The volume traces the controversy that revolves around the bio-cultural relationships of Archaic (Neanderthal) and Modern humans at global and regional, Levantine scales. The focus of the book is on understanding the degree to which the behavioral organization of Archaic groups differed from Moderns. To this end, a case study is presented for a 44-70,000 year old, Middle Paleolithic occupation of a Jordanian rockshelter. The research, centering on the spatial analysis of artifacts, hearths and related data, reveals how the Archaic occupants of the shelter structured their activities and placed certain conceptual labels on different parts of the site. The structure of Tor Faraj is compared to site structures defined for modern foragers, in both ethnographic and archaeological contexts, to measure any differences in behavioral organization. The comparisons show very similar structures for Tor Faraj and its modern cohorts. The implications of this finding challenge prevailing views in the emergence of modern human controversy in which Archaic groups are thought to have had inferior cognition and less complex behavioral-social organization than modern foragers. And, it is generally thought that such behaviors only emerged after the appearance of the Upper Paleolithic, dated some 10-20,000 years later than the occupation of Tor Faraj.
Author(s): Donald O. Henry
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 338
Contents......Page 6
List of Figures......Page 8
List of Tables......Page 12
List of Contributors......Page 14
Acknowledgements......Page 16
Introduction......Page 18
1 The Emergence of Modern Humans: Issues and Debates......Page 20
2 The Levant and the Modern Human Debate......Page 29
Case Study......Page 48
3 A Case Study from Southern Jordan: Tor Faraj......Page 50
4 Human Behavior and the Stone Tools from Tor Faraj......Page 77
5 Small Lithic Debris Analysis......Page 103
6 Into the Mind of the Maker: Refitting Study and Technological Reconstructions......Page 124
7 Middle Paleolithic Plant Exploitation: The Microbotanical Evidence......Page 173
8 Formation Processes and Paleosurface Identification......Page 189
9 Site Structure and Material Patterning in Space on the Tor Faraj Living Floors......Page 215
Summary......Page 252
10 Behavioral Organization at Tor Faraj......Page 254
Appendix A: Alphabetical Listing of Attribute Definitions Used for the Tor Faraj Small Lithic Debris Study......Page 288
Appendix B: Small Lithic Debris Analysis Results Tables......Page 293
Appendix C: Cross-Cultural Data for Hearths in Rockshelters......Page 302
Appendix D: Analysis of Sediments for Zinc and Phosphate Ions......Page 305
References......Page 313
B......Page 330
C......Page 331
E......Page 332
I......Page 333
M......Page 334
P......Page 335
S......Page 336
Z......Page 337
