Geo-chronological context of the open-air Acheulian site at Nahal Hesi, northwestern Negev, Israel

摘要

The open-air site of Nahal Hesi, located on northwestern Negev desert fringe of Israel, is one of the few primary-context late Acheulian localities in the Levant. Late Acheulian sites in the Levant rarely provide faunal assemblages and radiometric ages, leaving large gaps in our knowledge of the Lower Paleolithic palaeoenvironment, ecology, subsistence and chronology. Here we present a new geo-chronological study conducted at the Nahal Hesi site. The major objectives were to describe the geological and archaeological stratigraphy, assign a numerical age to the Acheulian artifact-bearing deposit by TT-OSL and pIR-IR290 dating, and reconstruct the local palaeoenvironment during the human occupation at the site.