EP Gallery: Middle Acheulian -- Olorgesailie, Olduvai Gorge, Near East, Abbevillian (c. 1.0 MYA to 500,000 BP) / p)joubjan812

Comment: In the Near East Middle Acheulian, at sites such as Joub Jannine II and Latamne, the handaxe and pick are the predominate bifaces in contrast to handaxe and cleaver in East African sites.

Joub Jannine II is dated 800,000-900,000 BP. It is typified by a high percentage of picks and lanceolate bifaces, along with polyhedrons and core-choppers (Bar-Yosef 1998:251).

Image Credit: F. Hours. (1975). The Lower Paleolithic of Lebanon and Syria. In Problems in Prehistory: North Africa and the Levant, F. Wendorf and A.E. Marks (eds.), 249-71. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press. 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: fig 8.12.