Reply to: ‘No direct evidence for the presence of Nubian Levallois technology and its association with Neanderthals at Shukbah Cave’

Blinkhorn, James; Zanolli, Clément; Compton, Tim; Groucutt, Huw S.; Scerri, Eleanor M. L.; Crété, Lucile; Stringer, Chris; Petraglia, Michael D.; Blockley, Simon

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-05049-6

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Currently, advancing this debate is hindered by having neither an accepted definition of what constitutes Nubian technology, nor a consensus on its role in modern human cultural evolution and population dynamics 15–18 . To address this, 22 archaeologists (Table 1) met for an international workshop with two aims: (1) refining the definition of the Nubian technological method and how it can be identified in assemblages; and (2) re‐evaluating the relationship between Nubian technology as a reduction strategy and the Nubian Complex as a cultural entity in the context of current evidence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, advancing this debate is hindered by having neither an accepted definition of what constitutes Nubian technology, nor a consensus on its role in modern human cultural evolution and population dynamics. [15][16][17][18] To address this, 22 archaeologists (Table 1) met for an international workshop with two aims: (1) refining the definition of the Nubian technological method and how it can be identified in assemblages; and ( advance our understanding of the nature of Nubian in technological and taxonomic terms; 17 therefore, this was a major focus of the workshop's first discussion session. The attribute list developed by Usik et al 19 has been employed in numerous studies to assess whether Nubian Levallois technology in its strictest sense is present in an assemblage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The nature of Nubian: Developing current global perspectives on Nubian Levallois technology and the Nubian complex

Hallinan

Barzilai

Beshkani

et al. 2022

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, advancing this debate is hindered by having neither an accepted definition of what constitutes Nubian technology, nor a consensus on its role in modern human cultural evolution and population dynamics. [15][16][17][18] To address this, 22 archaeologists (Table 1) met for an international workshop with two aims: (1) refining the definition of the Nubian technological method and how it can be identified in assemblages; and ( advance our understanding of the nature of Nubian in technological and taxonomic terms; 17 therefore, this was a major focus of the workshop's first discussion session. The attribute list developed by Usik et al 19 has been employed in numerous studies to assess whether Nubian Levallois technology in its strictest sense is present in an assemblage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature of Nubian: Developing current global perspectives on Nubian Levallois technology and the Nubian complex

Hallinan

Barzilai

Beshkani

et al. 2022

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Examining the distribution of Middle Paleolithic Nubian cores relative to chert quality in southern (Nejd, Dhofar) and south‐central (Duqm, Al Wusta) Oman

Eren,

Bebber,

Singer

et al. 2024

Geoarchaeology

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Lithic raw material properties are often invoked to explain the presence, absence, form, or ontogeny of Paleolithic stone tools. Here, we explore whether the frequency of the Middle Paleolithic Nubian core form and core‐reduction systems co‐varies with toolstone quality in two neighboring regions in Oman: the southern region of Nejd, Dhofar, and the south‐central region of Duqm, Al Wusta. Specifically, we predicted that if raw material differences were influencing the distribution of Nubian cores, the chert would be of higher quality in the southern region, where Nubian cores were frequent, and of lower quality in the south‐central region, where they were scarce. We tested this prediction by collecting 124 chert samples from 22 outcrops and then quantitatively assessed two geochemical variables that are widely thought to influence knapping: impurity amount and silica content. We also examined the mineralogical composition, and the crystallite size and lattice strain for quartz (crystalline α‐SiO2) of representative chert samples. Our results suggest that the cherts in the two regions are similar, which is not consistent with the hypothesis that lithic raw material quality contributed to Nubian core spatial distribution in Oman. We discuss potential alternative hypotheses to explain Nubian core geographic patterning, and provisionally suggest that the scarcity of Nubian cores in south‐central Oman may be due to a concomitant scarcity of toolmakers, given a lack of water availability.

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The Complex Taxonomy of ‘Nubian’ in Context

Hallinan

Marks

2023

J Paleo Arch

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The meaning of the word ‘Nubian’ in Middle Palaeolithic archaeology has changed markedly since its first published use in 1965 in the context of the Nubian rescue campaign in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Initially referring to two types of prepared point cores, ‘Nubian’ later became attached to a widespread technocomplex in the 1990s and in more recent research describes a specific Levallois reduction strategy. In this review, we situate ‘Nubian’ in its geographic and historical contexts, exploring how its terminology and concepts emerged, developed, and are now viewed in the frame of subsequent research. Whilst the taxonomic origin of the Nubian descriptor—as a technology or technocomplex—is associated with this region of northeastern Africa, its widespread distribution, as shown in the works presented in this collection, suggests that Nubian reduction played as complex a role in past human behaviour and cultural dynamics as it does in current archaeological debates.

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Reply to: ‘No direct evidence for the presence of Nubian Levallois technology and its association with Neanderthals at Shukbah Cave’

Cited by 6 publications

References 16 publications

The nature of Nubian: Developing current global perspectives on Nubian Levallois technology and the Nubian complex

The nature of Nubian: Developing current global perspectives on Nubian Levallois technology and the Nubian complex

Examining the distribution of Middle Paleolithic Nubian cores relative to chert quality in southern (Nejd, Dhofar) and south‐central (Duqm, Al Wusta) Oman

The Complex Taxonomy of ‘Nubian’ in Context

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