An Early Upper Palaeolithic Stone Tool Assemblage from Mughr El-Hamamah, Jordan: An Interim Report

Mughr el-Hamamah (Jordan) Layer B contains an Early Upper Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage dating to around 39–45 kya cal b.p. This assemblage is unusual in that it samples human forager activities around the ecotone between the Transjordanian Plateau and the palaeo-lake (Lake Lisan) that filled much of the Jordan Valley during Late Pleistocene times. This paper describes that assemblage, comparing it to other Levantine Upper Palaeolithic assemblages of equivalent antiquity. The Mughr el-Hamamah Layer B assemblage appears most similar to Early Ahmarian assemblages, but it departs from typical such assemblages in ways that may reflect local conditions’ influence on human activities carried out in and near the cave. Mughr el-Hamamah raises new questions about changes in residential mobility, off-site provisioning and foraging activity, and on-site task diversity in the Early Upper Palaeolithic period.