1. 3 Apr 2025 Journal Article Quaternary Science Reviews

    Scales of toolstone transport in the Armenian Highlands during MIS 3: The contribution of Ararat-1 Cave (Ararat Depression) to reconstructing opportunities for social interactions

    Ellery Frahm, David Nora, Boris Gasparyan, Artur Petrosyan, Ariel Malinsky-Buller
    Abstract

    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

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  2. 22 Mar 2025 Journal Article Quaternary Science Reviews

    New insights into the pre-Natufian Epipalaeolithic from the Ein Gev IV Nizzanan site (upper Jordan Valley)

    Francesco Valletta, Leore Grosman
    Abstract

    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

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  3. 14 Mar 2025 Conference Paper EGU General Assembly 2025

    Exploring Depositional Environments through Particle Morphologies: Grain Shape Analysis and its Application in Sedimentology and Archaeology

    Ioannis Oikonomou, Yoav Ben Dor, Theodoros Karampaglidis, Yael Jacobi, Onn Crouvi, Ariel Malinsky-Buller
    Abstract

    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

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  4. 14 Mar 2025 Conference Paper EGU General Assembly 2025

    When geomorphological toolkits point at pre-sedentism occupation intensity– The case of Tahunat es-Sukkar A new Epipaleolithic sequence in Bet Shean Valley, Israel

    Ariel Malinsky-Buller, Yoav Ben Dor, Ioannis Oikonomou, Rik Tjallingii, Yakir Atar, Natalie D Munro, Elan Levy, Keren Weiss, Golan Tzahi, Itay Abadi
    Abstract

    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

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  5. 12 Mar 2025 Journal Article Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

    The Skills of Handaxe Making: Quantifying and Explaining Variability in 3D Sinuosity and Bifacial Asymmetry

    Antoine Muller, Gonen Sharon, Leore Grosman
    Abstract

    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’

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  6. 11 Mar 2025 Journal Article Nature Human Behaviour

    Evidence from Tinshemet Cave in Israel suggests behavioural uniformity across Homo groups in the Levantine mid-Middle Palaeolithic circa 130,000–80,000 years ago

    Yossi Zaidner, Marion Prevost, Ruth Shahack-Gross, Lior Weissbrod, Reuven Yeshurun, Naomi Porat, Gilles Guérin, Norbert Mercier, Asmodée Galy, Christophe Pécheyran, Gaëlle Barbotin, Chantal Tribolo, ... show all 33 authors
    Abstract

    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

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  7. 6 Mar 2025 Journal Article Cambridge Archaeological Journal

    Death and Depths: Exploring Early Fifth Millennium bce Ritual Performance in Har Sifsof Cave, Upper Galilee (Israel)

    Micka Ullman, Hila May, Shemesh Ya'aran, Boaz Langford, Israel Hershkovitz, Liron Chavoinik, Nimrod Marom, Dariya Lokshin Gnezdilov, Amos Frumkin, Uri Davidovich
    Abstract

    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

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  8. Mar 2025 Journal Article Archaeological Research in Asia

    Natufian architecture 12,000 years ago: Analyzing ‘building stones’ at Nahal Ein Gev II

    Laure Dubreuil, Leore Grosman
    Abstract

    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

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  9. 28 Feb 2025 Journal Article Quaternary Science Reviews

    Environmental setting of the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution across the Fertile Crescent

    Abstract

    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

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  10. 27 Feb 2025 Journal Article Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research

    Olive Oil Production in the North-East Temple of Canaanite Lachish

    Abstract

    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

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