Beach deposits containing Middle Paleolithic archaeological remains from northern Israel

Abstract

Beach deposits of the last interglacial maximum, MIS 5e, are common on the Mediterranean coasts, however only a few of them contain archaeological remains. Four beach deposits containing Paleolithic remains were previously identified on the Carmel coast of northern Israel which relate to the MIS 5e sea-level high stand of the last interglacial maximum. Here we report on a newly identified outcrop of beach deposit containing archaeological remains from Rosh Haniqra, on the northern Galilee coast, termed the Rosh Haniqra railway hill section. This beach deposit is in the form of a tilted lens (12.5 m long and 1.5 m thick) and is composed of seven layers, containing limestone pebbles and cobbles, crushed and whole marine shells, flaked flint implements and a mammalian bone, cemented by calcite. While the previously known Carmel coast beach deposits are embedded above or in kurkar deposits (aeolian calcareous cemented quartz sandstone), the Rosh Haniqra railway hill beach deposit lies directly on Cretaceous bedrock and is overlain by a 5 m-thick layer of kurkar. Based on the typology of the lithic artifacts and their similarity to other Middle and Late Mousterian flint assemblages found in beach deposits and loamy red soils along the northern Israeli coast, the Rosh Haniqra railway hill beach deposit probably dates to the MIS 5e high sea stand. However, its attribution to the earlier MIS 7 stage dating to ca. 200 ka, cannot be entirely discounted. Future absolute dating of the deposits may clarify this issue.