The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia

doi:10.1017/CHO9781139017831.086

3.1 - The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia

from VII. - Western and Central Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014

Gonen Sharon

Edited by

Colin Renfrew and

Paul Bahn

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Gonen Sharon: Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Colin Renfrew: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

Introduction: The Levantine Corridor

The region that is the focus of this chapter is but a small stretch of land enjoying Mediterranean climate, located between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and one of the harshest deserts on earth to the east. The Levantine Corridor (Goren-Inbar & Speth 2004), despite its small size, has been subject to one of the most intensive archaeological efforts anywhere. Here some of the world’s most important prehistoric sites have been discovered during almost one hundred years of excavation. Together with new sites, they remain the source for many of the cutting-edge questions and debates in palaeoanthropology today. The story of the Levant in early prehistory is first of all the story of a corridor, the main pathway leading out of Africa taken by continuous waves of human groups reaching out for new territory in Eurasia. Some of the very early evidence for human presence outside of Africa is succeeded in the region by indications of subsequent Lower Palaeolithic dispersals, followed by the earliest movement of anatomically modern humans out of Africa during the Middle Palaeolithic.

Our current focus on the Levantine Corridor, to the exclusion of the remainder of Asia, is due to the fact that Central Asian data are almost nonexistent to date. R. Dennell provides the few data from Central Asia in his recently published book (Dennell 2009), and the reader is advised to consult this monumental work. Yet even this scholar, who has focused considerable attention on Asia, wrote: “The Palaeolithic record of the west region, covering an area c. 16 times larger than Britain, is largely unknown, and mostly comprises surface artifact collections that are not datable” (Dennell 2009: 325). Central Asia is clearly a key region for the discussion of the most significant questions in early prehistoric archaeology today. Currently, political and geographical difficulties stand in the way of scholars working in these vast regions, but exciting discoveries will surely emerge with the advance of research in the future.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1357 - 1378

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139017831.086 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

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