Dorothy Garrod's Excavations in the Late Mousterian of Shukbah Cave in Palestine Reconsidered

Abstract

Professor Dorothy A.E. Garrod's 1928 excavation of the Mousterian Layer D at Shukbah Cave in the Wadi en-Natuf (Palestine) has been neglected by prehistorians in favour of the Epipalaeolithic Layer B with its Natufian culture, for which Shukbah is the typesite. The excavation of Layer D is now re-examined with the aid of Garrod's own unpublished documentation and photographs, and the lithic industry analysed in the light of her conclusion that it was the work of a late Middle Palaeolithic hominid population, probably of Neanderthal type. Application of current analytical methods to approximately one half of the recovered assemblage confirms Garrod's correlation of the Shukbah Mousterian with Tabun Layer B in the later model for the Mount Carmel Levantine Palaeolithic succession. Comparison is made, and consistency demonstrated, with the late Mousterian industry of Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel, excavation 1982–90) and the Shukbah D assemblage is further considered in the wider regional context of approximately contemporary sites ranging from southern Jordan to northern Syria. Suggestions are made regarding future excavation at Shukbah.