Qaraoun culture

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Lake Qaraoun, ancient home of the Qaraoun culture. Lake Qaraaoun.jpg
Lake Qaraoun, ancient home of the Qaraoun culture.
Heavy Neolithic tool of the Qaraoun culture found at Mtaileb I - Thick and heavy biface, retouched all over with jagged and irregular edges. Light grey and streaky silicious limestone. Heavyneolithicbiface.jpg
Heavy Neolithic tool of the Qaraoun culture found at Mtaileb I - Thick and heavy biface, retouched all over with jagged and irregular edges. Light grey and streaky silicious limestone.

The Qaraoun culture is a culture of the Lebanese Stone Age around Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley. [1] The Gigantolithic or Heavy Neolithic flint tool industry of this culture was recognized as a particular Neolithic variant of the Lebanese highlands by Henri Fleisch, who collected over one hundred flint tools within two hours on 2 September 1954 from the site. Fleisch discussed the discoveries with Alfred Rust and Dorothy Garrod, who confirmed the culture to have Neolithic elements. Garrod said that the Qaraoun culture "in the absence of all stratigraphical evidence may be regarded as mesolithic or proto-neolithic". [2]

Lebanon Country in Western Asia

Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus is west across the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized sovereign state on the mainland Asian continent.

Stone Age Broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements

The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking.

Qaraoun Town in Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon

Qaraoun is a Lebanese Town, 85 km from Beirut, known for its Lake Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley formed by the El Wauroun Dam built in 1959. It is an ecologically fragile zone in the Western Beqaa District. The village lies about 800 m above sea level. The dam is located nearby on the Litani River.

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Reverend Father Henri Fleisch was a French archaeologist, missionary and Orientalist, known for his work on classical Arabic language and Lebanese dialect and prehistory in Lebanon. Fleisch spent years recording and recovering lithics from prehistoric Lebanese archaeological sites and in 1954, it was confirmed that he had discovered and named a previously unknown proto-Neolithic culture in Lebanon called the Qaraoun culture that used a flint industry he termed Heavy Neolithic.

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Heavy Neolithic

Heavy Neolithic is a style of large stone and flint tools associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dating to the Epipaleolithic or early Pre-pottery Neolithic at the end of the Stone Age. The type site for the Qaraoun culture is Qaraoun II.

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