Epipalaeolithic Near East

[1][2] The people of the Epipalaeolithic were nomadic hunter-gatherers who generally lived in small, seasonal camps rather than permanent villages.

The Kebaran is preceded by the Athlitian phase of the Levantine Aurignacian (formerly called Antelian) and followed by the proto-agrarian Natufian culture of the Epipalaeolithic.

[10] The Kebaran is also characterised by the earliest collecting and processing of wild cereals, known due to the excavation of grain-grinding tools.

The Kebaran people are believed to have migrated seasonally, dispersing to upland environments in the summer, and gathering in caves and rock shelters near lowland lakes in the winter.

[11] The earliest evidence for the use of composite cereal harvesting tools are the glossed flint blades that have been found at the site of Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old fisher-hunter-gatherers’ camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Northern Palestine.

[13] The wear traces on the tools indicate that these were used for harvesting near-ripe, semi-green wild cereals, shortly before grains ripen enough to disperse naturally.

[12] The study shows that the tools were not used intensively, and they reflect two harvesting modes: flint knives held by hand and inserts hafted into a handle.

[12] Evidence for symbolic behavior of Late Pleistocene foragers in the Levant has been found in engraved limestone plaquettes from the Epipalaeolithic open-air site Ein Qashish South in the Jezreel Valley, Palestine.

16,500 BP), and include the image of a bird, the first figurative representation known so far from a pre-Natufian Epipalaeolithic site, together with geometric motifs such as chevrons, cross-hatchings, and ladders.

[14] Similar-looking signs and patterns are well known from the context of the local Natufian, a final Epipalaeolithic period when sedentary or semi-sedentary foragers started practicing agriculture.

Fertile Crescent: Europe: Africa: Siberia: Until recently, it was thought that the Arabian Peninsula was too arid and inhospitable for human settlement in the Late Pleistocene.

The stone tools found bore a close resemblance to the Geometric Kebaran, a Levantine industry associated with the Middle Epipalaeolithic.

[22] The Epipalaeolithic is best understood when discussing the southern Levant, as the period is well documented due to good preservation at the sites, at least of animal remains.

Despite then being very close to the coast, the rather small number of seashells found (7 genera) and the piercing of many, suggests these may have been collected as ornaments rather than food.

The Epipalaeolithic corresponds to the first period of progressive warming after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), before the start of the Holocene and the onset of the Neolithic Revolution . The change in temperatures in the Post-Glacial period is based on evidence from Greenland ice cores . [ 8 ]
Archaeological evidence of human activities in the Near East, at the end of the Upper Paleolithic and during the Epipalaeolithic. Human occupation signs 29–15.2 ka (diamonds), wood charcoal, nuts 15.9–11.2 ka (squares).
Stone Age stone mortar and pestle, Kebaran culture, 22000-18000 BP
Composite sickles for cereal harvesting at 23,000-Years-Old Ohalo II , Palestine. [ 9 ]
Engraved plaquette with bird image from Ein Qashish South, Jezreel Valley , Palestine, Kebaran and Geometric Kebaran ca. 23,000-16,500 BP. [ 14 ]
Associations of wild cereals and other wild grasses in northern Palestine