Acheulo-Yabrudian complex

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The Acheulo-Yabrudian complex is a complex of archaeological cultures in the Levant at the end of the Lower Palaeolithic. It follows the Acheulian and precedes the Mousterian. It is also called the Mugharan Tradition [1] or the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC). [2]

Contents

The Acheulo-Yabrudian complex has three stone-tool traditions, chronologically: the Acheulo-Yabrudian, the Yabrudian and the Pre-Aurignacian or Amudian. The Yabrudian tradition is dominated by thick scrapers shaped by steep Quina retouch; the Acheuleo-Yabrudian contains Yabrudian scrapers and handaxes; and the Pre-Aurignacian/Amudian is dominated by blades and blade-tools. [3]

Dating

Determining the age period for the Acheulo-Yabrudian has been difficult as its major excavations occurred in the 1930s and 1950s before modern radiometric dating. The recently excavated Qesem and Tabun caves, however, suggest the oldest period is about 350 kyr and the most recent 200 kyr. This would make the Lower–Middle Palaeolithic transition rapid occurring at 215,000 BP within a 30,000 year period. [4] Some date it earlier at 400,000-220,000 bp. [5]

Major sites

See also

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References

  1. Jelinek, Arthur J (1990). Paul Mellars (ed.). The Emergence of Modern Humans: An Archaeological Perspective. Cornell University Press. pp. 81–90. ISBN   978-0-8014-2614-8 . Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  2. Falguères, C.; Richard, M.; Tombret, O.; Shao, Q.; Bahain, J.J.; Gopher, A.; Barkai, R. (2016). "New ESR/U-series dates in Yabrudian and Amudian layers at Qesem Cave, Israel". Quaternary International. 398: 6–12. Bibcode:2016QuInt.398....6F. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.02.006. ISSN   1040-6182.
  3. Malinsky-Buller, Ariel (2016). "The Muddle in the Middle Pleistocene: The Lower–Middle Paleolithic Transition from the Levantine Perspective". Journal of World Prehistory. 29 (1): 1–78. doi:10.1007/s10963-016-9092-1. ISSN   0892-7537. S2CID   163849598.
  4. Barkai, R.; Gopher, A.; Lauritzen, S. E.; Frumkin, A. (2003). "Uranium series dates from Qesem Cave, Israel, and the end of the Lower Palaeolithic". Nature. 423 (6943): 977–979. Bibcode:2003Natur.423..977B. doi:10.1038/nature01718. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   12827199. S2CID   4415446.
  5. Shimelmitz, Ron; Kuhn, Steven L. (2017). "Shifting understandings of the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition at Tabun Cave". In Otte, Marcel (ed.). Vocation préhistoire. Hommage á Jean-Marie Le Tensorer. ERAUL. pp. 343–353. ISBN   978-2-930495-34-7.