Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex in the Levant and Questions of the Altai Middle Paleolithic Genesis

Abstract

Purpose. At the present stage of research, with the expansion of the source base, it became necessary to update the previously put forward thesis about the close similarity of the most ancient lithic industry from the Denisova Cave with the materials of the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex in the Levant.Results. To identify possible cultural connections of the initial stage of the Middle Paleolithic of Altai Mountain with Near Eastern industries, we carried out a review of studies mainly of the last decade, devoted to materials from the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex of the second half of the Middle Pleistocene in the Levant. Acheulo-Yabrudian industries from the multi-layered caves of Qesem, Tabun and Misliya in Israel are considered as the main materials, for which a reliable geochronological and paleogeographical basis has been obtained. Comparative materials from the Denisova Cave became a representative archaeological collection from deposits of the second half of the Middle Pleistocene, the analysis of which made it possible to re-evaluate the technical and typological traditions of the Altai population at the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic.Conclusion. A comparison of ancient materials from the Denisova Cave with Near Eastern finds revealed the presence of common features, both at the level of technology and in typology. These include a stable tradition of re-utilization of flakes, techniques of ventral thinning and proximal truncation of flakes, parallel technology to obtain elongated blanks, and typologically expressive series of side scrapers such as Quina and demi-Quina.