Expansion of early modern humans from Africa

Emiran culture was a culture that existed in the Levant ( Lebanon,

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

, Syria, Jordan, Israel , and

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

between the

Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleo ...

and the

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coi ...

periods. It is the oldest known of the

cultures and remains an enigma as it transitionally has no clear African progenitor. This has led some scholars to conclude that the Emiran is autochthonous to the Levant. However, some argue that the Emiran reflects broader technological trends observed earlier in North Africa, at older sites like Taramsa 1 in Egypt, "which contains modern human remains dated to 75,000 years ago".

Emiran period

Emiran culture may have developed from the local Mousterian without rupture, keeping numerous elements of the Levalloise-Mousterian, together with the locally typical Emireh point. The Emireh point is the type tool of stage one of the

, first identified in the Emiran culture. Numerous stone blade tools were used, including curved knives similar to those found in the Châtelperronian culture of Western Europe. The Emiran eventually evolved into the Ahmarian, and later the Levantine Aurignacian culture (formerly called

Antelian The Levantine Aurignacian (35,000-29,000 BP, calibrated, 32,000-26,000 BP, non-calibrated) is an Upper Paleolithic culture of the Near-Eastern Levant that evolved from the Emiran culture. It was named so because of the similarity of stone tools w ...

), still of Levalloise tradition but with some

Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with European early modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where t ...

influences. According to

Dorothy Garrod Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod, CBE, FBA (5 May 1892 – 18 December 1968) was an English archaeologist who specialised in the Palaeolithic period. She held the position of Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1 ...

, the Emireh point, known from several sites in

, is the hallmark of this culture.

Relationships

" Levantine Aurignacian", from the Levant, is a type of blade technology very similar to the European

, following chronologically the Emiran and Early Ahmarian in the same area of the Near East, and closely related to them. Image:Emireh point.png, Emireh point microlith File:Emireh-Point.jpg, Emireh point.

Emiran period

Relationships

See also

References

Further reading