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A Preliminary Lithic Analysis of the Mousterian Site of ’Ain Difla (WHS Site 634) in the Wadi Ali, West-Central Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

John Lindly  and
Geoffrey Clark
Geoffrey Clark
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287, USA
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Abstract

Test excavations in 1984 at the middle palaeolithic rockshelter of 'Ain Difla (Wadi Hasa Survey Site 634) in west-central Jordan produced a lithic assemblage dominated by elongated levallois points with very few retouched tools. Length/width ratios of the levallois points and width/thickness ratios of a sample of complete flakes suggest an affinity with Tabun D/Phase 1 mousterian sites. This kind of assemblage is generally thought to occur during the early Levantine mousterian. However, there is evidence of persistence of Tabun D assemblages in the southern Levant until the middle/upper palaeolithic transition. Comparing the ’Ain Difla lithic assemblage with those of other Levantine mousterian sites underscores problems with the analytical frameworks used to ‘date’ sites through technological and metrical analyses. A rather coarse-grained regional paleoenvironmental sequence exacerbates these problems.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , 1987 , pp. 279 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1987

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References

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