Near Eastern - North African Acheulian Figurine Symbolizing Traditon / e)gharm814

Comment: During the Later Acheulian period--referred to as 'Upper Acheulian' in the regional literature--the Near Eastern 'Ovate-Cordiform' stone tool tradition has ovates and cordiforms without cleavers in the Northern Levant; ovates and cordiforms with cleavers in the Southern Levant. The cleavers at southern sites may reflect influence from the African 'Ovate-Cordiform-Cleaver' stone tool tradition. The Ovate-Cordiform tradition appears to have replaced a Middle Acheulian tradition that emphasized lanceolates and picks. Typical bifaces are shown below. Thousands of bifaces were found at Ma'ayan Baruch.

Bar-Yosef (1998: fig. 8.14): "Bifaces from Gharmachi IB (1, 2) and Ma'ayan Baruch (3, 4). Sources: Stekelis and Gilead 1966; Hours 1981."

Source: Stekelis, M., and Gilead, D. (1966). Ma'ayan Barukh, a Lower Paleolithic Site in the Upper Galilee. Jerusalem: Israel Prehistoric Society. F. Hours. (1981). Le Paléolithique inférieur de la Syrie et du Liban. Le point de la question en 1980. In P. Sanalaville and J. Cauvin (eds), Préhistoire du Levant. Lyon: Maison de l'Orient.

Image from Bar-Yosef, O. (1998). Early colonizations and cultural continuities in the Lower Palaeolithic of western Asia. In Early human behaviour in global context: The rise and diversity ofthe Lower Palaeolithic record, Petraglia, M and Korisettar, R. (eds.), 221-279. New York: Routledge. Figure 8.14.