The Nature of Lithic Assemblages in the Central Negev Highlands: The Relationship between Environmental Variables and Reduction Strategies

 

Text of a poster session presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Chicago 1999

 

John K. Williams

 

Introduction

Researchers have long recognized spatial and temporal trends within the Levantine Upper Paleolithic.  Major phytogeographic differences in this small area imposed obvious archaeologically recognizable constraints on human subsistence.  A recent study by Gladfelter (1997), for example, revealed that Ahmarian sites were almost exclusively situated in montane areas of the southern Levant, and date to a wet phase of the Upper Paleolithic.  Such a pattern suggests that groups exploiting a Mediterranean environment followed its growth into interior, high-altitude zones during an interval of climatic improvement (Gladfelter 1997).

In a similar manner, this study reveals co-associated site placement and technological trends during the Upper Paleolithic.  Specifically, Ahmarian assemblages throughout the Levant were situated on or directly adjacent to water sources, regardless of elevation, while flake-based assemblages in the Central Negev currently labeled ‘Levantine Aurignacian’ were consistently situated on high plateaus at greater distances to water.  The purpose of this analysis is to describe this trend and discuss how it relates to other factors, such as raw material exploitation and paleoclimatic settings.  This paper does not attempt to contribute to the current debate over how to define and describe each Upper Paleolithic tradition.  Rather, an attempt is made to demonstrate how the artifacts of numerous Upper Paleolithic assemblages, given their tradition names, pattern differently with environmental settings, such as elevation and distance to permanent water sources. 

 

Analysis

            Various archaeological units were recorded from the available literature for 51 assemblages located in both phytogeographic zones, including cave sites in the core zone of Israel and Lebanon, and marginal open-air sites in the Negev, Sinai and Jordan.  These assemblages represent those with sufficient artifact samples, and details that would allow inter-assemblage comparison (adequate recovery techniques, debitage and tool counts, and environmental settings).  Only nine core zone assemblages, all of which are located in caves or large rockshelters, were published in enough detail to allow basic technotypological and environmental comparisons.  This analysis, therefore, is necessarily biased toward southern, marginal zone assemblages.

            Data were organized into units that allowed comparison of relevant technological and environmental variables.  Technological variables used include relative percentages of flakes, blade-bladelets, primary elements, and core trimming elements within the debitage.  To obtain these technological indices, the total number of artifacts in each class (flakes, blade-bladelets, primary elements, core trimming elements) was divided by the total number of artifacts in the debitage category (excluding chips and chunks) for each assemblage.  In addition, environmental variables such as phytogeographic zone, elevation, paleo water source, and distance to water were recorded for each assemblage.

 

Technological Variability

            The first variables to be tested were a blade technology and core reduction/ maintenance (core-trimming elements and primary elements) (Fig. 1).  Blade-bladelets are associated with lower percentages of cortex in the debitage.  The markers used in Figure 1 reveal the technological dichotomy between the flake-dominated Levantine Aurignacian and the blade-oriented Ahmarian.  This difference is predictable and is largely due to the definition of each tradition, which emphasizes these particular technological differences.  A noticeable outlier in Fig. 1 is Ein Aqev, which falls outside the expected blade and flake percentages for the Levantine Aurignacian.

 

Figure 1.  Scatterplot comparing a blade technology with initial core reduction and maintenance, displaying a negative relationship.

 

Of particular importance to the trends revealed in Fig. 1 is the near absence of core Mediterranean assemblages.  Hayonim D was the only Mediterranean core assemblage with sufficient data to allow comparison of the given variables.  While Hayonim D conforms to the pattern exhibited by the southern Levantine Aurignacian, it is impossible to generalize that all assemblages in the core zone exhibit the same relationship between flakes, blades, and decortication.  Assemblages in marginal settings, however, display a demonstrable pattern: flake-dominated technologies generally exhibit high percentages of cortical debitage (> 20 % primary elements and core trimming elements).

Numerous factors could have influenced these trends (Fig. 1), such as distance to raw material, curation, a technological continuum, or blade technology efficiency.

 

Environmental Patterning

As noted above, Gladfelter (1997) showed a significant association between Ahmarian sites and montane settings in the marginal zone.  The questions addressed in this analysis are: within a montane setting, where were sites of both traditions located with respect to specific resources, and are different site settings accompanied by different technologies?  The most relevant known environmental variables include elevation and water sources (modern and extinct).  While resources are directly linked to temperature and precipitation within specific elevational zones, the location of surface water across a landscape also profoundly effects resources.  Surface water in the marginal highlands during the Upper Paleolithic is evidenced in three forms: lakes, marshes, and springs.  In all cases, when a site was associated with a lake or marsh, it was situated within a few meters of the water source.  Spring-related sites, however, are sometimes a few kilometers away from the nearest water source.  Because distance from surface water is not constant, the relationship between spring-related assemblages and elevation was examined.

 

Figure 2.  Relationship between elevation and water distance for spring-related sites in the

marginal zone.

 

            Figure 2 reveals that most southern Ahmarian assemblages were located on or within close proximity to a spring (for those not associated with a lake or marsh setting). Levantine Aurignacian assemblages, however, were situated further from springs, and the distance from springs increases proportionally with elevation (with the exception of Ein Aqev).  When technological variables are added to this trend, the percentage of cortical debitage shows a strong relationship to water proximity (Figure 3).  Assemblages, which are tethered to a spring, are generally characterized by less than 20% cortical debitage, while assemblages situated over 1 kilometer from a spring are characterized by over 20 % cortical debitage (with the exception of K9A).

 

Figure 3.  Relationship between decortication and water distance for spring-related sites

in the marginal zone.

 

 

Implications

            These data indicate that flake-dominated assemblages with high percentages of cortical debitage were situated away from springs, and as a result might represent activities unrelated to the immediate vicinity of permanent water.  In these marginal settings, sites were presumably situated near one of three desirable resources: food, water, and/ or raw material.  While animal food and water are generally co-associated, the position of raw material on a landscape is not necessarily associated with either.  The possibility arises, therefore, that southern Levantine Aurignacian site placement was more a factor of raw material availability than food or water proximity.  This possibility cannot be tested with confidence, because of a lack of data for specific distances between sites and raw materials.  A study by Kaufman (1987), however, revealed that in five Upper Paleolithic assemblages, artifact size and intensity of flint utilization was related to a given site’s distance from a source of raw material.  Specifically, smaller mean artifact sizes and more intensive utilization of flint (i.e., greater amounts of retouch and more reduction) characterized sites situated at relatively greater distances from raw material.  If the ratio of tools/debitage can be considered to approximate the intensity of flint utilization, then the assemblages analyzed in this study suggest that sites situated further from water were characterized by less intensive flint utilization.  Tool/debitage ratios of flake-dominated assemblages steadily decrease with greater distances from a spring.  While this trend might relate to Kaufman’s findings, the relative ubiquity of flint resources in the Central Negev Highlands (where all of the flake-dominated assemblages in this study were situated) minimizes the potential influence of flint on site placement.         

In addition to relatively permanent springs, climatic fluctuations play a major role in the dispersal of resources across the landscape.  Increased precipitation can change marginal areas dominated by desert shrubs into a Mediterranean scrub forest.  Most of the Upper Paleolithic period, from ca. 40,000 to 25,000 BP was relatively wetter than today (Gladfelter 1997).  Climatic fluctuations during this period caused the expansion and contraction of a Mediterranean environment into the higher elevational zones in the southern Levant.  Although there is not complete agreement about the dates of these climatic fluctuations (e.g., Livnat and Kronfeld 1985), many conclude that the most humid phase of the Upper Paleolithic lasted from around 30,000 - 27,000 BP, and was succeeded by a particularly dry and cold phase from 22,000 - 14,500 BP (Begin et al 1974, 1985; Bottema and Van Zeist 1981: 115; Gladfelter 1988, 1990; Goldberg 1986: 239; Hanihara and Sakaguchi 1978: 5-28; Horowitz 1971, 1977a, 1977b; Issar and Eckstein 1969; Tchernov 1976; Van Andel 1989: 736).

            Of the sites situated away from springs, some paleoenvironmental evidence is provided by pollen recovered from Arkov (D22) and D27A (Horowitz 1976).  Pollen from these sites is represented by relatively high percentages of arboreal varieties (pine, oak, pistachio and almond), indicating a Mediterranean scrub forest.  More data are needed, however, to determine if the remainder of the assemblages situated away from springs were occupied during a comparatively forested phase.  Unfortunately, the lack of radiocarbon dates for these sites hinders paleoenvironmental generalizations.  The only dated southern Levantine Aurignacian assemblage is Ein Aqev, which averaged ca. 17,500 BP (Marks 1977: 9).  Such a recent date, in addition to palynological evidence (Horowitz 1976: 59) suggests that Ein Aqev was occupied during the dry, cool phase of the late Upper Paleolithic/ early Epipaleolithic (Gladfelter 1997).  Considering the regional paleoclimatic reconstruction, the scrub forest settings suggested at Arkov and D27A must have occurred sometime before the occupation at Ein Aqev, because of the onset of a particularly dry and cold phase from 22,000 – 14,500 BP (see references above).  On a local scale, the pollen spectra assembled from Boker A and BE suggests somewhat wetter conditions than Ein Aqev, at ca. 37,000 BP and 27,500 – 25,500 BP, respectively (Marks 1983: 37).  Yet, the arboreal pollen percentages at the Boker complex still fall well short of those recovered at Arkov and D27A.  Because all of these pollen yields were sparse, and were comprised by selective preservation and eolian derivation, the resolution of any paleoenvironmental pattern is necessarily broad.  At this broad scale, the paleoenvironmental evidence suggests that two different climatic regimes are associated with different technologies and site settings.  The relative dating of these regimes is unknown, but the absence of sites dating between 25,000 and 20,000 BP in the Negev and Sinai (Phillips 1994), after years of intensive research, suggests that this area was particularly uninhabitable during those millennia, and the relatively forested settings suggested at Arkov and D27A should date prior to Boker BE.  That Ein Aqev appears to have been occupied during a noticeably different climatic regime than Arkov and D27A may have particular significance to the technology and environmental setting of Ein Aqev, which does not conform to the remainder of the southern Levantine Aurignacian assemblages.  Most notably, its location adjacent to a spring makes Ein Aqev an anomaly.  If sites were tethered to springs during relatively drier periods, then the location of Ein Aqev is understandable.  Further, Ein Aqev does not conform to the remainder of Levantine Aurignacian assemblages in terms of flake and blade percentages (Fig. 1), which suggests that technology was influenced by a site’s location on the landscape and climatic conditions.

 

Conclusion

            The Levant is an environmentally diverse region with a series of proximate physiographic zones running parallel to the Mediterranean coast.  Prehistoric subsistence was considerably impacted by this environmental diversity, which is manifested at a broad scale of the total Levant, and at a narrowed scale, such as within the southern marginal zone.  Upper Paleolithic occupation of the marginal zone was largely conformal, in that blade-dominated assemblages were consistently situated on or near a water source at elevations between 250 and 1100 masl.  Forming a conspicuous exception to this rule, a group of flake-dominated, ‘Levantine Aurignacian’ assemblages were almost exclusively situated at higher elevations and at greater distances to surface water.  Beyond climatic fluctuations that could have made these currently unwatered areas more hospitable, certain resources maintain a relatively constant position on a landscape, and of these, raw material serves as an attractive resource that is not necessarily situated near surface water.  Higher percentages of cortical debitage and decreasing tool/core ratios at sites situated away from springs may suggest their proximity to raw material, but the near ubiquity of flint in this area weakens the potential relationship between site location and raw material.  When paleoenvironmental evidence is considered, the settings of sites situated on or near a water source were less Mediterranean in character than what was revealed at sites situated away from water.  If this difference was not strictly a function of elevation, then the Levantine Aurignacian may not have occupied the Negev at the same time as the Ahmarian.  Rather, the flake-dominated technologies situated away from water in the Central Negev Highlands may represent activities related to a scrub forest setting, which expanded into this region during one or more periods of climatic amelioration.  While this position could be further supported or rejected with the recovery of additional paleoenvironmental evidence, the patterns of site location and technological variance revealed in this study provide a framework for future research aimed at explaining distributional differences between blade- and flake-based technologies.

 

References

 

Begin, Z.B., Ehrlich, A. and Nathan, Y. 1974. Lake Lisan, the Pleistocene precursor of the Dead Sea. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Israel 63, Jerusalem.

 

Begin, Z.B., Broeker, W., Buchbinder, B., Druckman, Y., Kaufman, A., Margaritz, M., and Neev, D. 1985. Dead Sea and Lisan Lake levels in the last 30,000 years, a preliminary report. Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem.

 

Bottema, S. and Van Zeist, W. 1981. Palynological evidence for the climatic history of the Near East 50,000-6,000. In Cauvin, J. and Sanlaville, P. (eds.): Prehistoire du Levant, pp. 111-132. Paris: CNRS.

 

Gladfelter, B.G. 1988. Late Pleistocene lakes within the mountains of southern Sinai: Observations at the Tarfat oasis. Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie D’Egypte 61-62:29-49.

 

Gladfelter, B.G. 1990. The geomorphic setting of Upper Paleolithic sites in Wadi el Sheikh, southern Sinai. Geoarchaeology 5:99-119.

 

Gladfelter, B.G. 1997. The Ahmarian Tradition of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic: The Environment of the Archaeology. Geoarchaeology 12/4:363-393.

 

Goldberg, P. 1986. Late Quaternary environmental history of the southern Levant. Geoarchaeology 1:225-244.

 

Hanihara, K. and Sakaguchi, Y. 1978. Paleolithic Site of Douara Cave and Paleogeography of Palmyra Basin in Syria, Part I. Tokyo:University Museum.

 

Horowitz, A. 1971. Climatic and vegetational developments in north-eastern Israel during Upper Pleistocene-Holocene times. Pollen et Spores 13:688-690.

 

Horowitz, A. 1976. Late Quaternary Paleoenvironments of Prehistoric Settlements. In Marks, A.E. (ed.): Prehistory and Paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 1, pp. 57-68. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

 

Horowitz, A. 1977a.     The Quaternary stratigraphy and paleogeography of Israel. Paléorient 3:47-100.

 

Horowitz, A.  1977b. Pollen spectra from two early Holocene prehistoric sites in the Har Harif (west central Negev). In Marks, A.E. (ed.): Prehistory and Paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 2., pp. 323-326. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

 

Issar, A., and Eckstein, Y. 1969. The Lacustrine beds of Wadi Feiran, Sinai, their origin and significance. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 18:21-28.

 

Kaufman, D. 1987. Interassemblage Variability of Metric Attributes from Lithic Assemblages of the Late Upper Paleolithic of Israel. Mitekufat Haeven 20:37-49.

 

Livnat, A. and Kronfeld, J. 1985. Paleoclimatic Implications of U-series Dates from Lake Sediments and Travertines in the Arava Rift Valley, Israel. Quaternary Research 24:164-172.

 

Marks, A.E. 1977. Introduction: A preliminary overview of Central Negev prehistory. In Marks, A.E. (ed.): Prehistory and Paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 2, pp. 3-34. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

 

Marks, A.E. 1983. The Sites of Boker Tachtit and Boker: a brief introduction. In Marks, A.E. (ed.): Prehistory and Paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Volume III, pp. 15-38. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

 

Phillips, J.L. 1994. The Upper Paleolithic Chronology of the Levant and the Nile Valley. In Bar-Yosef, O. and Kra, R.S. (eds.): Late Quaternary Chronology and Paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean, pp.169-176. Tucson: Radiocarbon.

 

Tchernov, E. 1976. Some late Quaternary faunal remains from the Avdat/Aqev area. In Marks, A.E. (ed.): Prehistory and Paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 1, pp. 69-73. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.

 

Van Andel, T.H. 1989. Late Quaternary sea-level changes and archaeology. Antiquity 63:733-745.