2013/11/01 by Tobias Richter, Lisa Maher · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
paper · doi:10.1179/0075891413z.00000000020
openalex publication_date 2013/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The term Epipalaeolithic, like the Neolithic, was coined in the context of late 19th- and early 20th-century archaeological research in Europe and North Africa. It arrived later in South-west Asia, where it was used to contrast late glacial hunter-gatherers with the sedentary, socially complex farmers of the Holocene aceramic Neolithic. In this contribution we reflect on the history of Epipalaeolithic terminology, its past and current use as an interpretive heuristic, and consider how data from recent research affect (and perhaps call into question) the validity and perceived meaning of the term as it is applied to the Neolithic transition in South-west Asia.