New Epipalaeolithic assemblages from the middle Euphrates and the implications for technological and settlement trends in the northeastern Levant

Abstract

This paper concerns diachronic trends in human technological behaviors and settlements during the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic periods in the northeastern Levant. The paper reconsiders a conventional view that links an increase in Epipalaeolithic settlements in the northeastern Levant to the archaeological entity called “Geometric Kebaran”. We re-examine the variability of the “Geometric Kebaran” assemblages in the northeastern Levant by adding two new microlithic assemblages (Wadi Kharar 16K and 16AT′) from the middle Euphrates region. On the basis of several techno-typological attributes of microliths, we suggest that the two assemblages represent two major techno-typological variants. The first group, including Wadi Kharar 16K, is characterized by large scalene triangles and truncations in association with the microburin technique, while the second group, represented by Wadi Kharar 16AT′, is dominated by trapeze-rectangles.We then discuss technological trends in the northeastern Levant in comparison with those in the southern Levant, where more comparative assemblages and radiocarbon dates are available. We argue that the group dominated by trapeze-rectangles in the northeastern Levant corresponds techno-typologically and chronologically to the Geometric Kebaran in the southern Levant. It is more difficult to specify which industry in the southern Levant is most similar to the group with scalene triangles and truncations in the northeastern Levant, but the latter group shows several techno-typological features that occur in the Early Epipalaeolithic in the southern Levant.Based on these chrono-cultural correlations between the northeastern and southern Levant, we suggest that Epipalaeolithic settlements started to increase in the northeastern Levant earlier than traditionally thought, i.e., before the appearance of the Geometric Kebaran. The proposed revision of the timing for the settlement intensification in the northeastern Levant significantly leads to a certain degree of parallel with a recent model of settlement dynamics in the southeastern Levant near the Azraq Basin.