Origin of an Early Upper Palaeolithic obsidian burin at Ksar Akil (Lebanon): Evidence of increased connectivity ahead of the Levantine Aurignacian?

Abstract

Given the importance of the Levant in understanding the origins and dispersals of modern humans, there has been great interest in archaeological evidence to support population movements between the Levant and adjacent regions. The link, if any, between the Aurignacian tradition across Europe and the “Levantine Aurignacian” is a particular focus. Ksar Akil in Lebanon not only is one of the most deeply stratified Levantine sites but also has the longest record of Upper Paleolithic behaviors, so it is a benchmark to which developments in the Levant are often compared. Schmidt and Zimmermann (2019) recently proposed that the European Aurignacian tradition might best be understood in terms of connectivity, as evidenced by long-distance lithic transfers that can act as a proxy for mobility and social networks. Here we document a previously unreported obsidian burin from Ksar Akil. Portable X-ray fluorescence reveals that it matches a source ≥700 km away on foot in central Turkey. Two recent dating programs have calculated ages of ~41–38 and ~39–37 ka cal BP for its layer, which also included an obsidian flake and immediately precedes the Levantine Aurignacian at the site. The obsidian artifacts from Ksar Akil are roughly contemporaneous obsidian from Yabroud Rockshelter II in Syria and Shanidar Cave in Iraq. Such instances of long-distance obsidian transport imply that connectivity might have risen ahead of the Levantine and Zagros Aurignacian. Unfortunately, due to the limited chronological resolution of older excavations at these sites, only at Ksar Akil can we have confidence that the layer containing obsidian artifacts immediately precedes the earliest Levantine Aurignacian sensu stricto layer. Given the apparent rarity of obsidian in the Levant, this region will benefit from endeavors to nondestructively source other toolstone materials as a means to create datasets similar to those recently used to model cultural areas of the European Aurignacian.