Late quaternary chronology and paleoclimates of the eastern mediterranean. Ofer Bar-Yosef and Renee S. Kra (Editors), 1994, Journal of Radiocarbon in Association with the American School of Prehistoric Research, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 377 pp., $55.00 (softcover)
✍ Scribed by C. Britt Bousman
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 314 KB
- Volume
- 10
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0883-6353
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✦ Synopsis
Over the last 10 or 15 years a sometimes quiet and sometimes not so quiet revolution has occurred in Old World archaeology and physical anthropology, and Quaternary sciences. These changes have resulted, in part, because of the employment of new dating techniques, refinements of older techniques, and careful review of existing data. The implications have been felt throughout the disciplines of geology, archaeology, and physical anthropology, especially in the areas concerned with the emergence of anatomically modern humans and the origins of agriculture in the Eastern Mediterranean. This current volume edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and Renee S. Kra represents a highly valuable compilation of the most recent chronometric results and interpretations based on these results. Many of the contributions were originally presented at a workshop during the 14th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Tucson in May 1991, although a few new papers were added. As the volume covers so much time, breadth, and variety, it seems wise to present the readers with a very brief statement on each paper. The book is divided into four sections: Dating the Paleolithic and the Neolithic of the Levant, Paleoclimates of the Last 20,000 Years, Regional Sequences: Pleistocene and Holocene Chronology, and Biozones of the Levant.
The first section, Dating the Paleolithic and the Neolithic of the Levant, consists of four articles. Housley's paper consists of a list and individual comments on 282 AMS age estimations generated by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit between 1983 and 1993. These range in age from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene and provide a useful compendium of the Oxford contribution to the Eastern Mediterranean radiocarbon chronology. The remaining three articles provide absolute age estimates for Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in the Levant. Most of the sites in question are beyond the range of radiocarbon dating and have become the focus of intensive investigation and scrutiny. Mercier and Valladas discuss the TL (thermoluminescence) dating of burned flint from the Paleolithic sites of Hummal Well, Yabroud I Shelter, Kebara, Qafzeh, Skhul, and Tabun. Schwarcz presents ESR (electron spin resonance) and TL dating results from sites with anatomically modern humans (Qafzeh and Skhul) and Neanderthals (Amud, Tabun, Kebara, and Zuttiyeh). Farrand reviews ESR, TL, AAR (amino-acid racemization), U-Series (uranium-series), and C14 radiometric dates from Tabun, Skhul, Kebara, Qafzeh, Yabroud I Shelter, Naame, Bezez Cave, Abri Zumoffen, and Zuttiyeh Cave. In this essay he identifies inconsistencies within a single stratigraphic series from a single method, notes conflicts between the various age determinations from stratified contexts at key sites, and suggests an absolute chronology that attempts to reduce the number of inconsistencies. As Farrand and the other authors recognize, these new radiometric techniques still make a number of assumptions and Geoarchaeology: