The emergence of modern humans in the Late Pleistocene, whatever its phylogenetic history, was characterized by a series of behaviorally important shifts reflected in aspects of human hard tissue biology and the archeological record. To elucidate these shifts further, diaphyseal cross-sectional morphology was analyzed by using cross-sectional areas and second moments of area of the mid-distal h...

This study illustrates the potential of small-game data for identifying and dating Paleolithic demographic pulses such as those associated with modern human origins and the later evolution of food-producing economies. Archaeofaunal series from Israel and Italy serve as our examples. Three important implications of this study are that (1) early Middle Paleolithic populations were exceptionally s...

Understanding the behavioral adaptations and subsistence strategies of Middle Paleolithic humans is critical in the debate over the evolution and manifestations of modern human behavior. The study of faunal remains plays a central role in this context. Until now, the majority of Levantine archaeofaunal evidence was derived from late Middle Paleolithic sites. The discovery of faunal remains from...

Despite intensive study and a number of remarkable discoveries in the last two decades of the 20th century, our understanding of the cultural and biological processes that resulted in the emergence of the Upper Paleolithic and the establishment of modern humans in Interpleniglacial Europe remains far from complete. There is active debate concerning the timing and location of the origins of the ...

paleolithic lithic assemblages are traditionally described on the bases of presence of a variety of tool types(typology) and of different knapping technologies. in this study we tried to investigate whether the presence ofdifferent groups of scrapers in the mar-tarik site assigned to the middle paleolithic represent specific function orjust different stages of the reduction process and constant...

In Late Pleistocene Italy, spotted hyenas competed in certain niche dimensions with wolves and in other dimensions with Paleolithic humans. Spotted hyenas of the Italian peninsula consumed essentially the same ungulate species as Paleolithic humans did, and both of these predators depended heavily on bone marrow. Wolves tended to consume more hillside-adapted ungulates in the same area and peri...

While predetermined débitage technologies are recognized beginning with the middle Acheulian, the Middle Paleolithic is usually associated with a sharp increase in their use. A study of scraper-blank technology from three Yabrudian assemblages retrieved from the early part of the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex of Tabun Cave (ca. 415-320 kyr) demonstrates a calculated and preplanned production, even ...

Using living humans as an extant referent, this paper examines the probability that the frequency differences in Neanderthal “unique” non-metric traits observed between Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic modern humans could be sampled from two major populations of the same species. Neanderthal-like features occur in very low frequencies in living humans, if present at all. Rather, other feature...