Tag Archives: Homo Sapiens

A thick retouched Aurignacian blade from Meyrals / Périgord Noir

This is a thick  (12×4,5×2,5 cm)  bilaterally  retouched Aurignacian blade with “endscraper” characteristics on the distal end. It is made from typical Dordogne chert and was found near Meyrals  in the Périgord Noir, just a few kilometers away from Eyzies, the Vézère … Continue reading

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Dead End Street: The Levallois-Mousterian of the Carmel region

These are some artifacts from the “Mousterian” layers of Kebara. The Middle Paleolithic findings of this site are the only “Tabun-B Ensembles” in Israel, that has been excavated with modern methods. These ensembles therfore can be considered as the reference stratigraphy for … Continue reading

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Symbolic Thinking

This is a symbol painted on a tree near the Willendorf site. Shurely an evidence of “Modern Symbolic Thinking” A symbol means something, whose meaning is determined by arbitrary relationship. This relationship is a socially construction, a convention which implied … Continue reading

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To Be or not to Be Aterian

Middle Paleolithic (Middle Stone Age) Ensembles of Northern Africa have been found over a vast area, reaching from the Mediterranean to the Southern Margins of the Sahara, and from the Maghreb to the Nile Valley. Nowadays there is a broad … Continue reading

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Acheulo-Yabroudian Handaxe

This is a single Handaxe, found in the 1950ies near Safed/Israel. Its shape is very similar to handaxes found within the Acheulo-Yabroudian (for example at Tabun ). This technocomplex contains three major lithic facies, mainly defined by the findings at … Continue reading

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Lupemban bifacial tool

Quartzite Lupemban bifacial tool (24 cm long), found in the Southern Niger region. The Lupemban is an early MSA industry in Central Africa and on the fringes of the Congo basin first described by Breuil more than 60 years ago. … Continue reading

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Pigments in the MSA and Middle Paleolithic

This is a piece of Goethite, found at the Krems/Hundssteig site in the 1970ies. Such findings are common from Upper Paleolithic sites. The use of pigments by Hominines at archaeological sites during the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Europe and … Continue reading

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“Going Levallois”

Three Levallois cores from different sites in the Dordogne. The Levallois Technique is a sophisticated core preparation ev0lving in Europe during OIS-8. Indeed some researchers have recognized this technic as the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic. Some reserachers suggest, that … Continue reading

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