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72 - The Early Epipalaeolithic in the Eastern Levant

Wadi al-Hasa Region

from Part VI: - Humans in the Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Investigations of the archaeological landscape in the eastern Levant have yielded a considerable number of Early Epipalaeolithic sites dating to the interval characterized by the approach, peak, and immediate aftermath of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). While these Irano-Turanian steppic occupations are known from many areas of the interior Levant, two of the best-investigated locales currently are the Azraq Basin and the Wadi al-Hasa region. The circumstances and features of the Early Epipaleolithic in the Wadi al-Hasa, where several projects from 1984 to 2012 focused on excavations at the sites of Tor Sageer, Yutil al-Hasa, Tor at-Tareeq, and KPS-75, are discussed in this chapter. The palaeoecological setting in the Wadi al-Hasa, as well as on the adjacent Kerak Plateau, was much wetter during the LGM, resulting in the long-term presence of marshes, ponds, and perhaps a shallow lake. These served as attractors for both animals and people in an otherwise xeric landscape, but did not result in reduced mobility or the establishment of long-term base camps.
Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
, pp. 651 - 658
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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