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This paper re-examines lithic technological variability of the Early Ahmarian, one of the early Upper Palaeolithic cultural entities in the Levant, which has often been regarded as a precursor of the Protoaurignacian (the early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe) in arguments for the occurrence of a cultural spread in association with the dispersal of Homo sapiens from the Levant to Europe. Using quantitative data on several lithic techno-typological attributes, we demonstrate that there is a significant degree of variability in the Early Ahmarian between the northern and southern Levant, as previously pointed out by several researchers. In addition, we suggest that the technology similar to the southern Early Ahmarian also existed in the northern Levant, i.e., the Ksar Akil Phase 4 group (the KA 4 group), by introducing new Upper Palaeolithic assemblages from Wadi Kharar 16R, inland Syria. We then review currently available stratigraphic records and radiocarbon dates (including a new date from Wadi Kharar 16R), with special attention to their methodological background. As a result, we propose alternative chronological scenarios, including one that postulates that the southern Early Ahmarian and the KA 4 group appeared later than the northern Early Ahmarian with little or no overlap. On the basis of the alternative scenarios of chronological/geographical patterns of the Early Ahmarian variability, we propose four possible relationships between the Protoaurignacian and the Early Ahmarian, including a new scenario that the appearance of the Protoaurignacian preceded those of similar technological entities in the Levant, i.e., the southern Early Ahmarian and the KA 4 group. If the last hypothesis is substantiated, it requires us to reconsider the model of a Levantine origin of the Protoaurignacian and its palaeoanthropological implications.

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: The oldest Pottery Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia, including the Khabur basin, has long been believed to be represented by the Proto-Hassuna (Sotto-Umm Dabaghiyah) entity. Recent excavations at Tell Seker al-Aheimar, on the upper Khabur, produced new evidence that questions this view. The excavations revealed that a Pottery Neolithic phase predating the Proto-Hassuna existed on the Khabur, characterized by a distinct set of pottery as well as architecture and lithic technology. The long uninterrupted sequence at Tell Seker al-Aheimar, beginning perhaps from the Middle PPNB and ending with the Proto-Hassuna, shows that this cultural entity, provisionally referred to as "Pre-Proto-Hassuna ", was derived from a local fades of East Taurus PPNB and gradually developed into Proto-Hassuna. Radiocarbon dates for this phase indicate the early centuries of the 8th millennium BP, a period prior to that of Proto- Hassuna settlements in both northeast Syria and northern Iraq. These new data highlight the necessity of reconsidering the Neolithic framework of Upper Mesopotamia in general.