An Early Upper Palaeolithic Stone Tool Assemblage from Mughr El-Hamamah, Jordan: An Interim Report

ABSTRACT

Mughr el-Hamamah (Jordan) Layer B contains an Early Upper Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage dating to around 39–45 kya cal b.p. This assemblage is unusual in that it samples human forager activities around the ecotone between the Transjordanian Plateau and the palaeo-lake (Lake Lisan) that filled much of the Jordan Valley during Late Pleistocene times. This paper describes that assemblage, comparing it to other Levantine Upper Palaeolithic assemblages of equivalent antiquity. The Mughr el-Hamamah Layer B assemblage appears most similar to Early Ahmarian assemblages, but it departs from typical such assemblages in ways that may reflect local conditions’ influence on human activities carried out in and near the cave. Mughr el-Hamamah raises new questions about changes in residential mobility, off-site provisioning and foraging activity, and on-site task diversity in the Early Upper Palaeolithic period.

KEYWORDS:

• Upper Palaeolithic
• Levant
• Jordan
• stone tools
• Ahmarian

GEOLOCATION DATA:

• Latitude: N32.257°
• Longitude: E35.634°

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Oxford College of Emory University; Gregory-Rackley Career Development Award to A. J. Stutz; NSF High Risk Research in Anthropology Grant (#1025352); L. S. B. Leakey Foundation; Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research; and 65 backers of the crowdfunded project, “How Did Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherers Use and Consume Plant Resources in Eurasia” on Experiment.com (https://doi.org/10.18258/9109).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Notes on Contributors

John J. Shea (Ph.D. 1991, Harvard University) is a Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University in New York. His research focuses on the Pleistocene prehistory of Southwest Asia and Eastern Africa and stone tools’ roles in human evolution.

Aaron J. Stutz (Ph.D. 2002, University of Michigan) is an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Emory University. His research employs behavioral, life history and evolutionary perspectives to investigate the relationships among embodied cognition and experience, the cultural environment, and long-term demographic trends.

Liv Nilsson-Stutz (Ph.D. 2004, Lund University) is a University Lecturer in Archaeology at the Linnaeus University. Her research focuses on the archaeology and anthropology of death, dying, and burial, contemporary analysis of repatriation in a comparative international perspective, and the archaeology of hunter-gatherers.

ORCID

John J. Shea http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4704-636X

Aaron Jonas Stutz http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7932-2771

Liv Nilsson-Stutz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0575-7075