Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, ranging from around 57,000 to 29,000 years ago, is a period of significant archaeological interest due to notable transitions in lithic technology and hominin populations. In Europe, this time saw the replacement of Middle Palaeolithic (MP) technologies associated with Neanderthals by Upper Palaeolithic (UP) technologies linked to anatomically modern humans (AMHs). This technological shift is conventionally attributed to a demographic turnover; however, the timing of this transition varied regionally. The presence of Neanderthals and AMHs in the Levant, western Europe, and elsewhere over extended periods complicates the narrative, suggesting asynchronous and regionally diverse associations of hominin species and lithic technologies. This study shifts the attention to potential technological and cultural transmissions among MP- and UP-making groups, emphasizing the roles of social and exchange networks. Recent data from the obsidian-rich Armenian Highlands enable us to consider the mobility and land use of these groups without the added complication of toolstone with different knapping qualities, so patterns more clearly reflect mobility patterns, land use strategies, and potential social connections of foraging groups. These results suggest that, while MP-making groups in MIS 3 had overlapping territories, the UP-making groups at Aghitu-3 had smaller movements on the landscape. In contrast, MIS 2 sites with UP lithic assemblages have resource territories that apparently overlapped much like those of the MIS 3 MP sites. The findings hint at the possibility that differing mobility and land use during MIS 3 might have contributed to the coexistence of distinct lithic technologies, potentially through social transmission rather than a direct replacement of hominin populations.

The renewed excavation of the Ein Gev IV Epipalaeolithic (Nizzanan) site, in the Upper Jordan Valley, provides a novel insight into the long-durée process that, in hindsight, set the stage for the pivotal changes attested during the Late Epiplaeolithic Natufian and subsequent pre-Pottery Neolithic cultural entities. Based on the analysis of the archaeological deposit, the lithic assemblage, and a series of new radiometric dates it is possible to suggest that Ein Gev IV might have been occupied for a large part of the year as a residential site, embedded in a tight social network that included other Nizzanan sites in Transjordan and the Negev. The new data highlight the complexity of the pre-Natufian Epipalaeolithic population dynamics, and advocate for a paradigm shift, loosening the rigid separation between Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic cultural entities and focusing on how social and environmental factors might have affected the development and transmission of innovations between interconnected local populations over the whole pre-Natufian Epipalaeolithic period.

Particle shape properties, such as aspect ratio, circularity and convexity, can be utilised as indicators for textural maturity, encapsulating the means to assess similarities and differences among sediment populations from variable depositional settings. The characterisation of sediment particle morphologies can provide insights into the transportation mechanisms and depositional environments of sedimentary sequences, including anthropo-sedimentary strata from archaeological sites. Here we present a new approach on the quantification shape from sediment samples, implementing dynamic image analysis through the of the Analysette 28 ImageSizer (Fritsch). The grain shape study is conducted in conjunction to micromorphological characterisation of particle surface topographies (SEM), granulometric and mineralogical (XRD) analyses. Chemical treatment and mechanical sieving are incorporated in the sample preparation process, while a standard operational procedure is suggested. Preliminary results from samples originating from differential geomorphological settings, including sandy soils, coastal and dune deposits from the coastal plain of Israel, provide the basis for the establishment of the proposed approach. Further integration of this methodological framework to Palaeolithic archaeological sites will provide additional analytical pathways in deciphering complex archaeological site formation processes.

Fundamental changes in the lifeways of hunter-gatherers occurred in tandem with rapid climatic changes spanning 13,000 years of the Epipaleolithic period (25-12 ka, EP hereafter), until the onset of the Holocene. Local hunter-gatherers groups showed reduced mobility causing a cascade effect manifested in demography, social organization, economy, subsistence strategies, and material culture. The transformation of western Asian mobile hunter-gatherers into a sedentary way of life is mostly investigated from the last stage of this process: the Late Epipaleolithic sedentary 'Natufian' (ca. 15-12 cal ky). Sedentarization was a long-term process that spanned the Epipaleolithic period, caused by social, economic, and demographic mechanisms. Yet, in the archeological record sedentism seems to appear abruptly in the Late Epipaleolithic (Natufian culture). However, the preceding Middle Epipaleolithic period, represented in the Mediterranean region by the mobile 'Geometric Kebaran' culture (ca. 18-15 cal ky), is still not well understood. Some pivotal issues such as precise chronology, site organization, nature of occupation, human-environment interaction and subsistence, all require additional investigation. Specifically, site occupation intensity as a proxy for the process of sedentism is lacking in the current discourse. This information is crucial for evaluating the nature and tempo of the cultural processes leading to the appearance of sedentary societies either as a rapid punctuated event or a gradual process. Recent excavations at the site of Tahunat es-Sukkar (TeS), located in the Bet Shean Valley on the flanks of the Dead Sea Transform in Israel, provide a unique opportunity to test these archeological questions utliziling geomorphological toolkits. The site is embedded within an active spring system that deposited a massive tufa complex stretching more than 9 km from north to south, and covering a surface area of 7 km² and 30-50 meters thick that accumulated over the last 300,000 years. Geometric Kebaran findss are distributed within a 2 m thick sequence marked by stratigraphic boundaries of spring deposits over an area of ca. 100 sq. Ongoing detailed sedimentological, micromorphological and isotopic analysis together with high-resolution U-Series dating, provide a refined context for the Middle Epipaleolithic occupation within this dynamic marshy environment. Initial results provide promising prospects for the preservation of a long-term behavioral record building a bridge between geomorphology and archeological questions.

Observations about handaxe techno-morphology, like their symmetry, refinement, and fine edges have long been used to reconstruct the evolution of hominin cognition, skills, and technological decision making. However, these interpretations about the cognitive and technical abilities of Acheulean hominins often rely on the most ‘beautiful’ or supposedly ‘archetypical’ looking handaxes. But how often do these finely made handaxes actually occur in assemblages and how can we identify handaxes that were more skillfully made than others? Instead of seeking to estimate the skill level of individual past knappers, a trait that is oftentimes obscured in the archaeological record, we approach the question of knapping skill from the other direction. We instead ask how much skill was required to manufacture a handaxe? We explore, not the skill level of a handaxe’s maker, but how skillfully an individual handaxe was made. We put forth a suite of novel 3D methods of handaxe analysis for calculating their 3D edge sinuosity and 3D asymmetry. Using these methods, we quantify traits that are difficult to achieve during handaxe-making, providing an estimate of the requisite amount of ability, experience, attention, and effort demanded by their manufacture. Among our large sample of handaxes from the later Acheulean of the southern Levant, we find that blank size and tool-/site-use best explain the presence of more skillfully-made handaxes. Handaxes made on larger original blanks appear to afford more volume with which to enact longer and more skillfully demanding reduction sequences. Moreover, handaxes occurring at more recurrently occupied sites demanded less skill investment and appear geared towards the more expedient fulfilment of quotidian tasks. In the later Acheulean of the southern Levant there appears to be a great diversity in how skillfully handaxes were made, likely reflecting a diversity in the goals of handaxe making.

The south Levantine mid-Middle Palaeolithic (mid-MP; ~130–80 thousand years ago (ka)) is remarkable for its exceptional evidence of human morphological variability, with contemporaneous fossils of Homo sapiens and Neanderthal-like hominins. Yet, it remains unclear whether these hominins adhered to discrete behavioural sets or whether regional-scale intergroup interactions could have homogenized mid-MP behaviour. Here we report on our discoveries at Tinshemet Cave, Israel. The site yielded articulated Homo remains in association with rich assemblages of ochre, fauna and stone tools dated to ~100 ka. Viewed from the perspective of other key regional sites of this period, our findings indicate consolidation of a uniform behavioural set in the Levantine mid-MP, consisting of similar lithic technology, an increased reliance on large-game hunting and a range of socially elaborated behaviours, comprising intentional human burial and the use of ochre in burial contexts. We suggest that the development of this behavioural uniformity is due to intensified inter-population interactions and admixture between Homo groups ~130–80 ka.

Exploring and using remote segments of complex karst systems represents the incorporation of one of the wildest and most demanding natural environments into the cultural fabric of Neolithic-Chalcolithic village-based communities in the Levant. The unique preservation of an early fifth-millennium bce activity phase in Har Sifsof Cave in northern Israel allows for a detailed investigation of an early case of human interaction with the deep underground in this region. The study of archaeological assemblages, environmental and speleological data and spatial distribution of cultural remains form the basis for interpreting the activity inside the cave in the context of fertility cults. The rituals conducted in Har Sifsof Cave revolve around the agricultural cycle of cereal grains and include the interment of multiple individuals, some of whom were buried in remote cul-de-sac passages. The emergence of complex caves as favourable off-settlement arenas dedicated to ritual activity during the later stages of Neolithization marks a conscious effort of ‘domestication’ of these unique wildscapes, while sowing the seeds for the enduring connection observed in later Levantine societies between mortuary rituals, fertility and the underground.

In the Southern Levant, the Natufians established a long-lasting tradition of using stones, along with other materials, for construction. Initial field observations at Nahal Ein Gev II suggested that such stones are natural blocks or cobbles that frequently underwent some kind of modification. To further investigate this pattern and better understand construction techniques and design, a protocol was developed at the site to record and analyze the construction stones, labelled BL for ‘Building Stones.’ This paper presents our initial results. Our analysis reveals that basalt and limestone were commonly used as BL, consistent with the lithology of the geological formations around the site. A large proportion of the BL are broken, perhaps as a result of intentional ‘calibration’ of the stones aimed at making them fit into the structure's walls. Consistency in modal BL size reveals some of the norms that underlie the design of the structures. The presence of several types of sheen was noted on the BL; some forms being related to the use of bonding material employed in wall construction, while other forms may indicate surface treatment. Finally, the construction traditions documented at the site are considered in the broader context of Natufian technical innovation and inter-site variability.

The transformation of human culture from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming communities represents the most prominent revolution in human history, termed the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (NAR). The NAR was manifested in the cultivation and domestication of wild plants across the ‘Fertile Crescent’ from around the 11th millennium BP. Here, we investigate the environmental conditions that enabled the establishment of the first agricultural settlements in the southern Jordan Valley and compare these settings to the northern segments of the ‘Fertile Crescent’ (northern Mesopotamia). In particular we investigated the mineralogical composition of surface cover soils and the hydrological conditions in the Gilgal Basin where a few of the early agriculture settlements of the late Natufian-PPNA cultures were established. We focused our study on the Salibiya sedimentary section (and archeological sites) in the Gilgal Basin, where a sequence of fine detritus sediments accumulated during the post glacial to the early Holocene period. OSL ages from the Salibiya sedimentary section lie between ∼24 and 11 ka BP, spanning the time of Lake Lisan retreat from its highest stands of ∼180 ± 10 m below mean sea level (= m bmsl) to below 320 m bmsl. The Salibiya sedimentary section consists of silty detritus sediments that comprise recycled mountain soils washed from the adjacent Samarian Mountains to the Gilgal Basin. The ‘mountain soils’ in their turn consist of desert dust grains (e.g., quartz, calcite, clays) that were blown to the Levant region from the north Sahara deserts, mostly during arid periods. Enhanced amounts of desert dusts were blown to the region during hyperarid periods that coincided with the Heinrich Stadials (HS) in the northern latitudes, e.g., at ∼24 ka, ∼16ka and ∼13ka. The hyperarid and dusty periods (which were harsh for the early-Natufian hunter-gatherers) were followed by wetter intervals when fresh groundwater activity resumed in the Judean and Samarian Mountains, e.g., at ∼16-15 and ∼12-11 ka. The availability of fertile ‘mountain soils’ and water during and after the Younger Dryas provided a favorable environmental setting that supported the establishment of early agriculture settlements in the Gilgal Basin (and others) in the Jordan Valley and impacted the transformation from the Epipalaeolithic Early Natufian hunter-gatherers to the Late Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B (PPNA, B) cultures.

This article presents the results of the 2023 excavation at Tel Lachish, which re-examined Installation BB1132, uncovered in the central hall of a Late Bronze III structure dubbed the North-East Temple. As a result of the recent excavation, the installation was identified as an olive oil press. The article discusses the significance of olive oil production in Late Bronze Age Lachish and the possible role that its production played in the cultic activity conducted in the structure.