Near Eastern - North African Acheulian Figurine Symbolizing Traditon / g)lionsprng16

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.

Bar-Yosef (1998: fig. 16): "Lion Spring. Azraq (after Copeland and hours, 1989) (1) discoid biface; (2-4) flakes; (5) Levallois point; (6) biface; (7) flake; (8) retouched flake; (9) oval biface." Lion Spring providedstratified lithic assemblages characterized by ovate, amygdaloid and cordiform bifaces.

Source: Copeland, L. and Hours, F. (1989). The hammer and the rock: Studies in the early palaeolithic of Azraq, Jordan. BAR International Series 540ii, Oxford. Image from Bar-Yosef, O. (1994). The lower paleolithic of the Near East. Journal of World Prehistory 8,3: 211-265. Figure 16.