla karst sinkhole, I...

Variability in the composition of lithic assemblages stems from the combined action of different agents. In this study we used shifts in the relation between lithic artefact density and lithic technological organisation as a tool to better understand the underlying causes of lithic techno-typological variability throughout the archaeological sequen...

The Levantine Middle Paleolithic period displays significant archaeological variability across a series of cave and open-air sites encompassing ca. 200,000 years. Faunal remains are an important source of knowledge regarding hunting and mobility patterns but have mostly been studied in the deep stratigraphic sequences of the Levantine caves. This r...

3D quantification methods to characterize ground stone tools use: Application to the analyses of Unit V of Nesher Ramla (Middle Paleolithic, Central Levant)

In this paper we describe two assemblages of flint retouchers or “bulb retouchers” retrieved from Nesher Ramla and Quneitra, two Middle Palaeolithic, open-air sites in the Levant. The site of Nesher Ramla yielded the largest assemblage of bulb retouchers (n = 159) currently known, allowing a detailed investigation of this poorly known phenomenon. A...

Our original claim, based on three independent numerical dating methods, of an age of ~185,000 years for the Misliya-1 modern human hemi-maxilla from Mount Carmel, Israel, is little affected by discounting uranium-series dating of adhering crusts. It confirms a much earlier out-of-Africa Homo sapiens expansion than previously suggested by the consi...

We present a new example of bone engraving dated to ca 130 kys ago. It was retrieved from the Unit III at the Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nesher Ramla (Israel). The incised bone was found within a small round feature (around 50 cm in diameter) composed of few flint artifacts, stones (manuports) and dense in faunal remains. The zooarchaeolog...

Thanks to the fast burial and the minor post-depositional disturbances and deformations, the Unit III at Nesher Ramla (dated to ca.130 ky) is characterized by a great preservation of the archaeological features and has yielded more than 27000 flint artifacts, several thousand of faunal remains, numerous combustion features and other anthropogenic f...

Earliest modern humans out of Africa Recent paleoanthropological studies have suggested that modern humans migrated from Africa as early as the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, 120,000 years ago. Hershkovitz et al. now suggest that early modern humans were already present outside of Africa more than 55,000 years earlier (see the Perspective by St...

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...

The open-air site of Nahal Hesi, located on northwestern Negev desert fringe of Israel, is one of the few primary-context late Acheulian localities in the Levant. Late Acheulian sites in the Levant rarely provide faunal assemblages and radiometric ages, leaving large gaps in our knowledge of the Lower Paleolithic palaeoenvironment, ecology, subsist...

Après une brève présentation de la méthode de datation par la thermoluminescence (TL), l’article fait le bilan des datations obtenues avec cette méthode sur des silex chauffés récoltés dans des grottes du Proche-Orient dont le remplissage archéologique est attribué au Paléolithique moyen. Certains de ces sites ayant livré des fossiles humains, les...

Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel was occupied between 250 and 160 ka. During this time the site was inhabited by bearers of the Acheulo-Yabrudian and Early Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian ) techno-complexes. The Acheulo-Yabrudian industry is characterized by production of thick and wide flakes and shows no evidence of laminar or Levallois methods....

The Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nesher Ramla (Israel), located in a funnel-shaped depression, differs from other Levantine cave and open-air sites in the geomorphological settings and formation processes and thus provides a unique opportunity to study hominids adaptations in a different context. The large lithic assemblage from the Unit III...

Abu Sif points are the fossile directeur of the Levantine Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP; ca. 250–160 ka ago). At Misliya Cave these elongated retouched artifacts represent one of the major elements in the toolkit. In the past, Abu Sif points were interpreted as weapons or as multifunctional knives, and were considered to indicate incipient hafting...

This contribution presents analyses of projectile damage and morpho-metric characteristics of various point types from the Early Middle Paleolithic Misliya Cave , Mount Carmel , Israel. All the types present in the assemblage exhibit diagnostic impact fractures. Four types, i.e., Levallois points, Abu Sif points, Hummal points and the newly defined...

Middle Paleolithic human occupation in the Levant (250–50 ka ago) has been recorded in roofed (cave and rockshelter) and open-air sites. Research at these different types of sites yielded different perspectives on the Middle Paleolithic human behavior and evolution. Until recently, open-air Middle Paleolithic sites in the Levant were found in three...

The end of the Lower Paleolithic in the Levant is marked by the emergence of a new techno-complex known as Acheulo-Yabrudian (350–250 ka BP). Stratigraphically placed at the transition between the Acheulian and Mousterian techno-complexes, the Acheulo-Yabrudian is crucial for the understanding of biological, cultural and behavioral evolution from t...

The southern coastal plain of Israel is one of a few areas in the Levant where the natural availability of stones suitable for knapping is limited. Due to extensive deposition of quaternary sands, the only available raw material on the southern coastal plain are pebbles from sparse secondary sources. As a consequence, the area provides an excellent...

The resharpening of sidescrapers is a widely discussed issue in recent Middle Paleolithic studies. However, in the Levantine record the evidence for sidescraper resharpening is meager. The Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla, Israel, represents a rare case in which sidescrapers were frequently modified by removal of longitudinal spalls from the...

This paper describes unique formation processes at open-air Middle Palaeolithic site of Nesher Ramla, Israel, and presents results of the preliminary studies of the lithic assemblages of the site. The site is located in the karst depression formed by gravitational deformation and sagging into the underground voids. The depression was used by homini...

The lower stratigraphic sequence (units III–VI) of the Middle Palaeolithic site of Nesher Ramla was studied using geoarchaeological methods. Field observations indicate that the site formed within a karst depression that was infilled by colluvium and in which intermittent human activity occurred, including two layers highly rich in anthropogenic re...

A new open-air Mousterian site was found in karst depression on hilly limestone terrain of central Israel at Nesher Ramla. The paper highlights the complex history of depositional, post-depositional and pedogenic processes that took place at the later phases of Mousterian site formation during the OSL age interval between ∼80 and ∼115 ka. The Upper...

Early and Early-Middle Pleistocene archeological sites provide data about human dispersals into Europe from at least 1.2 Ma. Up to now, the fragmentary archeological record indicated only sporadic hominin presence, with punctated migration “waves” not necessarily leading to colonization. We consider an alternative demographical picture in which hom...

We report the discovery of a new type of hominin site in the Levant, inhabited during MIS 6-5. The site, found within a karst depression at Nesher Ramla, Israel, provides novel evidence for Middle Paleolithic lifeways in an environmental and depositional setting that is previously undocumented in the southern Levant. The carbonate bedrock in the ar...

The lithic assemblage of the Early Pleistocene site of Bizat Ruhama, Israel demonstrates the earliest evidence for systematic secondary knapping of flakes. The site, dated to the Matuyama chron, is one of the earliest primary context Oldowan occurrences in Eurasia. According to the experimental replication of the stone-tool production sequence, the...

Observations taken in course of the knapping experiments. (DOCX)

Full list of attributes applied to experimental and archaeological secondary knapped flakes. (DOCX)

The fourth and fifth seasons of excavations at Raqefet Cave took place in the summers of 2010 and 2011, respectively. The focus was on the Late Natufian burial area in chamber 1. During these two seasons we unearthed 12 human skeletons, and in total there are now ca. 29 skeletons. The following report includes an analysis of oxygen and carbon isoto...

The Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) industries in the Levant (ca 250-160 ka ago) are distinguished by the presence of true laminar technology, alongside Levallois recurrent unidirectional and bidirectional flaking methods. The EMP further differs from the later MP in the composition of the toolkit. It was previously suggested that EMP retouched too...

Bizat Ruhama, an Early Pleistocene site located in the southern coastal plain of Israel, has yielded a single archaeological horizon dating to the Matuyama chron. Recent technological and zooarchaeological studies suggest evidence of near in situ hominin occupations taking place in a semiarid climatic setting. Such an archaeological context is rare...

The Southern Levant is a pivotal area for the study of hominin paleoecology during the Lower Paleolithic, because of its location on the out-of-Africa dispersal route and its significant ecological diversity. Important information has been gained by archaeofaunal studies, which usually reveal that exploitation of diverse Mediterranean environments...

The earliest evidence of hominin presence outside of Africa is scarce. Although it is clear that hominins reached Eurasia at the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, equipped with an Oldowan-like tool-kit, the Eurasian Early Pleistocene archaeological record is actually limited to a few occurrences, many of which are not in primary ar-chaeological c...

Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, contains rich Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP) habitation layers. Sediments within a deep 1m 2 sounding at the Upper Terrace of the site underwent detailed geoarchaeological analyses, coupled with techno-typological and taphonomic analyses of the archaeological material that enabled a focused look deep into the lay...

Résumé Bizat Ruhama est un site paléolithique inférieur localisé dans la partie est de la plaine bordant la côte sud d'Israël. Il a été récemment daté d'environ 1 ma. En termes d'industrie lithique, Bizat Ruhama constitue un phénomène unique parmi les sites du Paléolithique inférieur du Levant. Son outillage est caractérisé par la production de pet...

Bizat Ruhama is a lower Palaeolithic site in the southern coastal plain of Israel. The site was recently dated to ca. 1ma. In terms of lithic industry, Bizat Ruhama is a unique phenomenon amongst the Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Levant. The lithic assemblage of the site is characterized by the production of small (ca. 25mm) tools, flakes and cor...