From Initial Upper Paleolithic to Ahmarian at Ucagizli Cave, Turkey - Kuhn - 2004

Early Upper Paleolithic industries in central Eurasia characterized by Upper Paleolithic retouched tool forms and blades produced by variants of the Levallois method are known variously as Emiran, Bohunician, "lepto- Levalloisian", or Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP). These assemblages are often described as being transitional between Middle and Upper Paleolithic. This paper describes changes over time in early Upper Paleolithic technology and tool forms at Üçaðýzlý cave, Hatay, Turkey. Initial Upper Paleolithic assemblages are found at the bottom the Üçaðýzlý sequence, whereas the uppermost layers yield Ahmarian industries characterized by blade manufacture by soft-hammer or indirect percussion techniques. Taken as a whole the sequence seems to document a complex, in situ transition between IUP and Ahmarian between roughly 41,000 and 30,000 radiocarbon years BP. Different aspects of the assemblages changed at different rates. Frequencies of different blank and retouched tool forms appear to have shifted quite gradually, whereas the shift from hard hammer to soft hammer or indirect percussion was relatively abrupt. Changes in dorsal scar patterns on blades and core forms are also abrupt but non-synchronous. The evidence for an in situ transition from IUP to Ahmarian at Üçaðýzlý cave supports conclusions drawn earlier from the site of Ksar 'Akil. These results suggest that if there is a major break in the Levantine Upper Pleistocene sequence corresponding with the appearance and spread of modern Homo sapiens, it must have been between the Mousterian and the Initial Upper Paleolithic, or perhaps earlier.

Keywords

Upper Paleolithic - Lithic technology - Turkey - Blades

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