An Upper Palaeolithic shell scraper from Ksar Akil (Lebanon)

Douka, Katerina

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.026

Cited by 32 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Marine shells, collected empty from active beaches or fossil deposits, were used as tools (e.g., Glycymeris sp.) and ornaments (e.g., Nassarius gibbosulus and Columbella rustica) (30)(31)(32). Limpets (Patella rustica, Patella caerulea, and Patella ulyssiponensis) and topshells (Phorcus turbinatus and Phorcus articulatus) were livecollected for consumption and are the best-preserved taxa in the assemblage.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New chronology for Ksâr ‘Akil (Lebanon) supports Levantine route of modern human dispersal into Europe

Bosch

Mannino

Prendergast

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

102

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Modern human dispersal into Europe is thought to have occurred with the start of the Upper Paleolithic around 50,000–40,000 y ago. The Levantine corridor hypothesis suggests that modern humans from Africa spread into Europe via the Levant. Ksâr ‘Akil (Lebanon), with its deeply stratified Initial (IUP) and Early (EUP) Upper Paleolithic sequence containing modern human remains, has played an important part in the debate. The latest chronology for the site, based on AMS radiocarbon dates of shell ornaments, suggests that the appearance of the Levantine IUP is later than the start of the first Upper Paleolithic in Europe, thus questioning the Levantine corridor hypothesis. Here we report a series of AMS radiocarbon dates on the marine gastropod Phorcus turbinatus associated with modern human remains and IUP and EUP stone tools from Ksâr ‘Akil. Our results, supported by an evaluation of individual sample integrity, place the EUP layer containing the skeleton known as “Egbert” between 43,200 and 42,900 cal B.P. and the IUP-associated modern human maxilla known as “Ethelruda” before ∼45,900 cal B.P. This chronology is in line with those of other Levantine IUP and EUP sites and demonstrates that the presence of modern humans associated with Upper Paleolithic toolkits in the Levant predates all modern human fossils from Europe. The age of the IUP-associated Ethelruda fossil is significant for the spread of modern humans carrying the IUP into Europe and suggests a rapid initial colonization of Europe by our species.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New chronology for Ksâr ‘Akil (Lebanon) supports Levantine route of modern human dispersal into Europe

Bosch

Mannino

Prendergast

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

102

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“…In the late Middle Palaeolithic, but mainly during the Upper Palaeolithic periods, marine shell was regularly transported to the site from about 6–10 km away for use as personal ornaments, tools or for food [42]–[44]. The molluscan collection from Ksar Akil is in fact one of the largest ever discovered at a Palaeolithic site.…”

Section: Materials and Dating Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronology of Ksar Akil (Lebanon) and Implications for the Colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans

Bergman²,

et al. 2013

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The Out-of-Africa model holds that anatomically modern humans (AMH) evolved and dispersed from Africa into Asia, and later Europe. Palaeoanthropological evidence from the Near East assumes great importance, but AMH remains from the region are extremely scarce. ‘Egbert’, a now-lost AMH fossil from the key site of Ksar Akil (Lebanon) and ‘Ethelruda’, a recently re-discovered fragmentary maxilla from the same site, are two rare examples where human fossils are directly linked with early Upper Palaeolithic archaeological assemblages. Here we radiocarbon date the contexts from which Egbert and Ethelruda were recovered, as well as the levels above and below the findspots. In the absence of well-preserved organic materials, we primarily used marine shell beads, often regarded as indicative of behavioural modernity. Bayesian modelling allows for the construction of a chronostratigraphic framework for Ksar Akil, which supports several conclusions. The model-generated age estimates place Egbert between 40.8–39.2 ka cal BP (68.2% prob.) and Ethelruda between 42.4–41.7 ka cal BP (68.2% prob.). This indicates that Egbert is of an age comparable to that of the oldest directly-dated European AMH (Peştera cu Oase). Ethelruda is older, but on current estimates not older than the modern human teeth from Cavallo in Italy. The dating of the so-called “transitional” or Initial Upper Palaeolithic layers of the site may indicate that the passage from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic at Ksar Akil, and possibly in the wider northern Levant, occurred later than previously estimated, casting some doubts on the assumed singular role of the region as a locus for human dispersals into Europe. Finally, tentative interpretations of the fossil's taxonomy, combined with the chronometric dating of Ethelruda's context, provides evidence that the transitional/IUP industries of Europe and the Levant, or at least some of them, may be the result of early modern human migration(s).

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“…However, all of Benazzi et al's ( 2011 ) dates are on beach-collected marine shell beads; therefore, the interval between the death of the organism (the radiocarbon-dated event) and the time of collection (the archeological event of interest) is unknown and can be of several hundred or even thousands of years. In this regard, a relevant cautionary tale is provided by Douka's ( 2011 ) dating of a Glycymeris shell tool from Ksar' Akil (Lebanon) whose age turned out to be seven millennia older than that of the Evolved Aurignacian context where it was found. Conceivably, the dating anomalies pointed out in the preceding section could relate to this problem instead of refl ecting episodes of human occupation that went unrecognized at the time of excavation.…”

Section: An Open Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

Zilhão

2013

Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans Volume 1

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Supporting Assimilation views of Neandertal/modern human interaction, chronostratigraphic reasoning indicates that the "transitional" industries of Europe predate modern human immigration, in agreement with their association with Neandertals in the Châtelperronian at the Grotte du Renne and St.-Césaire. Supporting the Neandertals' species separateness and less developed cognition, those industries are alternatively claimed to relate to pioneer groups of modern humans; the latter would have been the true makers of the precocious instances of symbolic material culture that, under Assimilation, are assigned to the Neandertals. However, the taxonomy of the Kent's Cavern and Grotta del Cavallo dental remains is uncertain, and their poor stratigraphic context precludes dating by association. The opposite happens at the Grotte du Renne, whose stratigraphic integrity is corroborated by both taphonomy and dating. Not questioning that the Early Ahmarian is a cultural proxy for modern humans and a source for the Protoaurignacian of Europe, its claimed emergence ~46-49 ka ago at Kebara refl ects the dating of Middle Paleolithic charcoal-to be expected, because the Early Ahmarian units at the back of the cave are made up of reworked Middle Paleolithic sediments derived from the entrance. The dating of inherited material also explains the old results for the Aurignacian of Willendorf II and Geissenklösterle. At the latter, the dates on anthropically modifi ed samples of the hunted taxa (reindeer and horse) place its Aurignacian occupations in the same time range as elsewhere in Europe, after ~40 ka ago. The hypothesis that Neandertal/modern human contact in Europe resulted in a process of assimilation in connection with the spread of the Protoaurignacian ~41.5 ka ago remains unfalsifi ed.

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An Upper Palaeolithic shell scraper from Ksar Akil (Lebanon)

Cited by 32 publications

References 50 publications

New chronology for Ksâr ‘Akil (Lebanon) supports Levantine route of modern human dispersal into Europe

New chronology for Ksâr ‘Akil (Lebanon) supports Levantine route of modern human dispersal into Europe

Chronology of Ksar Akil (Lebanon) and Implications for the Colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

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