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Adler DS, Wilkinson KN, Blockley S, Mark DF, Pinhasi R, Schmidt-Magee BA, Nahapetyan S, Mallol C, Berna F, Glauberman PJ, Raczynski-Henk Y, Wales N, Frahm E, Jöris O, MacLeod A, Smith VC, Cullen VL, Gasparian B. Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus. Science 2014; 345:1609-13. [PMID: 25258079 DOI: 10.1126/science.1256484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 147] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
The Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition (~400,000 to 200,000 years ago) is marked by technical, behavioral, and anatomical changes among hominin populations throughout Africa and Eurasia. The replacement of bifacial stone tools, such as handaxes, by tools made on flakes detached from Levallois cores documents the most important conceptual shift in stone tool production strategies since the advent of bifacial technology more than one million years earlier and has been argued to result from the expansion of archaic Homo sapiens out of Africa. Our data from Nor Geghi 1, Armenia, record the earliest synchronic use of bifacial and Levallois technology outside Africa and are consistent with the hypothesis that this transition occurred independently within geographically dispersed, technologically precocious hominin populations with a shared technological ancestry.
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Affiliation(s)
- D S Adler
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 1176, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
| | - K N Wilkinson
- Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester, Winchester, SO22 4NR, UK
| | - S Blockley
- Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
| | - D F Mark
- Natural Environmental Research Council Argon Isotope Facility, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, Scottish Enterprise and Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride, G75 0QF, UK
| | - R Pinhasi
- School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
| | - B A Schmidt-Magee
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 1176, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | - S Nahapetyan
- Department of Cartography and Geomorphology, Yerevan State University, Alek Manukyan 1, 0025 Yerevan, Armenia
| | - C Mallol
- Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - F Berna
- Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
| | - P J Glauberman
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 1176, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | | | - N Wales
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Unit 1176, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
| | - E Frahm
- Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 4ET, UK
| | - O Jöris
- MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Schloss Monrepos, D-56567 Neuwied, Germany
| | - A MacLeod
- Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
| | - V C Smith
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK
| | - V L Cullen
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK
| | - B Gasparian
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Charents 15, 0025 Yerevan, Armenia
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