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The Faunal Remains from Evron Quarry in Relation to Other Lower Paleolithic Hominid Sites in the Southern Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Eitan Tchernov
Affiliation:
Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91 904, Israel
Liora Kolska Horwitz
Affiliation:
Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91 904, Israel
Avraham Ronen
Affiliation:
The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, The University of Haifa, Haifa 31 095, Israel
Adrian Lister
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Medawar Building, University College London, Gower Street, London, WCIE 6BT England

Abstract

The mammalian assemblage and archaeological finds from the Lower Palaeolithic hominid site of Evron Quarry, situated on the northern coastal plain of Israel, are described and discussed. In their lithic and faunal composition, the sites of Latamne (QfIII) (Latamne Formation, Orontes, Syria) and Sitt Markho (Nahr elKebir, Syria) resemble Evron and are probably contemporaneous. It is suggested here, based on their lithic and faunal composition, that these sites may be chronologically closer to the site of Ubeidiya ('Ubeidiya Formation, Jordan Valley, Israel; 1.4 myr) than to the sites of Gesher Benot Ya'akov (dated as <800,000 yr B.P.), which differs in both aspects from Evron. The mammalian faunule from Evron comprises a biogeographical mixture, a result of biotic exchanges with Africa, the Oriental region, and the Palaearctic. This exchange may have been associated with a post-'Ubeidiya hominid dispersal, either from Africa or south Asia via the Levantine "corridor."

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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