The Tabunian is a

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

stone tool industry that is a Near Eastern variant of the

Tayacian The Tayacian is a Palaeolithic stone tool industry that is a variant of the Mousterian. It was first identified as distinct by Abbé Breuil from the site of La Micoque in Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac although since then the cave at Fontéchevade has become ...

and

Clactonian The Clactonian is the name given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tool manufacture that dates to the early part of the interglacial period known as the Hoxnian, the Mindel- Riss or the Holstein stages (c. 400,000 years ago). C ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. It was excavated in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

from layer G at the site of

Tabun Cave The Tabun Cave is an excavated site located at Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve, Israel and is one of the Human Evolution sites at Mount Carmel, which were proclaimed as having universal value by UNESCO in 2012. History Together with the nearby ...

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 ...

and layers E, F and G at Umm Qatafa by R. Neuville and later identified as distinct by

Francis Clark Howell Francis Clark Howell (November 27, 1925 – March 10, 2007), generally known as F. Clark Howell, was an American anthropologist. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, F. Clark Howell grew up in Kansas, where he became interested in natural history. H ...

. The tools of this culture are characterized by a lack of

biface A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a Prehistory, prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually f ...

s and use of

Levallois technique The Levallois technique () is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to 300,000 years ago during the Middle Palaeolithic period. It is part of the Mousterian stone tool industry, and was ...

is absent.{{cite book, author=Thomas Levy, title=Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-etsKv-4V2oC&pg=PA97, accessdate=9 September 2012, date=1 November 1998, publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group, isbn=978-0-8264-6996-0, pages=97–

References

Archaeological cultures of the Near East Paleolithic Lithics Middle Stone Age