Stone Age Animal Carving, Hayonim Cave, 28000 BP (detail)

The Levantine Aurignacian (35,000-29,000 BP, calibrated, 32,000-26,000 BP, non-calibrated) is an

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 coin ...

culture of the

Near-East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

ern

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

that evolved from the

Emiran culture Emiran culture was a culture that existed in the Levant (Lebanon, Palestine , Syria, Jordan, Israel , and Arabia between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic periods. It is the oldest known of the Upper Paleolithic cultures and rem ...

. It was named so because of the similarity of stone tools with the Aurignacian culture in Europe. The Levantine Aurignacian used to be called Lower and Upper

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 ...

in old sources, from the site of Wadi Antelias in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. The most important innovation in this period is the incorporation of some typical elements of Aurignacian, like some types of burins and narrow blade points that resemble the European type of Font-Yves.

Levantine Aurignacian period

Similarities with Aurignacian are found in the manufacture of blades and in the processing of bone tools. The Levantine Aurignacian follows chronologically the

Emiran Emiran culture was a culture that existed in the Levant (Lebanon, Palestine , Syria, Jordan, Israel , and Arabia between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic periods. It is the oldest known of the Upper Paleolithic cultures and r ...

and Early Ahmarian in the same area of the Near East, and closely related to them. The carving of a horse with traces of a layer of ocher painting from HaYonim Cave, now in the Israel Museum, is generally categorized as Aurignacian and variously dated to 40,000-18,500 BP. This may be one of the earliest known manifestations of human art, together with the ocher pieces of the Blombos Cave, before the outpouring of

parietal art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also m ...

in Europe. The Levantine Aurignacian is part of the technological shift from the Middle Paleolithic to the

, but the arrival of modern humans ''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

'' in the Levant still predates the Levantine Aurignacian by tens of thousands of years. The earliest Upper Paleolithic entity is the local

Ahmarian The Ahmarian culture was a Paleolithic archeological industry in Levant dated at 46,000–42,000 BP and thought to be related to Levantine Emiran and younger European Aurignacian cultures. The word “Ahmarian” was adopted from the archaeol ...

, with the first full-fledged blade/bladelet technology, to which the Levantine Aurignacian succeeds, possibly after a few thousand years of co-existence. The Emiran period and the Ahmarian period form the very first periods of the

, corresponding to the first stages of the expansion of ''

'' out of Africa. From this stage, the first modern humans probably migrated to Europe to form the beginning of the European Upper Paleolithic, including the Aurignacian culture. There is a possibility that the Levantine Aurignacian was the result of reverse influence from the European Aurignacian, but this remains unsettled.

Phases

* Upper Paleolithic III (lower Antelian). * Upper Paleolithic IV (upper Antelian): proliferation of burin types and decrease in the number of Font-Yves points. First and almost only use of

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

for tools in the region, very rare in any case. * Upper Paleolithic V (Athlitian): specialization of Antelian with a comeback of the '' Chatelperronian'' knives of the Emiran.

Next period: the Kebaran microlithic culture

By the end of the Levantine Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries. The first phase of the

Epipalaeolithic Near East The Epipalaeolithic Near East designates the Epipalaeolithic ("Final Old Stone Age", also known as Mesolithic) in the prehistory of the Near East. It is the period after the Upper Palaeolithic and before the Neolithic, between approximately 20,00 ...

, also known as

Kebaran The Kebaran culture, also known as the Early Near East Epipalaeolithic, was an archaeological culture in the Eastern Mediterranean area (c. 23,000 to 15,000 BP), named after its type site, Kebara Cave south of Haifa. The Kebaran were a highly ...

, lasts from 20,000 to 12,150 BP.Simmons, 47-48 Small stone tools called

microlith A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Th ...

s and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this culture period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts.

Sites

*Central

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...

sites D14, D18, D22, D27 A,B *El-Quseir * HaYonim Cave D * Kebara Cave D *

Ksar Akil Ksar Akil (also Ksar 'Akil or Ksar Aqil) is an archeological site northeast of Beirut in Lebanon. It is located about west of Antelias spring on the north bank of the northern tributary of the Wadi Antelias. It is a large rock shelter below ...

, shelter VII *

Raqefet Cave Raqefet Cave (''Cyclamen Cave'') is a Late Natufian archaeological site located in Mount Carmel in the north of Israel. It was discovered in 1956. The site indicates plants were already used as food at Raqefet, before the advent of agriculture. ...

, level III-IV *Umm el Tlel

Artifacts

File:Mousterian & Aurignacian Cultures, Stone Burins used for incising stone and wood, Qafzeh, Hayonim, el-Wad Cave, 250,000-22,000 BP Israel (detail).jpg,

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the l ...

& Aurignacian Cultures, stone burins used for incising stone and wood, Qafzeh, Hayonim, el-Wad Cave, 250,000-22,000 BP Israel File:Aurignacian Culture Incised Animal Bones Hayonim Cave 28000 BP.jpg, Aurignacian Culture incised animal bones, Hayonim Cave, 28,000 BP. File:Aurignacian Culture Bone Tools, Hayonim Cave, 30000 BP.jpg, Aurignacian Culture bone tools (needle, points and tools for punching holes), Hayonim Cave, 30,000 BP.

References

Bibliography

* Simmons, Alan H., ''The Neolithic Revolution in the Near East: Transforming the Human Landscape'', 2007, University of Arizona Press,
google books
*M. H. Alimen and M. J. Steve, ''Historia Universal siglo XXI. Prehistoria''. Siglo XXI Editores, 1970 (reviewed and corrected in 1994) (original German edition, 1966, titled ''Vorgeschichte''). {{ISBN, 84-323-0034-9 Upper Paleolithic cultures of Asia Levantine archaeology Prehistory of the Middle East