The Middle Paleolithic: Early Modern Humans and Neandertals in the Levant

@article{Shea2001TheMP,
  title={The Middle Paleolithic: Early Modern Humans and Neandertals in the Levant},
  author={John J. Shea},
  journal={Near Eastern Archaeology},
  year={2001},
  volume={64},
  pages={38 - 64}
}
  • J. Shea
  • Published 1 March 2001
  • Geology
  • Near Eastern Archaeology
The Levant has always been a crossroads and a zone of dispute. This truism was as relevant in the deep past as it is today. Dr. Shea insightfully reviews the extraordinarily rich fossil and artifactual record that has been extracted by multidisciplinary teams of researchers from the rockshelters, caves and open sites of the western Near East. In so doing he illustrates how paleontological, biological, geological, ethnoarchaeological, and experimental archaeological theories and techniques are… 
View on U Chicago Press
21 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
3

21 Citations

The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant

  • J. Shea
  • Geography, Environmental Science
  • 2003
This paper reviews recent developments in geochronology, archaeology, and behavioral interpretations of the Middle Paleolithic Period (ca. 47–250 Kyr) in the East Mediterranean Levant. Neandertals…

Case Study 20. The Neanderthal Problem: Neighbors and Relatives on Mt. Carmel

Mount Carmel in northern Israel lies on the route of any people traveling between Africa and Eurasia along the Mediterranean. It has been a sacred site and a refuge for fugitives from the world or…

Context of modern human occupations in North Africa: Contribution of the Témara caves data

Neandertals, competition, and the origin of modern human behavior in the Levant

  • J. Shea
  • Geography, Environmental Science
  • 2003
The East Mediterranean Levant is a small region, but its paleoanthropological record looms large in debates about the origin of modern humans and the fate of the Neandertals. For most of the…

The Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition and the diversification of Levallois technology in the Southern Levant: Evidence from Tabun Cave, Israel

Hominin Adaptability and Patterns of Faunal Turnover in the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition in the Levant

The Levant is one of the key regions to document hominin dispersal from Africa into Eurasia. The number of dispersals, continuity of populations within the region, and the role of the region as a…

Thermoluminescence Dating of Surface Lithic Artefacts from the Chacabuco Valley, Chilean Patagonia

This work presents several thermoluminescence (TL) dates of six archaeological sites located in the Andean valley of the Chacabuco River, central Patagonia. We discuss the advantages of this method…

The Middle Palaeolithic of Cyrenaica: Is there an Aterian at the Haua Fteah and does it matter?

Palaeolithic Human Subsistence in Mount Carmel (Israel). A Taphonomic Assessment of Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic Faunal Remains from Tabun, Skhul and el-Wad

Detailed archaeozoological studies of Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic (250–40 kya) faunal assemblages from Tabun, Skhul and el-Wad caves, located in Mount Carmel (Israel), are presented here,…

The origin of anatomically modern humans and their behavior in africa and eurasia

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 112 REFERENCES

A Middle Palaeolithic burial of a modern human at Taramsa Hill, Egypt

Discussion about a possible African origin of modern humans is hampered by the lack of Late Pleistocene skeletal material from the Nile valley, the likely passage-way from East Africa to Asia and…

New perspectives on the “Proto-cromagnons” from Israel

The present paper deals with the two identifiedHomo sapiens groups in the Middle Palaeolithic from the Near East, the Neandertals and the Modern Humans. Their main morphological characteristics are…

Spear Points from the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant

AbstractMicroscopic examination of stone artifacts from Middle Paleolithic occupations of Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel, Israel) reveals wear patterns consistent with the interpretation of these objects…

The Dating of the Upper Paleolithic Layers in Kebara Cave, Mt Carmel

Abstract Renewed excavations in Kebara cave (Mt Carmel) made it possible to obtain a series of radiocarbon dates from the Upper Paleolithic layers of the site. The various readings indicate the…

THE LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES OF AMUD CAVE Implications for Understanding the End of the Mousterian in the Levant

The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Levant is a cultural phase of short duration. Indeed, its actual occurrence as reflected in the region’s archaeological record is debated. The blade…

The Faunal Sequence of the Southwest Asian Middle Paleolithic in Relation to Hominid Dispersal Events

A realistic appraisal of Southwest Asia during the late Middle and Upper Pleistocene is hampered by the difficulties involved in understanding two key issues. The first is the taxonomical position…

A New Synthesis of Middle Paleolithic Variability

The familiar debate concerning Middle Paleolithic variability has opposed stylistic vs. functional explanations based on the assumption that tool types and assemblage groups represent discrete,…

The Chronology and Taphonomy of the Earliest Aurignacian and Its Implications for the Understanding of Neandertal Extinction

The view that the Châtelperronian is the acculturation of late Neandertals brought about by contact with nearby moderns assumes an age of ca. 40,000 years ago for the earliest Aurignacian. However,…

Middle Palaeolithic burial is not a dead issue: the view from Qafzeh, Saint-Césaire, Kebara, Amud, and Dederiyeh.

  • R. Gargett
  • Environmental Science, Geography
    Journal of human evolution
  • 1999
This re-examination suggests that in all of the post-1960s cases of putative burial, the hominid remains occur in special depositional circumstances, which by themselves are sufficient to account for the preservation in evidence at these sites, which severely weakens arguments for purposeful burial at the five sites.

The Question of Ritual Cannibalism at Grotta Guattari [and Comments and Replies]

The Neandertal cranium (Circeo I) from Guattari Cave at Monte Circeo has, in the 50 years since its discovery, become an icon for Neandertal mortuary practices. The isolated nature of the specimen,…
...