2005/12/16 by Sultan Muhesen · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Marine and environmental studies #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Paleopathology and ancient diseases
paper · doi:10.1007/0-306-47153-1_7
openalex publication_date 2005/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Information on the Paleolithic of Syria dates to the beginning of this century, though the first systematic research began with the excavation of Yabrud Rockshelter (Rust 1950; Solecki 1966, 1987–88). From that time on, many excavations and surveys took place in different parts of the country. Among the most important were those along the coastal region (Sanlaville 1979), the Orontes valley (Clark 1966a,b; Besancon et al. 1978; Muhesen 1985; Sanlaville et al. 1993), the Euphrates valley (Besancon et al. 1980a,b) and Douara Cave (Akazawa and Sakaguchi 1987). Important excavations are currently conducted by a Syro-Swiss expedition at Nadaouiyeh I (Le Tensorer et al. 1993), a Syro-French expedition in Umm el-Tlel (Boeda and Muhesen 1993), both in the el-Kowm basin, and a Syro-Japanese mission in Dederiyeh Cave in the region of Afrin (Muhesen et al. 1988). To date, results of field work demonstrate the rich, varied, and extensive Paleolithic occupation all over the country. Some regions proved to be a center of early and long Paleolithic occupations and produced the best examples for a continuous Paleolithic cultural evolution in the Levant. We will focus here only on the earliest Paleolithic occupation as uncovered by recent research.