Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus

Adler, D. S., Wilkinson, K. N., Blockley, S., Mark, D. F., Pinhasi, R., Schmidt-Magee, B. A., Nahapetyan, S., Mallol, C., Berna, F., Glauberman, P. J., Raczynski-Henk, Y., Wales, N., Frahm, E., Joris, O., MacLeod, A., Smith, V. C., Cullen, V. L. and Gasparian, B. (2014) Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus. Science, 345 (6204). pp. 1609-1613. ISSN 1095-9203 doi: 10.1126/science.1256484

Abstract/Summary

Levallois technology is the name for the stone knapping technique used to create tools thousands of years ago. The technique appeared in the archeological record across Eurasia 200 to 300 thousand years ago (ka) and appeared earlier in Africa. Adler et al. challenge the hypothesis that the technique's appearance in Eurasia was the result of the expansion of hominins from Africa. Levallois obsidian artifacts in the southern Caucasus, dated at 335 to 325 ka, are the oldest in Eurasia. This suggests that Levallois technology may have evolved independently in different hominin populations. Stone technology cannot thus be used as a reliable indicator of Paleolithic human population change and expansion.