Vahdati Nasab, H., and M. Hashemi, et al. 2014. Playas and Middle Paleolithic Settlements at the...

Middle Palaeolithic in the Desert II Université de Bordeaux 11th, 12th & 13th December 2014

Dear Friends and Colleagues, Welcome to Bordeaux and our second Middle Palaeolithic in the Desert Conference! We are delighted that you can join us for this meeting that will highlight recent and ground breaking research on Middle Palaeolithic technologies and how they were embedded in desert environments. We are particularly grateful to our sponsors who have enabled us to support the attendance of researchers from developing economies. Our programme spans the breadth of the mid-latitude arid belt and beyond, and we hope you will enjoy both the presentations as well as informal opportunities to meet colleagues and make new friends. Schedule Overview Thursday 11th December

Registration 8:00-9:15am (Université de Bordeaux - Pôle Juridique et Judiciaire 35, place Pey-Berland) Introduction and Keynote Lecture 9:15am West Africa 11:00am North Africa I 13:40pm North Africa II 16:00pm

Conference Dinner 19:30pm (Mille et Une Nuit; 42 Rue des Bahutiers)

Friday 12th December

Keynote Lecture 9:30am Europe and the Levant 11:00am Arabia and Iran 14:00pm South and East Asia 16:20pm

Wine Reception 19:00pm (Wine More Time; 8 Rue Saint James)

Saturday 13th December

Dordogne Excursion 8:00 – 19:00 (Meet at Quinconces)

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Thursday 11th December 9:15 – 9:30am: Introduction to the conference 9:30-10:30am: Keynote Lecture: Erella Hovers

10:30-11:00am: Tea Break West Africa 11:00am: B. Chevrier et al. ‘Sahelian aridity and non-perennial human settlement during MSA and LSA: a Western African point of view’ 11:20am: Khadija Niang ‘The Middle Palaeolithic of West Africa: Lithic techno-typological analyses of the site of Tiemassass, Senegal. 11:40am: Eleanor Scerri et al. ‘Considering the role of arid West Africa in the MSA: new evidence from northern Senegal’ 12:00pm: Questions/Discussion 12:20pm Poster Session

12:40-13:40pm: Lunch North Africa I 13:40pm: Emilie Campmas et al. ‘Environmental constraints for first Anatomically Modern Human occupations in North Africa: the example from the Témara coastal area (Morocco)’ 14:00pm: M. G. Chacón et al. ‘The open air site occupations during the Middle Palaeolithic at Guefait (Eastern Morocco)’ 14:20pm: Robert Hosfield et al. ‘The Middle Stone Age beyond the Nile: a perspective from Wadi Muqadam, Sudan’ 14:40pm Emanuelle Cancellieri ‘The Saharan Middle Stone Age’ 15:00pm Maxine Kleindienst et al. ‘Plumbing the Presence of Paleolithic Hominins in the Western Desert: ESR Dating Molluscs and Herbivore Teeth at Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt’ 15:20pm Questions/Discussion

15:40-16:00: Tea Break

North Africa II 16:00pm: Marta Lahr & Rob Foley ‘Lithic landscapes: insights from the Sahara desert into stone as a hominin resource’ 16:20pm: Miguel Caparros ‘Jebel Irhoud 1 (Morocco): pre-modern Homo sapiens or North African Neanderthal?’ 16:40pm: Piotr Osypinski ‘Optimal adjustment or cultural backwardness? New data on the latest MSA industries in the Nile Valley’ 17:00pm: Sacha Jones & Lucy Farr ‘Middle Stone Age reduction strategies at the desert’s edge: a multi-site comparison across the Gebel Akhdar of north-east Libya’ 17:20pm: Questions/Discussion

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Friday 12th December 9:30-10:30am: Keynote Lecture: Michael Petraglia

10:30-11:00am: Tea Break Europe and the Levant 11:00am: Luca Sitzia & Pascal Bertran ‘Geoarchaeological perspective on the Palaeolithic peopling of the Landes de Gascogne desert (SW France)’ 11:20am: Knut Bretzke & Nicolas Conard ‘Tracking hominin spatial behavior in the Middle Paleolithic of Southwest Syria’ 11:40am: Marina Pagli ‘ Insights into mobility patterns in the Syrian Desert: the case of Umm el Tlel Mousterian sequence (Central Syria)’ 12:00pm: Mae Goder-Goldberger et al. ‘Nubian cores as markers for Homo sapiens dispersals; a perspective from site H2 in the Negev Highlands, Israel’ 12:20pm: Marion Prévost & Yossi Zaidner ‘Nesher Ramla (Israel), Unit III: Preliminary Technological and Spatial Analysis of a Mousterian Layer’ 12:40pm: Questions/Discussion

13:00-14:00pm: Lunch Arabia and Iran 14:00pm: Huw Groucutt & Michael Petraglia ‘The Middle Palaeolithic of Arabia’ 14:20pm: Robyn Inglis et al. ‘The Middle Palaeolithic Along the Coast - New Data From Southwestern Saudi Arabia’ 14:40pm: Atsushi Noguchi et al. ‘Variability of Middle Palaeolithic core reduction sequences in northern inland Oman’ 15:00pm: Saman Heydari ‘The power of topography: the Middle Paleolithic settlements in the Zagros Mountains’ 15:20pm: Hamed Vahdati-Nasab et al. ‘Playas and Middle Paleolithic Settlements at the Iranian Central Desert’ 15:40pm Questions/Discussion

16:00-16:20pm: Tea Break South and East Asia 16:20pm: Hema Achyuthan & James Blinkhorn ‘Middle Paleolithic Archaeology In The Thar desert, India: A Paleoenvironmental Comparison With Other Desert Regions’ 16:40pm: James Blinkhorn et al. ‘Recent discoveries from the arid Indian coastline in Kachchh, Gujarat’ 17:00pm: Gao Xing et al. ‘The palaeolithic record of the deserts of North China’ 17:20pm: Questions/Discussion 17:40pm: Concluding Remarks from Organisers

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Presentation Abstracts 1. Sahelian aridity and non-perennial human settlement during MSA and LSA:

a Western African point of view Chevrier B., Soriano S., Rasse M., Tribolo C., Hajdas I., Guardiola M., Huysecom E. The relationship between the human groups and the Sahara is a key point in the issue of emergence, development and diffusion of anatomically modern humans in Africa. If most of the research works focus on Southern and Eastern Africa, Western Africa yielded interesting data but remained very little documented at the end of the last century. Then, since more than 15 years, the research program “Human Settlement and Palaeoenvironment in Africa” realizes fieldworks, mainly in Mali and Senegal. The studied regions (Ounjougou in Mali and the Faleme Valley in Eastern Senegal), with the only reliable chronostratigraphic data in Western Africa, are located in two different climatic areas and allow to discuss the human adaptation to the palaeoenvironmental changes. In Ounjougou, a diversity of technical complexes (Levallois, bipolar on anvil debitage, bifacial shaping etc.) is observed during OIS 5 to 3 but a settlement gap is clearly highlighted during the hyperarid stage 2. In the Faleme Valley, if the recent works also seem to recognize a strong cultural variability, some of the occupations are linked to OIS 2 and raises the question of the north-south human mobility and the settlement dynamics in relation to arid episodes, in particular the Ogolian one (20-14 Kyr BP).

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2. The Middle Palaeolithic of West Africa: Lithic techno-typological analyses of the site of Tiemassass, Senegal.

Khadija Niang

University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, SENEGAL

Senegal may have played an essential role in the dispersal of hominids between North and sub-Saharan Africa, because of its strategic position between the Sahara desert and tropical Africa. Between 1940 and 1960, the Senegalese littoral yielded some prehistoric sites attributed to the Middle Paleolithic. However, given the absence of radiometric dating, this chrono-cultural framework is only based on typological considerations about lithic industries generally found in secondary or disturbed stratigraphic context. In this paper, I discuss the composition of the lithic assemblages represented at Tiemassas, and analyze their technological strategies. Tiemassas is a controversial site located about 90 km from Dakar. The polemic lies within the different chronological attributions, some authors consider it as Middle Paleolithic site, while other associate it to the Neolithic period. The Site is characterized by the use of diverse strategies of raw material exploitation in relation to the morphology and morphometry of the exploited pebbles. The assemblage is flake dominated, generally characterised by typical MSA methods such as Levallois, opportunistic (SSDA) and discoidal flaking, and more rarely by laminar methods. Finally, retouch is usually applied to transform objects on side-scrapers. This study is a first step in the process of definition and description of the Middle Stone Age in Senegal and its wider regional African Middle Stone Age context.

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3. Considering the role of arid West Africa in the MSA: new evidence from northern Senegal

Eleanor Scerri1, James Blinkhorn1, Huw Groucutt2, Khady Niang3

1PACEA, University of Bordeaux; 2Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford; 3 University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, SENEGAL

The Senegal River links the forested African interior with arid North Africa, providing a major source of fresh water, even along the edges of the desert. Following climate model suggestions that this ecozone has not significantly changed throughout the Pleistocene, the Senegal Prehistory Project launched a programme investigating the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in the Western Sahel, in northern Senegal. Ten new archaeological sites of MSA character were discovered in overbank deposits along the relict edges of the Senegal River in March 2014. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of geomorphological and technological analyses from three of these sites, located in far northern Senegal at the edges of what is currently thought to be the maximum extent of marine introgression during interglacials. Ndiayene Pendao, Njideri and Madina Cheikh Omar all display similar technologies and modes of production utilizing a high grade flint of currently unknown provenance. Two of these sites, Njideri and Madina Cheikh Omar are extensive, but quarried such that none of the artefacts were found in situ. Futher inland, at the smaller site of Ndiayane Pendao, test trenches revealed in situ artefacts from layers that are currently under chronological and environmental investigation. However, at all the sites, the artefacts emerge from the same geological context. The technology is heavily Levallois, typically featuring the use of centripetal preferential methods. Finely retouched tools include basal modifications such as thinning and shouldering, suggesting widespread hafting. Many of these features resemble both North African and sub-Saharan African MSA technological characteristics, perhaps emphasizing the important role of the Senegal River and its network of tributaries for facilitating MSA population movement and interaction.

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4. Environmental constraints for first Anatomically Modern Human occupations in North Africa: the example from the Témara coastal area (Morocco).

Emilie Campmas1, Patrick Michel2, Fethi Amani3, Sandrine Costamagno1, Emmanuelle Stoetzel2, Driss Chahid4, Roland Nespoulet5, Mohamed Abdeljalil El Hajraoui3 1TRACES- UMR 5608, University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, France; 2PACEA-UMR 5199, University of Bordeaux, France; 3INSAP, Rabat, Morocco; 4Department of Geology, University of Meknes, Morocco; 5MNHN-UMR 7194, Paris, France Currently, a large part of North Africa is covered by the Saharan desert. However, past climate shifts have induced the reduction or the expansion of this desert in parallel with the appearance and the disappearance of rivers and lakes over time. In addition to the desert barrier to the south, North Africa is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and by the Mediterranean Sea to the North. Coastal areas have been subject to sea level shifts leading to an alternation of submersion/emersion of some parts of the continental shelf, which caused local environmental changes. Thus, coastal geomorphology has changed throughout time. Consequently, in North Africa, both in desert and in coastal areas, available territories and resources for human and animals have changed. During climatic ameliorations, when the desert contracted, and the Saharan area was covered by hydrological networks, coastal shorelines were similar to today’s. Aterian occupations have been recorded during wetter periods of MIS 5, both in current desert areas, such as Libya, and in coastal areas, such as Moroccan Atlantic coast. This presentation aims to illustrate how local environmental fluctuations and sea level shifts have influenced the Aterian population settlement and human adaptations on the coastal areas of North Africa. This issue is approached through the example of Témara Caves (Rabat, Morocco) which have recorded both hallmarks of local environmental changes and Aterian occupations over time.

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5. The open air site occupations during the Middle Palaeolithic at Guefait (Eastern Morocco)

Chacón, M. G.1,2,3, Aouraghe, H. 4, Sala, R.1,2, Haddoumi, H. 4, El Hammouti, K. 4, El Harradji, A5.

1IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV, C/Marcel·lí Domingo s/n (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain; ,2Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Av. Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain; 3UMR7194 – Dép. Préhistoire, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 1, rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France; 4Faculté des Sciences, Université Mohamed 1er, Avenue Mohamed VI, Quartier Al Qods, 60 000 Oujda, Morocco; 5Département de Géographie, FLSH, Université Mohammed 1er, B.P. 457, - 60 050 Oujda, Morocco The region of eastern Morocco is very rich in sites and archaeological remains. Many Pleistocene and Holocene sites have been discovered during the last 20 years. Systematic surveys were realised in the frame of the Spanish-Moroccan research project that started in 2006 between the Sciences Faculty of Oujda and the Institut Catalá de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social of Tarragona (Spain). This project made possible the discovery of new prehistoric sites with lithic assemblages attributed to Mode 1 to Mode 4. Fieldwork carried out in 2012 permitted the identification of new archaeological open air sites at Guéfait (Jerada Province). It is the first time since the 1990’ (Wengler 1993a, 1993b, 1997; Wengler &Vernet 1992) that new Middle Paleolithic archaeological sites have been discovered in this region. Lithic assemblages, found on the surface as well as in stratigraphic position, are located on the exposed surfaces of river banks and around springs. The results of the technological analysis of these lithic assemblages allowed their attribution to the Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian and Aterian). They present technological attributes which are very similar to those of other penecontemporaneous sites from the region (ex. Ifri N’ammar - Nami, M. & Moser, J. 2010 ; la Station Météo d’Aïn Bni Mathar and the Grotte de Rhafas – Wengler 1993, 1997) as well as from other regions of Morocco (ex. Arzarello et al. 2012, 2013 ; Dibble et al. 2012 ; El Hajraoui et al. 2012). This research and the preliminary results obtained until now raise the significance of Eastern Morocco in the debates on the Middle Paleolithic in general and on Mousterian/Aterian/Middle Stone Age in Maghreb in particular.

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6. The Middle Stone Age beyond the Nile: a perspective from Wadi Muqadam, Sudan

R. Hosfield1, K. White2, N. Drake3

1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, RG6 6AB, UK; 2Department of Geography & Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, RG6 6AB, UK; 3Department of Geography, King’s College London, WC2R 2LS, UK. The relative importance of the Nile system, compared to surrounding landscapes, for the dispersal of H. sapiens from Africa remains uncertain due to (i) a current scarcity of archaeological data, especially beyond the Nile valley, and (ii) the increasing appreciation of ‘Green Saharan’ phases during the Pleistocene (e.g. Drake et al. 2011). New fieldwork in Sudan sought to partially address this data shortage through a geoarchaeological survey of the Wadi Muqadam headwaters landscape (c. 15°30’N, 31°15’E), c. 70km west of Khartoum and the Nile. Remote sensing technologies identified the presence of potential Pleistocene-age palaeo-lakes and palaeo-channels on the basis of digital elevation models (ASTER GDEM and SRTM3) and multispectral and high spatial resolution satellite imagery (Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper and Google Earth). The initial fieldwork targeted shorelines and surfaces of palaeolake basins along Wadi Muqadam, building upon previous research in the Saharan region that has demonstrated the concentration of archaeological sites in these geomorphological contexts (e.g. Drake et al. 2011).Although the initial field survey in April 2013 identified lithic material from multiple periods, Middle Stone Age artefacts were clearly present, in the form of classical Levallois (preferential centripetal and preferential unidirectional-convergent) and unifacial and bifacial points. The absence of Nubian cores (e.g. Van Peer 1991) and the presence of bifacial points (albeit not highly diagnostic bifacial foliates/ovates) along Wadi Muqadam are perhaps suggestive of stronger MSA connections to the south and south-east (i.e. the Horn of African and the Bab-el-Mandeb Straits) compared to connections with the lower Nile to the north, although further work is required to confirm these findings. The repeated association of MSA artefacts with palaeolake settings also suggests a landscape in which, during favourable environmental conditions, a relatively stable hominin settlement would be feasible. The wider implications of the new MSA sites and artefacts are briefly considered with respect to the potential roles of differing routes for modern human dispersals from Africa during wet and dry phases: the Nile Corridor (Vermeersch 2001), the coastal belt (Bailey 2010) and Green Sahara (Drake et al. 2011).

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7. The Saharan Middle Stone Age Emanuele Cancellieri The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza Università di Roma North African prehistory traditionally received great interest by African and international researchers, especially focused on a number of "hot spots" and "hot topics". Despite the high interest in issues such as the emergence of humankind, the succeeding species of hominids and their diffusion out of the continent, little is known about Pleistocene contexts in the Sahara, even though this covers almost a third of the continent. Huge amounts of lithic artefacts scattered nearly everywhere in the region are sign of protracted occupation by different human species, ruled by global climatic and environmental change playing a key role in humans evolution also triggering behavioural adjustments. Unfortunately, the scarce chronological control implies that we are still trapped within de-contextualized and circular arguments connecting archaeological “cultures” and wet phases – even if this automatism has been seriously challenged since the mid 90’s with the dating of the Aterian occupation, in SW Libya, to the hyperarid MIS4. Nevertheless, in the last few years the vast North African region witnessed a series of exciting discoveries and a dramatic improvement of knowledge, thanks to different international research teams very active in both the field (where this is still possible) and the analysis and interpretation, whose results are enriching the continuously changing picture of the "Middle Palaeolithic in the Desert".

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8. Plumbing the Presence of Paleolithic Hominins in the Western Desert: ESR Dating Molluscs and Herbivore Teeth at Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt

M.R. Kleindienst1, B.A.B. Blackwell2,3, A.R. Skinner2,3, J.R. Smith4, C.S. Churcher5, J. M. Kieniewicz6, N. Wise2, J.I.B. Blickstein3, R.A. Long3, A.E. Deely3, K.K.L. Chen3, A. Huang3, M.Q.D. Kim3 1Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada; 2Dept. of Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown MA, 01267, USA; 3RFK Science Research Institute, Glenwood Landing, NY, 11547-0866, US; 4Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130-4862, USA; 5Dept. of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G5, Canada; 6Environmental Science Research Officer, British Library, 99 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, UK At Dakhleh Oasis, a Middle Pleistocene paleolake(s) covered >170 km2. At eastern Locality D348, 8m thick, remnant lacustrine marls yielded Pleistocene fauna, rare artefacts, plant macrofossils and casts. No obvious erosional boundary exists within these deposits. From upper horizons, a hartebeest tooth dated at 195 ± 11 ka, correlates with Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 7, and agrees with 230Th/234U dates at > 200 ka on Escarpment tufas that mark inflows to the lake. From a snail-rich horizon just above the tooth, molluscs averaged 89 ± 10 ka, correlating with OIS 5a/b, which may be coeval with abraded Aterian Dakhleh Unit lithics found sitting as lag on sandstone below D348. At western Locality D006, deflation has left MSA, Neolithic, and post-Neolithic artefacts and Pleistocene fossils in the temporally mixed surficial lag. Molluscs from Romano-Byzantine backdirt dated to 8-15 ± 1 ka, suggesting that ponds formed at artesian vents during earliest OIS 1 or latest OIS 2. More than 50 lagged tooth fragments, mainly herbivore, and independently dated by ESR, correlated with early OIS 3, OIS 5b-5e, OIS 6c, OIS 6e/7a, OIS 7c, OIS 8d, OIS 9/10, OIS 11, and OIS 17. One bovid tooth associated with MSA artefacts in a sand deposit dated at 117 ± 10 ka (OIS 5e). While absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, even without sedimentary contexts, ESR frequency data indicate that ≥ eight wetter periods made the oasis more habitable for herbivores during the Mid-Late Quaternary, and, therefore, likely also for hominins.

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9. Lithic landscapes: insights from the Sahara desert into stone as a hominin resource.

Robert A Foley and Marta Mirazón Lahr

Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge Deserts are impoverished environments, with little water, sparse vegetation, and dispersed and diminutive animals. Even under more benign conditions they are unlikely to have been Pleistocene utopia. However, in terms of one resource they are often remarkably rich - stone raw materials. The major deserts of the old world exist in geological contexts that can provide abundant resources for lithic production, and the lack of vegetation makes discovery and exploitation easy (then and now). The Messak Settafet massif of the Central Sahara in southern Libya is one such example. Stretching over 100 kilometres, and dividing two major sand seas, this extensive Cretaceous sandstone outcrop was widely used by Middle and Upper Pleistocene hominins as a source of raw material, resulting in a veritable carpet of technological debris strewn across the landscape. Here we report on attempts to quantify the densities (approximately 70 lithics per square metre), and consider the implications for adaptations to the desert by Early and Middle Stone Age populations, especially spatial organisation. We use the data from the Messak to explore the issue of anthropogenic change through stone procurement, and provide models for the scale of lithic exploitation by Pleistocene hominins in Africa, and compare these models to the pattern of the Early and Middle Stone Age archaeological record.

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10. Jebel Irhoud 1 (Morocco): pre-modern Homo sapiens or North African Neanderthal?

Miguel Caparros

Département de Préhistoire, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. Jebel Irhoud 1 from Morocco dated to approximately 160/190 ky BP was attributed originally to the Neanderthal taxonomic group. Today the prevailing classification is that this fossil is a pre-modern grade of Homo sapiens ancestral to the Aterians of North Africa. Thus, for this region the accepted evolutionary scenario is that primitive moderns evolved independently without contact or genetic link with European and/or Near East Neanderthals. A challenging question is: was Jebel Irhoud 1 really modern or are his anatomical and morphometric affinities more in line with a Neanderthal or archaic Homo sapiens phylogenetic association? We present here a review of the taxonomic position of Jebel Irhoud 1 emanating from published morphometric and endocranial studies, and present the results of a morphometric cranial shape analysis. Morphometric cranial shape analyses show that Jebel Irhoud 1 has unquestionably more metric affinities with Neanderthals than modern Homo sapiens, and shares cranial and endocranial characters with Neanderthals and modern humans. Taking into account the North African Mousterian cultural context, the spatial and temporal overlap of up to six contemporaneous morphotypes made up of late African archaic Homo sapiens and early AMHs, and Near East Neanderthals, it is not unreasonable to propose that Jebel Irhoud 1 represents a lineage that might be the result of introgressive hybridisation. This would add credence to a reticulate evolutionary scenario linking these African lineages where the role of hybrid zone refugia arising from alternating hyperarid to humid desert periods of the Sahara would play an important part.

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11. Optimal adjustment or cultural backwardness? New data on the latest MSA industries in the Nile Valley

Piotr Osypinski

PATRIMONIUM Foundation, Rubiez 46, PL-61-612 Poznan Surface surveys around Affad (Middle Nile Valley, Sudan) have revealed the presence of a considerable number of sites embedded in the ceiling parts of fluvial sediments, which yielded chert artefacts produced using Levallois methods. Their dating, based on technological and stylistic analysis, has pointed to a general, very broad period of their origin - from the end of MIS5 to MIS2. However, the last flake industries hitherto known from Lower Nubia were already marked by evident signs of interaction with the new ideas of the LSA – microlithisation and production of standardised backed implements. Analyses of lithic assemblages from the excavated site of Affad 23 have shown no intent to create microlithic tools, backed pieces or bifacial forms. Instead, most common are denticulates on Levallois blanks (both flakes and points). Basal thinning has been registered on some implements in the form of a burin blow on the ventral side and removal of the largest bulges of arrises on the dorsal side. Refitting analyses have enabled an alternative interpretation of the function of some lithics as rejected or incipient elements of the Levallois technique, while spatial analysis of refitted artefacts provided a valuable source for the reconstruction of the spatial organisation of the camp. The paleoenvironmental and contextual data support the suite of OSL dating of sediments at the site and in its vicinity and date the settlement at Affad back to the period of a humid climate oscillation, shortly after the LGM, that is to say circa 16 ka! Compared to the hitherto prevailing knowledge on the late Levallois industries in the Nile Valley, the findings from Affad stand out as a new quality, demonstrating excellent adaptation of the then communities to the wetland ecosystem of a wide river valley, devoid of any elements of the LSA technology. Due to the paucity of studies on the Levallois industries south of Lower Nubia, it has thus far been impossible to support the hypothesis of such a long survival of the communities or their cyclical inflow to the north together with climate oscillations. Project financed by NCN: UMO-2011/01/D/HS3/04125

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12. Middle Stone Age reduction strategies at the desert’s edge: a multi-site comparison across the Gebel Akhdar of north-east Libya

Sacha Jones and Lucy Farr McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3ER Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites have been documented in a variety of ecological contexts in northern Cyrenaica in north-east Libya. This includes sites within the Gebel Akhdar region, which borders the Mediterranean coast, as well as those further to the south in pre-desert and desert biomes. Several of these are surface occurrences, discovered during surveys of the region over the past few years as part of the ERC-funded TRANS-NAP project (Cultural Transformations and Environmental Transitions in North African Prehistory). Haua Fteah cave, ~0.8 km south of the present-day coast, preserves rich MSA cultural horizons that were excavated in the 1950s (McBurney 1967) and more recently by the TRANS-NAP project. This paper explores variation in MSA core reduction strategies between sites across the Gebel Akhdar region, as well as within the Haua Fteah sequence. Some sites have relatively good chronological control, whereas the chronology of others is poor. Similarly, some sites have good associated palaeoenvironmental archives, whereas others do not. We integrate chronological, ecological and lithic artefactual data in order to explore the mechanisms that underpin regional variability in core reduction strategies. We consider how our findings feed into models of past population dynamics in this region of North Africa during the MSA.

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13. Geoarchaeological perspective on the Palaeolithic peopling of the Landes de Gascogne desert (SW France)

Luca Sitzia1, Pascal Bertran1,2

1PACEA, UMR 5199, Université de Bordeaux 1 - CNRS, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France; 2INRAP, 156 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 33600 Pessac, France During the last glacial period, the Landes de Gascogne (SW France) was a periglacial desert comprising coversands with low-relief dune fields surrounded by loess accumulations. OSL and radiocarbon dates show that the phase of maximum sand deposition coincides with MIS 2. Peats and gleyic palaeosoils intercalated within the sands at some sites indicate that vegetation cover was able to develop locally during short events, possibly D/O interstadials. Few Upper Palaeolithic sites have been discovered in the coversand area in contrast to the peripheral loess region. Systematic surveys, as well as geomorphological mapping and dating of main dune fields, allow us to demonstrates that this paucity of sites is not the result of insufficient survey nor deep site burial, but rather reflects an archaeological reality. This strongly suggests that the sand area was not attractive for hunter-gatherer populations due to its reduced levels of water resources, and available vegetation and animal biomass. The distribution of cultural markers also shows that the coversand area probably acted as a barrier separating two different cultural sub-areas, one in the Pyrenees and Cantabria, the other in the Périgord. As a consequence, the commonly accepted view that southwest France, as a whole, served as a refugia during the cold and arid phases of the Pleistocene should be replaced by a more complex one that reflects the fact that a large part of the territory was almost unoccupied and that human populations were concentrated along alluvial valleys. Climatic pulsations during the Lateglacial obviously had a major impact on regional settling. A similar pattern also occurred for the Late Middle Palaeolithic.

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14. Tracking hominin spatial behavior in the Middle Paleolithic of Southwest Syria

Knut Bretzke1, Nicholas J. Conard 1,2 1 Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Burgsteige 11, 72070 Tübingen, Germany; 2 Tübingen Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, Burgsteige 11, 72070 Tübingen, Germany For over a decade between 1999 and 2010, the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology of the University of Tübingen conducted collaborative research with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria in the region of Ma’aloula and Yabroud in the Damascus Province. This effort greatly expanded the Paleolithic record of the region, providing new data from four excavated stratified sites and 538 surveyed surface localities. In this paper we focus on results from our analysis of hominin spatial behavior during the Middle Paleolithic gained through the study of the distribution of Middle Paleolithic lithic technological systems within our ca. 500 km² study region in the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. We use stratified assemblages from the region, most notably from our excavation at Wadi Mushkuna Rockshelter, as reference for the typo-technological classification of our survey finds. For modeling hominin land use and potential interactions with the inhabited environment we access a record containing 354 sites with Levalloisian Middle Paleolithic artifacts. As a starting point, we distinguish four main technological components: preferential Levallois, unidirectional recurrent Levallois, bi-directional recurrent Levallois and unidirectional converging Levallois. By applying an off-site approach we trace the spatial signature of these entities in our study region using quantitative GIS methods and subsequently develop models for hominin behavior in the landscape. In search for potential causes related to the development of the observed differences, we discuss the role of changing environments based on recent and paleoenvironmental data.

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15. Insights into mobility patterns in the Syrian Desert: the case of Umm el Tlel Mousterian sequence (Central Syria).

Marina Pagli PhD University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, UMR 7041 – Archéologie et Sciences de l’Antiquité, AnTET « Anthropologie des Techniques, des Espaces et des Territoires au Pliocène et au Pléistocène », Maison Archéologie et Ethnologie « René Ginouvès » , 21, allée de l'Université , F-92023 Nanterre cedex The open air site of Umm el Tlel is located in the semi-arid region of Central Syria, in an area where aridity is attenuated by the presence of artesian springs. The Late Middle Palaeolithic sequence is formed by a succession of occupations around a lake or backwaters, attributed to the Mousterian with Levallois reduction. Technical analysis of one part of this sequence shows several technological changes through time, supporting significant technocultural variability for the populations occupying this site. Comparison with the Yabroud I rock shelter, located in the mountainous area near Damascus, shows the same technical diversity, suggesting the successive occupations of groups with different technical systems. In contrast, little variation can be observed throughout the Ksar ‘Akil Mousterian sequence, located on the Lebanese coast, showing the succession of populations sharing the same knowledge base. We propose that these patterns of change through time are the consequence of different settlement dynamics, characterizing the Near Eastern Middle Palaeolithic human groups: a high degree of mobility for populations on the inland semi-arid area versus more limited territories in the coastal region.

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16. Nubian cores as markers for Homo sapiens dispersals; a perspective from site H2 in the Negev Highlands, Israel.

Goder-Goldberger Mae1, Gubenko Natalia2, Hovers Erella1 1Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; 2Israel Antiquities Authority The Nubian cores have been used as a marker for Homo sapiens dispersals out of Africa as they have been found in East Africa, the Nile Valley and Arabia. Their purported absence from Levantine assemblages was used to exclude this region from the proposed dispersal routes, although geographically it is the major land route connecting Africa to both Arabia and Europe. The lithic assemblage from site H2 in the central Negev highlands of Israel includes both Levallois centripetal and Nubian type cores. This assemblage highlights the need for a rigorous definition of the Nubian flaking technology and of the "technological package" that it is associated with. The wetter conditions over the Sahara and Negev deserts during MIS 6a-5e provided a generally continuous semi-arid corridor into the Levant that enabled the dispersal of hominin groups bearing the Nubian variant of prepared core technologies. The H2 assemblage as well as additional similar collections from the central Negev draws renewed attention to the place of the Levant as one of the dispersal routes out of Africa during the Late Pleistocene.

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17. Nesher Ramla (Israel), Unit III: Preliminary technological and spatial analysis of a Mousterian Layer

Prévost, Marion1, Zaidner, Yossi1,2

1Institute of archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; 2Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa The Levantine Middle Paleolithic has been mainly documented according to long stratigraphic sequences of the cave sites. The recently discovered site of Nesher Ramla, western Judean foothills (Central Israel), provides an opportunity to analyze human adaptations to unique open-air context. The hominins were using a funnel-shaped depression formed by gravitational subsidence and collapse into underground karstic voids. Within an eight-meter thick Middle Paleolithic sequence, six stratigraphic units were identified and dated to MIS 6 and 5 (OSL dates: 167±11- 78±6 ka). Here we discuss one of the richest and best preserved archaeological units of the site (Unit III), dated to ~145 ka. The layer (~ 20 cm thick) is extremely dense in bones, lithics artifacts and manuports. During the field excavation, ca 20 distinct artifacts and bones accumulations were observed as well as in situ hearths and ash piles in secondary positions. The concentration and combustion features occur on an area of ca 40 square meters allowing us to conduct a spatial analysis, which preliminary results will be presented here. We present the ongoing technological analyses on cores and debitage products. Several reduction sequences were identified among which the Levallois centripetal method prevailed. In addition, other specifics knapping methods were observed, e.g. cores-on-flake and preferential surface cores. The technological and spatial analysis of this Mousterian site is aimed to determinate the use of the site’s space and the specific activities areas as well as the place of the site within Levantine Middle Paleolithic settlement system.

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18. The Middle Palaeolithic of Arabia Huw S. Groucutt and Michael D. Petraglia Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford. The Arabian Peninsula occupies a focal position at the heart of the Saharo-Arabian desert belt. Just five years ago not a single excavated and dated Arabian Middle Palaeolithic site had been published. That picture is rapidly changing, with excavated sites now known from at least Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 7, 5 and 3. This expanding corpus of knowledge allows the first robust consideration of the Arabian Peninsula in terms of Middle and Later Pleistocene hominin demographic and behavioural changes. Here we report on recent discoveries made by the Palaeodeserts Project across Saudi Arabia, the largest country in the Middle East. These findings, along with the work of researchers in southern Arabia, indicate a complex pattern of population dispersal into the Peninsula and localised demographic and behavioural changes. We evaluate the state of knowledge on Arabia, contextualised in terms of its interregional position and fluctuating environments, to consider the implication of these recent findings.

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19. The Middle Palaeolithic Along the Coast - New Data From Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Robyn Inglis1, Anthony Sinclair2, Andrew Shuttleworth3, Matthew Meredith-Williams1, Niklas Hausmann1, Abdullah Alsharekh4 and Geoff Bailey1. 1Department of Archaeology, University of York, United Kingdom; 2School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom; 3Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK; 4Department of Archaeology, College of Tourism and Antiquities, King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The role of coastal landscapes and resources in dispersals has long been the subject of debate, particularly in assessing the conditions and timing of global dispersals of modern humans from Africa. Coastal landscapes potentially provide highly attractive concentrations of different marine and terrestrial resources but are not uniformly attractive to exploitation. Current discussions into the extent to which Pleistocene coastal areas were exploited by hominin populations are hampered in large part due to their submergence by Holocene sea level rise. New data on Palaeolithic coastal occupation directly related to palaeoshorelines, from both terrestrial and underwater contexts, are therefore urgently needed. The DISPERSE project is addressing these issues through a combination of archaeological survey and underwater investigation along the Red Sea coastline of Southwestern Saudi Arabia, a region key to dispersals along the ‘Southern Route’ from Africa to Arabia. This paper presents new data on Early and Middle Stone Age artefacts from the Red Sea coastline of the Harrat Al Birk lava fields, located by DISPERSE between 2012-2014. This 100km coastline contain numerous raised fossil beach deposits and coral terraces, some associated with Palaeolithic artefacts. In particular, the Dhahaban Quarry site has yielded over 400 lithics, 19 of which were stratified in deposits below a fossil beach complex. The nature of these deposits and their associated archaeology are discussed in the context of the challenges involved with identifying and assessing the Palaeolithic record of coastal region exploitation.

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20. Variability of Middle Palaeolithic core reduction sequences in northern inland Oman

Atsushi Noguchi, Takehiro Miki and Yasuhisa Kondo The American-Japanese Bat Archaeological Project (AJBAP) has discovered a series of Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Wadi al-Kabir basin (WAK) and Al-Muqaidah (Mq), Wilayat Ibri, Oman, during the 2013 season's survey. The technological background of lithic components from both WAK and Mq are seemingly similar, but the size of cores and the trajectories of core reduction sequence are various. All Middle Palaeolithic sites in both WAK and Mq are located alongside bedded chert sources, but raw material availability is quite different. Mq sites are situated in linear hills and relatively large size chunks of fine chart are available, while WAK sites are situated along fragmentaized bedded cherts due to highly tectonic affection. In this paper, we will present differences between WAK and Mq core reduction sequences in connection with raw material availability and its implications.

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21. The power of topography: the Middle Paleolithic settlements in the Zagros Mountains

Saman Heydari-Guran

University of Tübingen Examining the pattern of Middle Paleolithic site distribution across the physical landscapes of the Zagros Mountains documented that these sites are mostly located close to high topographical contrast areas, where flat plains join steep, rugged mountains. This model is mainly based on the analysis of key Middle Paleolithic habitat areas from the northern and west-central Zagros Mountains. These key sites include Shanidar Cave from the Northern Zagros, Kobeh, Do-Ashkaft and Warwasi from Kermanshah, and Kunji, Ghamari, Gar Arjeneh, and Gachi from the Lurestan habitat area. Kermanshah and the Lurestan habitat are both located in the West central Zagros Mountains and have similar topographic condition. In this paper, I present the model of high contrast topography that evaluates the Middle Paleolithic homos used subsistence systems which were based on foraging in flat plains and steep rugged mountains.. This land use strategy is supported by archaeo-zoological data and recent investigations in the northern and west central Zagros Mountains by the author. My ecological analysis revealed that this pattern of land use is limited to small-scale, local areas within the Northern and West Central Zagros Mountains, which is thought by many archaeologists to be a regional expansion of Neanderthal territory into the Iranian Plateau.

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22. Playas and Middle Paleolithic Settlements at the Iranian Central Desert

Hamed Vahdati Nasab1, Milad Hashemi1, Mahyar Khademi1, Soroush Razi1, and Mohammad Hossein Bahrololoomi2

1Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, IRAN. 2Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Office, Semnan, IRAN. Since 2009, the Northern edge of the Iranian Central Desert has been subjected to several seasons of systematic Paleolithic surveys. As a result of these surveys, several Paleolithic settlements have been recorded, among them the Middle Paleolithic sites of Mirak, Soofi-Abad and Chah-e Jam are the most significant ones. Geomorpholigical studies indicate that the current Iranian Central Desert once has been a huge lake, which its remains are still visible in the form of numerous playas across the desert. In order to test whether any Middle Paleolithic settlements were existed around the boundary of such playas, one of them (Chah-e Jam Desert), which is located at the southern outskirts of modern city of Damghan (300km east of Tehran) was selected for intensive walking survey in the July-August 2014. During the course of survey a gigantic lithic scatter (9km in length) was discovered. Techno-typological analysis of the lithic assemblages indicates Middle Paleolithic age for the site, which is based on abundance of Levalloisian technology and numerous Middle Paleolithic tool prototypes (e.g., Levalloisian points, and all types of convergent scrapers). This site along with other Middle Paleolithic settlements in this geographical landscape somehow prove that during the Late Pleistocene period, the climatic condition was evidently different at the Northern edge of the Iranian Central Desert where the presence of numerous lakes and vegetated areas adjusted to them, permitted the human societies to occupy considerably vast areas.

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23. Middle Paleolithic Archaeology In The Thar desert, India: A Palaeoenvironmental Comparison With Other Desert Regions

Hema Achyuthan1 and James Blinkhorn2

1Department of Geology, Anna Unviersity Chennai 600 025, India. 2UMR5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, France. We present an overview of the palaeoenvironments of the Thar Desert of India during the Late Pleistocene, drawing inter-regional comparisons and integrate these results with the most recent archaeological evidence from the region. Particular emphasis will be placed upon MIS 3, with evidence from a wide variety of depositional settings, including fluvial, lacustrine and dune settings documenting an early period of enhanced humidity, followed by global changes in climate relating to the last glacial period. This climatic shift resulted in a strong reduction in summer (southwest) monsoon rainfall across South Asia. Drying associated with monsoon decrease is observed in several data sets produced using proxies such as ice and marine sediment cores, such as high dust-particle spikes and lower 18O values in the Dunde Ice Cap (Qinghai, China) and Guliya Ice Cap (Tibet), pollen and plant macrofossils from the Lake Zeribar in Iran. The data collected indicate semi-arid to arid conditions and shrub coppice vegetation around 35 ka, with very limited tree growth. Regional pollen from the Arabian Sea near South India and from southern Arabia indicates desert–steppe shrubs and virtually no woodland. The overall implication is that the region from Iran, Sub Sahara and the Sahara eastwards to the Thar Desert in Pakistan and India would have been dry and relatively inhospitable during the late MIS 3 period. Recent archaeological investigations in the region indicate the continuity of Middle Palaeolithic industries in the first half of MIS 3, including from the excavated site of Katoati. This combination of lithic technology and evidence for occupation of the Thar Desert overlapping the minimum timescale for modern human dispersal into South Asia from Africa, based on fossil and genetic evidence, are consistent with models for Middle Palaeolithic dispersals through the desert belt during humid phases.

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24. Recent discoveries from the arid Indian coastline in Kachchh, Gujarat James Blinkhorn1, P. Ajithprasad2 & Avinandan Mukherjee2

1UMR5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, France 2Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, MSU Baroda, India The Indian Ocean coastline has been hypothesized as a critical route of dispersal for modern human expansions from Africa, suggesting an adaptation to exploiting coastal resources would permit populations to rapidly expand from East Africa to Australia. In providing a possible route of rapid dispersal, the environmental and ecological diversity of the Indian Ocean rim has often been downplayed, leading to a homogenization of how human populations may have adapted to coastal contexts. Critically, the implications of expanding beyond the mid-latitude arid belt and into the monsoonal coasts of South Asia, have been overlooked. Thus far, little evidence for Palaeolithic coastal occupations from South Asia have been integrated into the modern human dispersal debates. In order to address these issues, a program of fieldwork has been started in Kachchh, Gujarat, the last arid region of coastline in the Saharo-Arabian belt and the gateway to monsoonal India beyond. Located immediately east of the Indus delta, Kachchh presents a suite of lithic and freshwater resources that would be attractive to Palaeolithic populations. Our surveys of numerous river valleys repeatedly identified the presence of Middle Palaeolithic industries associated with Late Pleistocene sediment formations, whereas Late Palaeolithic industries were associated with younger deposits. The implications of these findings for comparisons with the monsoonal Indian coastline, the modern human dispersal debate and prospects for future research will be discussed.

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25. The palaeolithic record of the deserts of North China Gao Xing1, Hou Yamei1, Yang Shixia1 and Robin Dennell2

1Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Beijing, China; 2Dept. of Archaeology, University of Exeter, UK The deserts of northern China currently cover ca. 450,000 sq km (an area larger than the British Isles) and are among the oldest in Asia. They first developed ca. 22 Ma and are largely a consequence of the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau which blocked the northward penetration of the summer monsoon. In cold, dry episodes of the Pleistocene, their extent was even greater as their southern boundaries extended into areas that were otherwise semi-arid. The Chinese deserts are also cold deserts in that they experience sub-freezing temperatures for substantial parts of the winter. Despite their aridity and cold winters, the desert regions of North China have a rich palaeolithic record. Here, we present a summary of recent investigations in Inner Mongolia and adjacent regions, from sites in the Shuidonggou Valley, the Ordos Desert, Wulunmulun and other sites that show how humans adapted to these hostile environments.

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Poster Abstracts

1. Assessing Archaic hominid cognitive capacities-An Interdisciplinary approach to the Indian peninsula.

Mark Danial D’Sa Aarhus University, Denmark Stone tools have been used to draw inferences about archaic hominin's cognitive capacity, providing a rare glimpse into the prehistoric mind. Employing an interdisciplinary approach to behaviour by integrating studies concerned with behaviour of animal species, the groundwork for investigation and understanding of hominid working-memory capacities is laid. This approach focuses on coding and behavioural comparisons deduced from the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic material remains in the form of cognigrams and effective chains, providing an insight into a wide range of problem-solution encountered by pre and post-Toba hominids during the initial colonisation and re-occupation of India. The paper thus has the potential to contribute to our understanding of tool evolution on the peninsula.

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2. Pleistocene wetlands in the eastern desert of Jordan - environmental reconstructions by ostracod and gastropod analysis.

Johannes Kalbe1, Christopher Ames2, April Nowell3, Carlos Cordova4 & James T. Pokines5

1 Universität Potsdam, Institut für Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, D-14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany; 2University of California, Department of Anthropology & Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; 3University of Victoria, Department of Anthropology, PO Box 1700 STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada; 4Oklahoma State University, Department of Geography, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA; 5Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, 72 E. Concord St., Boston, MA 02118, USA The Shishan Marsh was a spring-fed wetland in northern Jordan that has been completely dry since the late 1980s. The site of SM-1, first excavated in 2013, is located at the southern edge of the former Sawda spring pool, and contains a Middle Pleistocene occupation horizon characterized by bifaces and flakes. From a section at SM-1 we present new sedimentological and detailed ostracod and gastropod data from a succession of Quaternary limnic sediments. These sediments contain particularly high amounts of ostracods and gastropods, increasing in number from the middle to the top of the section. Cyprideis torosa is the most common ostracod species, and Ilyocypris sp., Heterocypris salina, Limnocythere inopinata, Darwinula stevensoni, Fabaeoformiscandona cf. holzkampfi and Pseudocandona sp. were also observed. The gastropod fauna is characterized by Melanoides cf. tuberculata, Melanopsis buccinoides, Melanopsis costata, Theodoxus jordani and Hydrobia sp., and in the lower parts of the section Pseudoamnicola sp. occurs. These fauna from SM-1 allow us to reconstruct a brackish water environment for the upper section, which can also be assumed for some of the lower strata. The timing of regional increases in water availability and their environmental influence on local wetland and spring systems during the Quaternary is still poorly understood in Azraq. Studies such as this on Quaternary ostracod and gastropod faunas are invaluable for reconstructing past environmental settings, but are scarce at present. Of particular importance are the post-depositional taphonomic processes of the wetlands, which are crucial for preservation of calcareous fossils.

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3. The place of Farafra Oasis in the Middle Stone Age of the Western Desert of Egypt: new issues from the lithic complexes and chrono-

stratigraphy. Giuseppina Mutri1, Mohamed Hamdan2 1McDonald Institute for Archaeological research; 2University of Cairo, Giza. The study of the Egyptian Western Desert Middle Stone Age is still affected by many unanswered questions mostly due to the extremely dry environmental conditions which determinate the deep deflation of the deposits. One of the most detailed sequences was obtained in Kharga Oasis, where an absolute chronology runs from 300 ka BP until 60 ka BP. In the Egyptian Western desert the MSA occupation was strongly influenced by the climatic changes that affected the whole area of the Eastern Sahara during the Late Pleistocene. In particular between 130 qnd 80 ka BP the region benefited from the wet MIS 5 climate interval and from a large availability of water. During this period human occupation must have reached a high density, and in Farafra the widest dispersion of lithic artefacts seems to be concentrated on playas dated within this chronological range.

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4. Levallois Tradition Epigones in the Middle Nile Valley: preliminary results of the new project in Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan

Marta Osypinska1, Piotr Osypinski2

1Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Rubiez 46, PL-61-612 Poznan; 2PATRIMONIUM Foundation Rubiez 46, PL-61-612 Poznan The state of the prior knowledge on the final Pleistocene settlement in the Middle Nile Valley was largely based on the data from remote sites located at the Nile cataracts. Interdisciplinary research in the area of Southern Dongola Reach within the project ‘Levallois Tradition Epigones in the Middle Nile Valley’ provided extensive data that has radically revised our view of both the environment, fauna exploitation and space organisation of humans group during MIS2. Research in the Affad Basin has been conducted at open sites and together with lithic inventories and animal remains, it has yielded unquestionably unique relics of habitation structures from sealed sediments dated by luminescence methods (OSL). Comprehensive environmental studies on the ecosystem established that human groups functioned in extensive wetlands inhabited by diverse fauna. Spatial analyses and lithic refitting allowed for the reconstruction of technological processes related to chert processing and identification of the means employed in the construction of the occupied space. Comprehensive, interdisciplinary research in the area of Affad has revised the hitherto prevailing picture of the functioning of human groups in the late Pleistocene in the area of the Nile Valley and made it possible to provide a characteristics of the regional variety of the Terminal Nubian Complex, with the lithic industry based on Levallois methods. Project financed by NCN: UMO-2011/01/D/HS3/04125

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Activities Please note prior registration is required to attend all activities

Conference Dinner The conference dinner will be held at Mille et Une Nuit, 42 Rue des Bahutiers (Tram – Place du Palais), where we will share a Lebanese feast and tell tall tales from the field! Join us as we taste a wide range of mezze and exotic desserts! Wine Reception The wine reception, held at Wine More Time, 8 Rue Saint James (Tram – Place du Palais/Sainte Catherine), will offer an opportunity to taste some of the most famous produce from Bordeaux – its wine! With non-alcoholic drinks and regional charcuterie and cheeses also on offer, we will be closing the conference in style. Dordogne Excursion Participants registered for the excursion are requested to meet at Alleé de Bristol (Tram – Quinconces) for a prompt departure at 7:30am. The excursion programme is: 7:30: departure from Bordeaux 10:00: visit of Cap-Blanc rock art site 12:00: lunch in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac 14:00: visit of the Middle Palaeolithic Moustier site 15:30: visit of the Musée National de Préhistoire and free time in Les Eyzies village 17:00: departure from Les Eyzies 19:30: arrival in Bordeaux

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List of Participants Name Email Hema Achyuthan [email protected] Atsushi Noguchi [email protected] James Blinkhorn [email protected] Paul Breeze [email protected] Knut Bretzke [email protected] Emilie Campmas [email protected] Emanuele Cancellieri [email protected] Miguel Caparros [email protected] M. Gema Chacon Navarro [email protected] Benoit Chevrier [email protected] Federica Crivellaro [email protected] Anne Delagnes [email protected] Robin Dennell [email protected] Mark Dsa [email protected] Lucy Farr [email protected] Robert A Foley [email protected] Erella Hovers [email protected] Mae Goder Goldberger [email protected] Jean Claude Granger [email protected] Brad Gravina [email protected] Huw Groucutt [email protected] Seyyed Milad Hashemi Sarvandi [email protected] Saman Heydari-Guran [email protected] Robert Hosfield [email protected] Robyn Inglis [email protected] Sacha Jones [email protected] Johannes Kalbe [email protected] Maxine R. Kleindienst [email protected] Brice Lebrun [email protected] Alice Leplongeon [email protected] Marta Mirazon Lahr [email protected] Khady Niang [email protected] Piotr Osypinski [email protected] Marina Pagli [email protected] Michael Petraglia [email protected] Marion Pravost [email protected] Eleanor Scerri [email protected] Luca Sitzia [email protected] Anne Skinner [email protected] Chantal Tribolo [email protected] Hamed Vahdati Nasab [email protected] Shixia Yang [email protected]

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