Middle Palaeolithic Lithic Technology from the Western High Desert of Egypt

Abstract

Recent work in the high desert west of Abydos in Egypt has focused on the Middle Palaeolithic technologies known as Nubian 1 and 2 types and classic Levallois, which are abundant and are found in virtually all stages of production. Although these were originally defined and treated as three discrete technologies, refitting and quantitative analyses show that they are variants of one technology. While this has direct implications for interpreting lithic technological variability in this region, the demonstration that a single technology can result in seemingly discrete end products also has implications for all lithic technological studies.