On the Nature of Transitions:

the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic

and the Neolithic Revolution
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Citation Bar-Yosef, Ofer. 1998. “On the Nature of Transitions: The Middle to
Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Revolution.” Cam. Arch. Jnl 8
(02) (October): 141.

Published Version doi:10.1017/S0959774300000986

Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12211496

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 Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8:2 (1998), 141-63

On the Nature of Transitions: the Middle to Upper

Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Revolution

Ofer Bar-Yosef

This article discusses two major revolutions in the history of humankind, namely, the
Neolithic and the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic revolutions. The course of the first one is
used as a general analogy to study the second, and the older one. This approach puts aside
the issue of biological differences among the human fossils, and concentrates solely on the
cultural and technological innovations. It also demonstrates that issues that are common-
place to the study of the trajisition from foraging to cultivation and animal husbandry can
be employed as an overarching model for the study of the transition from the Middle to the
Upper Palaeolithic. The advantage of this approach is that it focuses on the core areas
where each of these revolutions began, the ensuing dispersals and their geographic contexts.

Revolutions occur from time to time during the can be made on the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic
evolution of humankind. Although scholars disa- revolution. In my view, what has hampered a better
gree on the number of recognizable major cultural understanding of this earlier revolution is the fact
changes that merit the label 'revolution', there is that most scholars have presented their hypotheses
hardly any doubt that both the transition from the from a West European perspective. It would be ad-
Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic and the transition vantageous to look at the same problem from a Near
from foraging to agriculture should be included. Eastern viewpoint, without of course endorsing the
Several years ago I suggested that the models automatic assumption of ex oriente lux.
available for the agricultural or Neolithic revolution For the purpose of clarity I will move through
might assist us in building models and seeking in- time from the recent to the more remote past. After
formation about the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic all, one can only excavate a site from the recent
revolution (Bar-Yosef 1992; 1994). Current knowl- surface to the bedrock and not the other way around.
edge of the processes involved in the Neolithic Revo- Adopting such a trajectory is not much different
lution brings major advantages when we examine from the way we build our models: by using analo-
other dramatic changes which occurred some 50,000 gies derived from the recent historical past, from
to 40,000 years earlier. First, the Neolithic Revolu- fields such as ethnohistory and ethnoarchaeology,
tion was the achievement of a single human species, and by testing our assumptions through actualistic
namely our own Homo sapiens. Second, archaeologi- studies, we try to overcome the epistemological ob-
cal knowledge of this revolution indicates a direct stacles.
relationship between the Near East and Europe. The discipline of archaeology is used to recon-
Third, the large body of data on the transition to struct cultural history or to test functional-
agriculture, collected from a single well-defined geo- adaptational models. Archaeologists employ or
graphic region, clearly demonstrates temporal and borrow from the research methods and results of
spatial trajectories. other disciplines in order to make sense of our finds
As with the agricultural revolution, several gen- in the field and in the laboratory. Thus knowledge of
eralizations concerning relatively rapid cultural social behaviour is derived from the works of social
changes and long-range movements of populations anthropologists, sociologists, and primatologists.

141
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

Bioanthropologists, whether concerned with fossils In historical studies one can trace and date the
or living populations, provide us with the essential generation when such a revolution began. For in-
building blocks for reconstructing past demographies stance, historical documents and archaeological re-
and phylogenetic relationships. Linguists and brain mains reveal exactly when and where the Industrial
scientists produce information and models concern- Revolution in eighteenth-century England took place,
ing language development and cognition. Geneti- how quickly technical inventions were transported
cists and linguists challenge our interpretations of to other regions, when and how social changes oc-
past societies, migrations, and boundaries between curred, etc. (e.g. Landes 1969; Hartwell 1971; Wolf
social entities. Other scientists supply information 1982; Braudel 1987). Finding an overall agreement
on the preservation of archaeological remains, the among historians and anthropologists concerning the
sourcing of materials, site formation processes, past 'why' question is more difficult (e.g. see papers in
climates, vegetations and faunas. Radiometric dates O'Brien & Quinault 1993). The lesson from the in-
are certainly produced from samples we may collect vestigation of the recent past is that the 'when' and
ourselves, but only by specialists who work in dif- 'where' are relatively easy to identify and date, but
ferent laboratories. It is indeed becoming virtually 'why' answers remain elusive and open to constant
impossible to integrate the variable archaeological re-interpretations.
data sets into a coherent picture without working It is somewhat difficult to figure out the when
closely with a large group of other scholars. The and where of a prehistoric cultural transition such as
days of the pioneer archaeologist, the individual with the Neolithic Revolution. Here the time scale is based
total reponsibility for the entire archaeological op- on radiocarbon dates, with their stated margins of
eration, are gone. error, rather than historical data. Furthermore, even
The ultimate goal of such all-encompassing ar- with the new calibration curves, we still cannot ex-
chaeological projects is to tell some particular story pect to achieve greater accuracy in dating than within
about why, where, and when human societies a few centuries (e.g. Evin 1995; however, note that
changed. In the process we look for answers to ques- all the dates in this paper are uncalibrated DP).
tions such as how and why societies differed from For the purpose of the following discussion I
each other in their structure and organization, sub- have borrowed the notions of core and periphery
sistence strategies, perception of the landscape, and from the Industrial Revolution (as already elsewhere;
cultural constructs such as cosmology and /or reli- see Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989a). These terms
gion. It is no less important to find out why certain will be used only in the geographical sense with
people and their cultural patterns survived through reference to rudimentary socio-economic variables
good and bad times while others vanished. History such as subsistence strategy, time and energy budg-
is littered with stories of winners and losers, and the ets, level of female fertility, social entities and so
changes brought about by the two revolutions con- forth. There were also peripheries within the core
sidered here exemplify this fate. area during the Industrial Revolution, which meant
that inventions and innovations as well as power
Prehistoric revolutions and richness were not evenly distributed through-
out an expansive region but were more locally con-
Past revolutions are always evaluated on the basis of centrated. As I will briefly show below, this model is
their outcome. Gradualists see even the most dra- useful in examining the Neolithic Revolution in
matic cultural and socio-economic transition as a Southwest Asia.
slow process that took hundreds or even thousands
of years to be completed. In contrast, those who Introduction to the agricultural revolution
view the change as radical and rapid try to find out
when and where it began. The successful comple- The Fertile Crescent in the Near East, or more appro-
tion of the first phase of a crucial transition culmi- priately southwest Asia, is one of the two oldest
nates in the reaching of 'a point of no return'. Once centres of agricultural revolution in the Old World
the major catalytic change or changes occur, a new (the other being the middle Yangzi River in China,
socio-economic system emerges. Hence, even if the cf. Smith 1995; Fig. 1). Archaeological evidence, in-
results became clear in the material world only a cluding botanical determinations of carbonized plant
century or more later, this process is still considered remains, is rapidly accumulating (e.g. Harris &
a 'revolution'. This is the position employed in the Hillman 1989; Hillman 1996; Kislev 1997). There is
following pages. little doubt today that systematic cultivation of

142
 On the Nature of Transitions

dak del

Figure 1. The centres of early agriculture in the Old World and possible routes of dispersals.

cereals and other 'founder crops' resulted in their summary of the archaeological record requires a gen-
domestication after several centuries (Hillman & eral understanding of the principles underlying the
Davies 1990; 1992; Miller 1992; Zohary & Hopf 1994; hunting and gathering ways of life on which we
Bar-Yosef & Meadow 1995). This was followed by base our interpretations.
the domestication of goat and sheep, with the later The ethnographic literature on hunter-gather-
additions of cattle and pigs (Flannery 1983; Smith ers was written mainly during the nineteenth and
1995; Legge 1996). Hence the main transition to cul- twentieth centuries, although reports by early Euro-
tivation was made by hunters-gatherers. Once they pean travellers (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries)
became cultivators, even if that was only a part-time are also known. On the whole, the information gath-
activity, social, technical and economic changes must ered indicates that the degree of mobility of a group
naturally follow. We therefore need to examine care- depends on what may be referred to as the 'costs
fully, from the archaeological evidence, how forag- and benefits' of foraging. In turn, these factors are
ers shifted their subsistence base in a world that had directly affected by the nature, distribution, predict-
not yet accommodated farmers elsewhere. We need ability, reliability, and accessibility of resources,
to examine the region at the time when it was still which together determine the carrying capacity of a
inhabited by foragers. As is often the case, a given territory (Binford 1980; 1983; Kelly 1995 and

143
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

references therein). For any given population, social line and the Levant has a variable topography com-
alliances with neighbouring groups increase the over- posed of a narrow coastal plain with a hinterland of
all size of exploitable territory in seasons of scarcity. more or less continuous mountain and hill rartges.
Hence the nature of mobility (often a mixture of High altitudes are common in the Taurus ranges (up
residential and logistical moves) affects the overall to 3500-4000 metres above mean sea level) which
group size and/or its mating system, and therefore descend northward into the Anatolian plateau, where
also affects the optimal size of territory which is the average elevation is 1000-1500 metres a.m.s.l. In
required to ensure long-term biological survival (e.g. the Levant the Rift Valley separates the hilly back-
Kelly 1995). bone from the eastern mountains and hills, which
The available information on hunter-gatherers slope into the Syro-Arabian desertic plateau.
covers various parts of the world. As foragers have The region is characterized by marked season-
survived mainly in zones unsuitable for early agri- ality: winters are cold and rainy while summers are
cultural techniques and cultivated crops, it is most hot and dry. Topography, soils and climate deter-
useful for the purpose of analogy to consider what is mine the dominant vegetational belts. The descrip-
known about groups that have inhabited 'Mediter- tion here follows the recent reconstruction of
ranean-type' regions. The area of the Near East where phytogeographical belts in the Terminal Pleistocene
the transition to cultivation took place was covered proposed by Hillman (1996).
by various associations of Mediterranean vegetation. Hillman defines three major belts. The area
Steppic belts extended on its northern and eastern along the coastal plains and the first hill and moun-
sides. Somewhat similar environmental conditions tain ranges was covered by forest and woodland,
can be found in other parts of the world particularly including montane forest, eu-Mediterrannean
in southern Australia, southern Africa and California. sclerophylous woodland and xerix deciduous oak-
In these regions, where a certain kind of 'Mediterra- Rosaceae woodland. The next belt, both northward
nean' climate prevails, densities of hunter-gatherers and eastward, was the oak-terebinth (Quercus sp.-
were estimated to be rather high compared to other Pistacia sp.) park-woodland, a mosaic of woodland,
parts of those continents (e.g. Lourandos 1997). Un- with more open areas dominated by annual grasses.
der such circumstances, both the relationships and Further away was the terebinth-almond steppe. Most
the boundaries between groups were maintained of the region beyond these belts consists of a steppe
through communal feasts, ceremonies and exchange. dominated by wormwoods, perennial chenopods and
Conflicts arose in cases of prolonged stress condi- perennial tussock grasses. The natural habitats of
tions. the cereals lie mainly in the oak-terebinth belt and
Combining the most recent palaeoclimatic into the terebinth-almond belt (Hillman 1996; Fig. 2).
data sets with information from pollen cores and By combining the available information from
zooarchaeological investigations, we may simulate wetland pollen cores, wood charcoals and remains
the potential exploitation patterns that foragers in of food plants (e.g. van Zeist & Bakker-Herres 1986;
the Near East could have practised during most of van Zeist 1986; Baruch & Bottema 1991; van Zeist &
the Upper Pleistocene. The reconstructed or simu- Bottema 1991; Miller 1992; Baruch 1994), Hillman
lated settlement patterns can then be tested against was able to reconstruct the dynamic vegetational
the available archaeological records for the Middle expansion from 13,000 BP to 11,000 BP, though he did
and Upper Palaeolithic and for the Epi-Palaeolithic not offer a similar reconstruction of the situation
and Neolithic periods. This approach indicates the during the succeeding Younger Dryas stage. Accord-
fields and areas where further research is urgently ing to the archaeological evidence, the earliest culti-
needed. vating communities appear during the closing
centuries of the latter period.
Foraging settlement patterns in the Near East Various sources of information demonstrate that
the climate of the region during the Upper Pleistocene
The Near East (see Fig. 2) includes Anatolia, the and Early Holocene was essentially similar to that of
Zagros mountains and Mesopotamia, the Levant, the today. These sources include pollen cores from Tur-
Syro-Arabian desert and the Sinai peninsula. Most key and Iran (van Zeist & Bottema 1991), chemical
of the archaeological remains relevant here are lo- analysis of the beds of the Upper Pleistocene Lake
cated on the Anatolian plateau, or the foothills of the Lisan in the Jordan Valley (Begin et al 1985), and the
Taurus and Zagros mountains, and in the Levant. early Holocene distribution of C3 and C4 plants in
The Mediterranean belt along the Turkish shore- the Negev (Goodfriend 1991). Decadal and centennial

144
 On the Nature of Transitions

Black Sea

Caspian Sea

L. Zenbar

Mediterranean Sea
Hu L. Mirabad
Netiv Head

Rqsh Zi
RamatHarif

Forest & woodland

Oak-terebinth parkland
Terebinth-almond
woodland & steppe
Steppe & desert

dak del

Figure 2. A reconstructed vegetation map (after Hillman 1996) for the period following cold phase of Isotope Stage 2
(13-11 ka BP) with the location of several Natufian and early Neolithic sites.
fluctuations of precipitation, more than temperature varies from a few to as many as 25 square kilome-
changes, were responsible for the expansion and con- tres. A similar pattern, perhaps with a larger home
traction of the vegetational belts as reflected in range, can be inferred for Gazella subgutturosa, the
Hillman's reconstructions (Hillman 1996). dominant species in the Syro-Arabian desert. Other
Floral food resources in the region are seasonal, mammals included wild cattle (Bos primigenius) which
with seeds most abundant from April to June and were more common in Anatolia than in the Levant.
fruits from September to November. Edible tubers, Deer (Dama mesopotamica and Dama dama in Anatolia),
bulbs and roots are rare (Danin 1983; Shmida et al. roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), and wild boar (Sus
1986). The Mediterranean belt is the richest area, as scrofa) were abundant in the forest-woodland belts.
one might expect, with over a hundred species of Wild goat (Capra aegagrus) occupied parkland and
edible fruits, seeds, leaves, roots and tubers. hilly areas and was common in the Taurus and
The faunal biomass was probably high in the Zagros, while the ibex (Capra ibex) inhabited the steep,
woodland-parkland environments and gradually drier landscapes in the Levant. Finally, the wild sheep
dwindled away into the steppic belt. Game animals (Ovis aries) was present mainly in Anatolia and the
included the mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella), a non- Taurus-Zagros foothills (Uerpmann 1987; 1996; Smith
migratory antelope with a small home range that 1995).

145
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

Once we determine whether Upper Pleistocene such events in the archaeological record is of great
hunter-gatherers inhabited a vegetational belt or an interest.
ecotone at a given period, we can begin to recon-
struct patterns of optimal foraging. The varied to- From sedentary foragers to farming communities
pography made seasonal movements easy, with
winters spent in lowlands and summers in the high- Hypotheses have placed the earliest occurrences of
lands. The main food resources and higher animal crop cultivation either in the natural zone where
biomass were located in the ecotone of the forest and cereals grow or in the marginal belt where foragers
oak-terebinth parkland. Thus harvesting wild cere- faced decreasing returns of plant food resources due
als could have fallen to special task groups, or have to substantially worsening environmental conditions
involved short-term general residential moves into (Childe 1952; Binford 1968; 1983; Flannery 1973;
the oak-terebinth/terebinth-almond (Quercus sp.- Braidwood 1975; Cohen 1977). A new combined
Pistacia sp. or Pistacia sp.-Amiggdahis) ecotones. model would incorporate elements from each of the
The optimum territory for a band of hunter- previous ones (e.g. Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1992;
gatherers in the woodland-parkland belt is estimated Smith 1995; Hole 1996). In order to clarify the se-
at about 300-500 square kilometres. In contrast, for- quence of cultural changes we need to begin the
agers in the steppic and/or desertic region would survey with a brief comment on the Late Pleistocene
have needed a larger area, perhaps 500-2000 square foraging societies.
kilometres, in order to maintain a sufficient buffer The archaeology of the Late Palaeolithic forag-
against annual fluctuations (Bar-Yosef & Belfer- ers in the central and southern Levant is well-known,
Cohen 1992). The former could have been semi-sed- whereas much less information is available about
entary while the latter would have been forced to this period in northern Syria and Turkey (Bar-Yosef
move their camps more frequently. & Meadow 1995 and references therein). Sites of the
Under this regime, decreasing annual precipi- Kebaran complex (c. 18,000-14,500 DP) were limited
tation and shifts in the distribution of rains, causing to the coastal Levant and isolated oases by the pre-
diminishing yields of wild fruits, seeds and game vailing cold and dry climate of the Late Glacial Maxi-
animals, would create situations of stress mainly in the mum. Foragers of the succeeding Geometric Kebaran
steppe and desert belts. By contrast, resources in the took advantage of the climatic amelioration around
Mediterranean belt would have remained more stable. 14,500-13,000 BP to expand into the formerly desertic
Food shortages, either long- or short-term, could belt, which had become a lusher steppe. Common
have been alleviated by hunter-gatherers in the fol- game animals throughout this period included deer,
lowing ways (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1991): (1) wild goat and sheep in the Taurus (Otte et al. 1995),
population aggregation in the Mediterranean core deer, gazelle and wild boar in the central Levant,
areas; (2) techno-economic reorganization, such as and gazelle, ibex and hare in the steppic belt. Port-
allowing increased returns from the same wild able groundstone mortars and bowls, which first
stands, coupled with re-scheduling of hunting trips appeared during the Upper Palaeolithic, c. 29-27,000 BP
within the same territories; (3) migration to neigh- in Qafzeh and Shanidar as well as bedrock cupholes,
bouring areas, northward or southward (in the Le- are considered to indicate vegetal food processing
vant) or along the coastal ranges. Groups that opted (Wright 1991). These utensils are found in Kebaran,
to move or migrate faced three options when en- Geometric Kebaran and other contemporary archaeo-
countering the 'others'. They could avoid or ignore logical entities in both Mediterranean and steppic
them, form an amicable relationship (that would of- sites. Actual evidence for the consumption of plant
ten lead to interbreeding) or confront them as rivals. food has been recovered from the waterlogged site of
Warfare among hunter-gatherers, as an alternative Ohallo II (in Lake Kinneret, Israel) and dated to 19,000
social solution for inter-group competition, is well- DP by an extensive series of radiocarbon readings
known (Keeley 1996). (Kislev et al. 1992; Nadel et al 1995). The suite of gath-
ered and collected fruits and seeds there include abun-
Each of these strategies would have led to the dant cereals, indicating that this staple food was already
emergence of a new settlement pattern, different so- a major component in the human diet. A similar though
cial alliances and possibly adjusted ideologies. Thus, broader spectrum of gathered plant foods is known
substantial environmental change, whether improve- from the more northerly area in the later Epi-Palaeo-
ment or deterioration, would result in important spa- lithic layer at Abu Hureyra, dated to c. 11,500-10,500 BP
tial reorganization of populations, and sometimes in
significant social development. The identification of

146
 On the Nature of Transitions

The re-colonization of the steppic-desertic belt account (Wright 1995), not even in the updated sum-
can probably be directly attributed to climatic im- mary of the domestication of the Near Eastern crops
provement around 14,500 BP. Human groups moved (Zohary & Hopf 1994). If these environmental shifts
or expanded from the Mediterranean woodland- are given due weight as factors influencing the cul-
parkland into previously uninhabited areas. Other tural sequence, an interesting picture emerges. As a
groups may have come from the Nile valley (Henry first step towards employing the lessons learned from
1989; Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1992). This period research concerning this Neolithic revolution in a
terminates with an important socio-economic thresh- study of the much older Middle/Upper Paleolithic
old marked by the emergence of the Natufian cul- revolution, I will briefly summarize the relevant evi-
ture (e.g. Bar-Yosef 1998 and references therein). dence (Hole 1984a; Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989a;
The appearance of the Natufian is the culmina- 1992; Bar-Yosef & Meadow 1995; Hillman et al. 1989;
tion of various tactical and strategic adaptations that Hillman 1996; Legge 1996; Garrard et al 1996; Sherratt
Levantine hunter-gatherers had to make around 1997; van Andel & Runnels 1995; Smith 1995):
13,000 BP. There is currently no agreement on exactly 1. The 'Neolithic revolution' was achieved by, and
why this culture developed. On the one hand, cli- affected, a single human species, namely Homo
matic improvements around 13,000 BP provided a sapiens and does not coincide with any biological
wealth of food resources (Hillman 1996). On the other change. However, the shifts in diet, food prepa-
hand, population growth in both the steppic and ration techniques, domestication of goat, sheep
desertic region c. 14,500-13,000 BP made any abrupt, and later cattle, as well as living conditions, re-
short-term, climatic fluctuation an impetus for hu- sulted in major impacts on human body size,
man groups to try to establish realistic control over health and ability to digest dairy products (Cohen
their territories. What we actually see is the estab- 1989; Durham 1990).
lishment of a series of sedentary Early Natufian ham- 2. Despite certain ambiguities concerning the inter-
lets in a delineated 'homeland' (Fig. 3) that would pretation of terrestrial pollen data (Rossignol-
resemble the ethnographically known settlements of Strick 1995), there is general agreement that the
the northwest coast Native Americans. This major Younger Dryas climatic event is documented in
shift can be interpreted as a reaction to an abrupt East Mediterranean marine and lake cores. While
environmental change (the Older Dryas?) that ne- the dating of pollen cores can be upset by the
cessitated a new approach to the way resources were effects of hard water (Wright 1995), a reliable
exploited. It is not inconceivable that previous pat- chronological estimate can be obtained by count-
terns of semi-sedentism among Late Pleistocene for- ing laminated sediments (e.g. Landmann et al 1996).
agers, mentioned above, were simply replaced by The climatic crisis of the Younger Dryas (c.
firmer tenure over certain territories. Some research- 11,000-10,000 BP), which actually lasted about
ers argue that sedentism was mainly a response to 1300+70 calendrical years (Mayewski & Bender
the need to intensify cereal exploitation (e.g. Henry 1995), resulted in major environmental deteriora-
1989; Bar-Yosef & Meadow 1995). Others suggest tion which undoubtedly affected the subsistence
that sedentism came first, and increased the propa- strategies of the Natufian population. One of the
gation of annuals such as cereals (McCorriston & main outcomes of the cold and dry conditions of
Hole 1991). this period may have been a decrease in the natu-
ral production of C3 plants such as cereals. In
Elements and steps of the Neolithic revolution addition, previous exploitation of the environ-
ment by sedentary Early Natufian communities
The search for the earliest farming communities be- as well as by neighbouring foragers, would have
gan in earnest with R. Braidwood's pioneering project exacerbated the depletion of plant and animal
(Braidwood & Howe 1960; Braidwood et al. 1983) in resources (Tchernov 1991).
the hilly flanks of the Zagros and later in the Taurus. Social reactions to the worsening environmen-
In his view, early farming sites were located in the tal conditions varied in different regions of the
natural habitats where the wild progenitors of vari- Near East. One example is the well-documented
ous species of cereals grow today. His approach was case of the Harifian culture, c. 10,700-10,100 BP
supported by botanical surveys across Western Asia (Goring-Morris 1991). In the Negev and northern
(Harlan & Zohary 1966; Harlan 1977). Unfortunately, Sinai, the Late Natufian groups improved their
the impact of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene cli- hunting techniques through the invention of the
matic changes on this region were not taken into Harif point, a more efficient projectile point. Bone

147
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

Anatolia

Abu Hureyra

Mediterranean Sea
Hayonim Cave & Terrace
(Eynan)
Rakefet
Sefunim GevII
Nahal Oren
El-Wad ^ * *
Kebara
FazaelIV, V Wadi F^ammeh 27
Salibiya I, XII •Azraq 18
Shukbah
• Wadi Uwaynid

Gebel Lagama
Syro-Arabian
desert
Eilat > A A Aqaba

Key
Natufian
homeland
A City
• Site

0 200 km
dak del

Figure 3. The Natufian 'homeland'.

remains at Harifian sites indicate hunting of local indicate the processing of undetermined plant
fauna (gazelle, ibex, hare and perhaps wild sheep), food elements. Large collections of marine shells
while grinding stones, mortars and cup-holes demonstrate abundant contacts with both the Red

148
 On the Nature of Transitions

Mediterranean Sea

daldel

Figure 4. The distribution of extensive stands of wild cerealduring the Younger Dryas. (Modified from Hillman 1996.)

Sea and Mediterranean shores (D.E. Bar-Yosef appeared in this area, and it seems that this was
1991). The overall territory of the Harifian, as the locus for the emergence of agriculture in West-
estimated from surveys, is at least 8000 km2, and ern Asia. The rapidly increasing CO2 levels of the
could have been up to 30,000-50,000 km2. Radio- early Holocene provided suitable conditions for
carbon dates on wood charcoal allow us to esti- the continuous successful cultivation of C3 plants
mate that the total duration of the Harifian was (Sage 1995). Hence early cultivating communities,
only two to three hundred years, clearly an un- known in the Levant as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
successful attempt to adapt to increasing aridity. (PPNA, c. 10,300-9600/9300 BP), flourished after
Intensive surveys show that this territory, when the end of the Younger Dryas within the Levantine
finally abandoned, remained essentially uninhab- Corridor (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989a; Cauvin
ited for about one thousand radiocarbon years. 1994; Fig. 5). Population growth in early villages,
3. Palaeobotanical reconstruction of the Younger resulting from increasing sedentism, led to active
Dryas indicates that the progenitors of most ce- emigration (Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza 1984;
real species grew in a relatively narrow strip of van Andel & Runnels 1995). The process of estab-
the Levant (Fig. 4). The archaeological record lishing new communities was in turn facilitated
shows that the first communities of cultivators by the wetter and increasingly warmer climate of

149
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

obile
gatherers

Catalhdyttk edenta
brager

Mediterranean Sea
Cultivators-
huntp-s
"Itaqed-Dubb
Salibiya IX
Netiv Hagdud
jerusal Mobile
Foragers

The Levantine
Corridor
during the
Early Neolithic

Figure 5. The Lemntine Corridor during the Early Neolithic (10,300-8000 BP) with arrows marking the direction of
colonization and dispersals of'founder crops'.

the Early Holocene. These conditions promoted porary distribution as recorded by Harlan & Zohary
the wider geographic dispersal of the progenitors (1966; see also Zohary & Hopf 1994).
of the wild cereals which resulted in the contem- 4. The current archaeobotanical evidence clearly

150
 On the Nature of Transitions

indicates that the first farmers were cultivators of bon years) and was achieved by Levantine farm-
wild cereals, whether einkorn, wheat, barley or ers who also carried their lithic technologies, char-
rye (e.g. Hillman et al. 1989; Kislev 1989; 1997). acterized by the Byblos and Amuq arrowhead
These early PPNA communities, from Jerf el types (S. Kozlowski pers. comm.), into the new
Ahmar in the north to Jericho in the south, con- territories. The introduction of a new subsistence
tinued to hunt, trap and gather wild fruits, seeds strategy to environments formerly exploited solely
and leaves. But their staple foods were deliber- by foragers, such as the Konya plain, created a
ately cultivated and harvested cereals and leg- population explosion and motivated demic diffu-
umes (see Hillman & Davies 1990 and Kislev 1997 sion, now in a westward direction (Ammerman
for detailed discussion). The full appearance of & Cavalli-Sforza 1984; van Andel & Runnels 1995).
the domesticated forms occurred in the Levantine 8. The transmission of the new economy eastward
Corridor in the course of several hundred years, to the Zagros foothills, from Kurdistan in the north
beginning with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB, to Khuzistan in the south, probably occurred with-
c. 9600/9300-7800/7500 DP; e.g. Hillman & Davies out major displacements of human communities.
1990; Kislev 1997). Barley, wheat and rye were In this area the Late Palaeolithic microlith tradi-
domesticated in the area between Jericho and tion continued into the Neolithic (Hole 1989;
Mureybit. As for einkorn, the genetic evidence Kozlowski pers. comm.).
suggests that the locus of its first domestication 9. The Neolithic economy spread through the Medi-
was in southeast Turkey or the northeastern cor- terranean basin during the period 9000-7000 BP
ner of the Levant (Heun et al. 1997; Figs. 4-5). by coastal navigation (Cherry 1990) and by in-
5. Human population growth during the PPNA, land movement along the Danube valley (Ammer-
documented by an increase in the size of the larg- man & Cavalli-Sforza 1984; Renfrew 1987; Sokal
est sites from 0.2 to 2.0-3.0 hectares, was coinci- et al 1991). Processes of demic diffusion and ac-
dent with the establishment of cereal cultivation, culturation were largely responsible for the
probably because the latter resulted in predict- 'Neolithization' of Europe.
able supplies of weaning foodstuffs. The increased 10. The eastward expansion of Neolithic subsistence
level of sedentism and greater reliability of food systems reached Pakistan within 1500 radiocar-
supplies caused both a drop in the age of bon years. Surprisingly, however, it apparently
menarche and a longer period of fertility for the took about 2000 radiocarbon years to penetrate
now better-fed women (e.g. Bentley 1996), factors the Nile valley (by c. 6000 BP) although the latter
which would also promote population growth. lies within only one week's walk south of the
Large villages became viable biological units and Jordan Valley.
reduced or removed the need to travel substan- In conclusion, the current archaeological, archaeo-
tial distances over to find a mate. The sense of botanical and plant genetic evidence confirm that
territoriality and ownership reached a new level, the core area of the Neolithic Revolution lay in the
contributing to. the emergence of new and more Levantine Corridor — that is to say, the western
complex levels of social alliances, supported by wing of the Fertile Crescent. The socio-economic
re-designed cosmologies (e.g. Cauvin 1994). changes created new interaction spheres within the
6. The domestication of animals (goat, sheep, cattle, region (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989b; Sherratt
pig) took place in PPNB sedentary and semi-sed- 1997). Both the transmission of information along
entary farmer-hunter villages. The domestication exchange routes and the establishment of new vil-
of goat and sheep most likely occurred first in the lages by colonists on arable lands marked the move
hilly flanks of the Taurus/Zagros (e.g. Legge 1996; into Europe and the Mediterranean islands. If earlier
Garrard et al. 1996; Hole 1996; Smith 1995) where revolutions had a somewhat similar or at least com-
these animals had been hunted for many millen- parable structure, then we should certainly be able
nia and local inhabitants were familiar with their to trace the course of the changes which they involve.
behaviour.
7. The inevitable expansion of successful Early The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition, or,
Neolithic communities was directed initially Where did the Cro-Magnons come from?
northward along the Levantine Corridor and sub-
sequently westward into Anatolia. The introduc- Most scholars who have written about the Middle to
tion of cereal cultivation to the Anatolian basins Upper Palaeolithic transition consider it to be a revo-
was rapid (within less than a thousand radiocar- lution (e.g. Gilman 1984; Gamble 1986; Mellars 1989;

151
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

1996a,b; White 1989; 1997; Stringer & Gamble 1993; long before the transition from the Middle to the Up-
Mithen 1996; Marshack 1972); others (e.g. Clark 1997; per Palaeolithic (currently dated to c. 50,000-40,000
Straus 1997) view it as a gradual, regional change. years ago in East Africa, the Near East and Europe),
Here, the view is taken that the Middle to Up- and that this is a cultural change. There is evidence
per Palaeolithic transition in Western Asia and Eu- (albeit from a single sample) that Neanderthals dif-
rope was a true technological and cultural revolution. fered genetically from Homo sapiens (Krings et al
The first and principal lesson to be learned from the 1997). What we have, therefore is a pattern of bio-
study of the Neolithic Revolution is that this too logical change not correlating with cultural change.
began in a core area. If no specific region of Europe There are of course other opinions, such as Klein's
is considered to be that core area, then it follows that suggestion that the modern capacity for culture ex-
when we compare archaeological remains of Euro- pressed in Upper Palaeolithic remains (beads, art
pean Neanderthals with those of the Cro-Magnons, objects, sophisticated bone and antler industries, etc.)
we are not studying a revolution that occurred in can only be explained by a neurological change that
situ. Such a comparison tells us about differences occurred some 50,000 years ago (Klein 1995). As I
and similarities between two populations, but not have shown, comparison with the Neolithic revolu-
about the causes and early phases of this revolution. tion suggests that invoking such a neurological
Cro-Magnons and Neandertals came to inhabit the change is not necessary.
same regions in Europe as the result of colonization Whether one supports the 'out of Africa' or
by the former group. We have no clear idea where 'multi-regional evolution' model for the biological
this revolution took place, although certain observa- change, there is a general level of agreement on the
tions point to East Africa (Ambrose 1998) while oth- existence of a cultural change that is referred to as
ers suggest the Levant (e.g. Sherratt 1997). The best the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic, or in sub-Saharan
documented and richest archaeological records are Africa as the Middle to Late Stone Age transition.
in western Europe, but even with the fragmentary Some scholars see this cultural transition as an event
nature of the archaeological records from other re- that took place independently in each region through
gions and the incomplete sequence of human fossils, local adaption to changing environmental conditions
a reasonably clear picture emerges (e.g. Clark 1992; or an increase or decrease in population size. The
Deacon 1992; Bar-Yosef 1994; Foley & Mirazon Lahr view taken here, however, is that the cultural change
1997; van Peer 1998). occurred in a core area and was then transmitted by
There is little doubt today that the emergence colonizers to other regions where it became estab-
of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) took place lished. If this is correct, we need to locate the core
some 300,000-100,000 years ago in sub-Saharan Af- area where the process began and from which it
rica (e.g. Ruvolo 1996; 1997; Harpending et al. 1998; spread. Here the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic Revo-
Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1993; Relethford 1995; Goldstein lution can be profitably studied by the same ap-
et al. 1995) and was followed by dispersals into Eura- proach employed for the Neolithic Revolution. The
sia (Fig. 6). Early Modern Humans seem to have first step should be similar to that taken by
inhabited parts of Asia by 110,000-90,000 years ago Braidwood in the 1940s — creation of a 'gap chart'
(the Skhul-Qafzeh group, also known as 'Proto-Cro- (Young et al 1983) which will indicate where we
Magnons') and to have reached Australia by about should look for the missing information. The follow-
60,000 BP (papers in Akazawa et al. 1998; Roberts et ing observations may be considered:
al 1990). AMH are present in North Africa in a Mid- 1. Who was responsible for the transition from the
dle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) context in Gebel Irhoud Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic? Does this tran-
cave during Isotope Stage 6, which ends c. 130,000 DP sition reflect the emergence of modern behav-
(e.g. Hublin 1992), in Haua Fteah (McBurney 1967) iour? Does it reflect the appearance of language
and in the Aterian deposits at Dar es Sultan and as we know it today? Could Neanderthals pro-
Mugharet el 'Aliya (Klein 1989; Minugh-Purvis 1993). duce the same kinds of stone tools, beads and
The Aterian, derived technologically and typologi- bone tools as the Cro-Magnons? Does the evi-
cally from the local Mousterian, is dated 160,000- dence from the few preserved burials demon-
70,000 BP in Egypt and as late as 35/30,000 DP in the strate cultural differences between Neanderthals
Maghreb (Wendorf et al 1993; Tillet 1989; Wengler and early modern humans, even where both were
1997). producers of various Mousterian industries?
It is generally agreed now that the 'archaic' to We start by assuming that this archaeological
'modern' morphological changes had taken place transition is cultural, and was not produced by a

152
 On the Nature of Transitions

Bohunician BachoKiro
EUP
- ' 4 3 Ka

£ ivacii
Early Upper
• Boker Tachtit
47/45 Ka Palaeolithic
EUP

EUP
CORE
AREA?

Early colonization
by AMH

EUP? 1738 Ka

Figure 6. The routes of dispersals of the Upper Palaeolithic revolution with a potential core area in East Africa.

population that was biologically different from Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) appeared only around
and therefore inherently smarter than its contem- 50,000-45,000 years ago in a certain core area and
poraries. Instead, we suggest that the population expanded from there indicates that, as with the
responsible for the transition succeeded in im- Neolithic, not all the populations of AMH took
proving its technical skills, was able to achieve part in this revolution. There is general agree-
better returns on hunting and gathering forays, ment that AMH had begun to spread within Af-
and had reached higher fertility and infant sur- rica and into Eurasia at least since Isotope Stage 6,
vival rates (e.g. Bentley et al. 1993; Bentley 1996). some 200,000 years ago. Examples include the
This population consequently re-organized its Qafzeh-Skhul people, who produced a Mousterian
social structure and created a better means of industry, buried their dead, used red ochre and
communication. Such a population, as history collected marine shells. Likewise, as noted previ-
demonstrates, would tend to expand rapidly. ously, human remains of AMH in North Africa
Employing this approach eliminates the need to are associated with Mousterian and Aterian in-
view phylogenetic factors as the sole essential dustries. Furthermore, although Australia was
triggers for change at a particular time. colonized presumably by AMH some 60,000 years
2. The fact that cultural manifestions of the Early ago, the earliest human fossils are dated to c. 30 ka.

153
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

3. The earliest dated Late Stone Age site in East to the Franco-Cantabrian region, generally flows
Africa, where the presence of ostrich eggshell from early (45/43 ka) to late (40-38 ka) so that an
beads was interpreted as evidence for modern east-west transition or migration is clearly im-
behaviour, is Enkapune Ya Muto in Kenya, near plied (e.g. Otte & Keeley 1990; Kozlowski 1992).
Lake Naivasha (Ambrose 1998). The earliest layer At least parts of the Iberian peninsula south of
that contains an Upper Palaeolithic assemblage is the Ebro Valley continued to be inhabited by the
tentatively dated to around 50,000 years ago (on Neanderthals, manufacturers of Mousterian as-
the basis of obsidian hydration dates, radiocar- semblages, until at least till 27 ka (Hublin et ah
bon readings and rate of sedimentation). The egg- 1995).
shell beads were collected from a younger deposit, 7. In the Levant, the earliest human fossils from the
dated to 39,900±1600 DP (Pta-4889F2). Ambrose Upper Palaeolithic layers of Ksar Akil (level 17)
suggests adding another 3500 years to this date, and Qafzeh are considered to be modern "Cro-
taking account of evidence for increased cosmo- Magnons". All these fossils are tentatively dated
genic nuclide production (Laj et ah 1996). Hence to 35,000-28,000 DP. There are no human fossils
these beads are the earliest recorded in Africa. from the earliest Upper Palaeolithic industries
4. If we believe that Modern humans came out of (the Emiran, or as it is also called the Transitional
Africa through the Nile Valley, then we need to Industry), a situation that parallels the general
find the evidence for this dispersal route. A re- lack of skeletal material from the earliest Aurig-
cent summary (van Peer 1998) surveys the evi- nacian in Europe (Gambier 1989).
dence, but unfortunately the timing of the
transition is not well-established in radiometric Discussion
terms. In addition, the evidence from the Maghreb
indicates that the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic The Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe
transition occurred after 40,000 DP, perhaps at is an intriguing phenomenon. The presence of
about 35,000-30,000 DP (interpolation based on Neanderthals followed by Cro-Magnons raises ques-
McBurney 1967; Tillet 1989; Wengler 1997). tions concerning the nature of the differences be-
5. The earliest radiocarbon-dated Upper Palaeolithic tween these two human populations. The Upper
context in the Levant is Level 1 at Boker Tachtit. Palaeolithic assemblages and sites are interpreted as
The readings indicate an age of 47,000-46,000 DP reflecting modern behaviour, largely on the basis of
(Marks 1983; 1993). The assemblage, made of blade comparisons with the lifestyles of ethnographically
cores from which Levallois points were obtained, known hunter-gatherers. The ability to cross a chal-
is Upper Palaeolithic and not Mousterian in its lenging ecological barrier to colonize Australia and
basic technological and typological characteris- the Americas has been considered possible only by
tics. The Levallois points preserve bi-directional humans like us. One common explanation is that
scars of previous blade extraction and thus differ Cro-Magnons were the first to fully master language
entirely from the Late Mousterian Levallois points (Lieberman 1989; Whallon 1989). Language enabled
in the Kebara (Meignen & Bar-Yosef 1991) or major necessary changes in social organization with-
Amud cave (Hovers et ah 1995). A different in- out which the colonization of the northern latitudes
dustry, unfortunately not well-dated, was re- could not have been accomplished. This contention,
ported from a cluster of sites in Lebanon including however, is the subject of vigorous criticism by lin-
Ksar Akil (Copeland 1975; Ohnuma 1988; guists, brain scientists, and behaviourists who try to
Ohnuma & Bergman 1990). These assemblages decipher the evolution of human language and cog-
are characterized by a high flake component with nition (Mellars & Gibson 1996 and papers therein).
a dominance of Upper Palaeolithic stone tools, All these researchers necessarily employ archaeo-
including chamfered pieces. While different from logical information to test their models (e.g. Donald
Boker Tachtit level 1, they are of broadly compa- 1991; Mellars & Gibson 1996; Deacon 1997; Lieberman
rable technological status. Worth mentioning is 1997; Mithen 1996; 1997). There seems a growing
that the same industry, with chamfered pieces, agreement that humans have used language at least
called the early Dabban (dated to c. 35-30 ka), since 400-300 ka (Kay et ah 1998). This is supported
characterizes the early Upper Palaeolithic at Haua in part by the fossil evidence such as the discovery
Fteah (McBurney 1967). of the modern-looking hyoid bone at Kebara
6. In Europe, the trajectory of available radiocarbon (Arensburg et ah 1990), though such finds are rare.
dates (all uncalibrated), from Bacho-Kiro (Bulgaria) In contrast to previous suggestions (Binford

154
 On the Nature of Transitions

1989), the archaeological

evidence demonstrates Blade manufacturing in prehistory
that humans could have
displayed considerable Time Europe Africa West East Australia
planning depth long be- Ka Asia Asia
fore the Middle/Upper Upper
Palaeolithic transition. Palaeolithic
This is evidenced for ex-
ample by the Schoningen East
wooden throwing-spears
(Thieme 1997) that are South
dated to c. 400 ka. Similar
planning ability is also "3
recorded by our better un- PS

derstanding of the opera- 2

tional sequences in the 200
production of blanks from
nodules of raw material
(e.g. Boeda et al. 1990; 250
Meignen 1993; Geneste et
al 1997; Schlanger 1996),
not to mention some of the Blade Industry Early UP Blade Industry EUP
finished tools themselves.
Studies of these chaines
operatoires have demon- Figure 7. Early and late appearances of blade manufacturing in various parts of the
strated that the level of Old World. Note that the earliest manifestations of the Upper Palaeolithic revolution
C
fo'retlT " h r " " ^ ^ preceded the blade production in some areas.
tion strategies among the Eurasian Middle Palaeo- general, however, longer distances are common for
lithic people was no less complex than that shown * movement of' raw material
the " " among "Upper ~ Palaeo-
by producers of blades from prismatic cores. lithic cultural entities.
Some of the scraper types distinguished in An important issue is the production of blades
Bordes' typology were argued by Dibble (e.g. 1995 which have so often been considered, again on the
and previous references therein) to form a continuum basis of the European evidence, as the marker of the
°f reduction. In my view the resharpening of arte- Upper Palaeolithic. The earliest occurrences of in-
facts by certain Mousterian groups, and others, such dustries with abundant blades are, however, dated
as the Yabrudian, occurred regardless of the need to to around 250,000 BP in East Africa, 250,000-150,000 BP
conserve raw material and shows a capacity for tac- in the Levant and possibly 200,000-150,000 in
ncal planning. Several Mousterian industries are also Transcaucasia (e.g. McBurney 1967; McBrearty et al.
characterized by the presence of types (e.g. small 1996; Jelinek 1990; Meignen 1994; 1995; Liubin 1977).
bifaces, flat foliate points, or tanged tools), which Western Europe itself is in fact rich in early blade
seem to reflect the existence of well-defined designs. industries mostly from Isotope Stage 5. Many Mid-
In addition, numerous cases of curation in Middle dle Palaeolithic assemblages, containing abundant
Palaeolithic contexts do not differ from Upper Pal- blades, are known from Germany (Conard 1990),
aeolithic examples, and curation over long distance northern France (Meignen 1994; Revillion & Cliquet
is also considered a marker of modern behaviour. In 1994), and Belgium (Otte 1994). Methods employed
South Africa, for example, the production of in blade production ranged from uni- and bi-direc-
Howieson's Poort backed pieces from non-local raw tional recurrent Levallois at Biache-Saint-Vaast
Material indicates exchange across a wide region (Tuffreau & Somme 1988) to the more typical Upper
some 70,000 years ago (Deacon 1992). A somewhat Palaeolithic methods involving prismatic cores (Otte
similar example can be cited from Germany, where 1994). No blade industries are known from the pe-
raw material was brought from distances of up to riod of full glacial conditions in Europe, however,
100 km by Mousterians (Conard & Adler 1997) and and it seems that the techniques of Upper Palaeo-
rarely more than 200 km (Feblot-Augustins 1997). In lithic blade manufacture do not represent a lasting

155
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

technological tradition from the earlier manifesta- surviving and reaching adulthood. A slight increase
tions. In any event, the existence of pre-Upper Pal- in life expectancy secured the survival of older mem-
aeolithic blade assemblages indicates that both bers of the group, thus extending the 'living memory'
Neanderthal and AMH populations mastered this of the group. Over time this would lead to better
technology prior to 50,000 DP. monitoring of the environment and of more distant
In Europe and the Near East the differences are regions. Long-range networks of social alliances
in the secondary trimming and the shaping of 'tools' (Gamble 1982) were developed to overcome seasonal
from blanks. While Middle Palaeolithic forms re- or annual periods of economic stress. With such a
main the same for longer periods the Upper Palaeo- dynamic feedback chain of socio-economic changes
lithic industries are characterized by rapid turn-over the formation of new interaction spheres was a natu-
of shapes or types in these regions. ral outcome. Communication systems were im-
When other categories of archaeological evi- proved, probably involving not only linguistic
dence are taken into account it is not surprising to abilities but methods and techniques of communica-
find that most researchers conclude that the cogni- tion which enabled groups to move across large dis-
tive abilities of Upper Palaeolithic modern humans tances without losing the personal contacts essential
in Europe, and especially in the Franco-Cantabrian for keeping and maintaining mating systems. These
region, differed from those of the makers of are best expressed in the movement of objects and
Mousterian or other Middle Palaeolithic industries. raw materials over long distances (Roebroeks el ah
A supposed surge of self-awareness is expressed in 1988). The identification of particular human social
the greatly expanded industries of bone, antler and groups is also reflected in specialized lithic artefacts
ivory, the range of beads, pendants and marine shells (Otte & Keeley 1990) and body decorations (White
as body decorations, and the various forms of mo- 1989).
bile and rock art (Mellars 1989; 1996a; White 1997). The movement of the Cro-Magnons across Eu-
The proliferation of these traits undoubtedly stands rope followed several routes. One went along the
in contrast to previous Middle Palaeolithic assem- Danube valley, and possibly through the central Eu-
blages, with only a few 'art' objects (e.g. Marshack ropean plains, into temperate Europe; the other was
1997 and references therein). It should be stressed, a southern, Mediterranean route. Encounters with
however, that the cultural sequence in Western Eu- the Neandertals resulted in replacement, or either
rope is unusual within the Upper Palaeolithic. We the formation of reciprocal cultural contacts or uni-
need to ask why and how the cultural trajectory of directional acculturations. Chatelperronian and
this Upper Palaeolithic took a different course from Uluzzian are now often perceived as the results of
its contemporaries in the Near East, Africa, eastern such encounters and demonstrate the ability of
Asia or Tasmania. The assumption that only those Neanderthals to make blades of Upper Palaeolithic
'art' manifestations that survived, correctly inter- type, together with bone and antler objects and beads.
preted as symbolic expressions, constitute direct evi- The fact that they did not do so everywhere, and not
dence for language (Davidson 1997) indicates a biased until the AMH expanded into Europe, may indicate
approach that avoids or fails to perceive the basic that the maintenance of old traditions was a particu-
question: why is it geographically limited? If there larly strong element in their social structure (but see
are social determinants common to all foragers across the argument on Neanderthal acculturation by
the world, then we should expect to find similar d'Errico el al 1998).
symbolic behaviours in a variety of landscapes. In sum, one can very clearly see dramatic
The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in changes, similar to those at the origin of agriculture,
the Near East and Europe can be explained as the taking place within a single human population. It
introduction of new technologies. These include tech- can plausibly be argued that there is no need to
niques for food acquisition, such as spear throwers, invoke a marked biological threshold for the onset of
new forms of projectile heads, and even archery, the Upper Palaeolithic. Unlike the Neolithic situa-
perhaps basketry, as well as new tools for food prepa- tion, we do here have in the European world two
ration such as grinding stones (de Beaune 1989; different human populations, perhaps different spe-
Wright 1991). New trapping and storing techniques cies, but the key point is that the cultural transition
may have become available, although the evidence does not take place when one of these species first
for this is still meagre (Soffer 1989b). Stable food appears. Careful studies of the archaeology of the
provisioning in seasons of stress resulted in popula- immediate AMH ancestors of Upper Palaeolithic
tion increase as newborns had a better chance of humans (or the Cro-Magnons) in their original

156
 On the Nature of Transitions

homeland or core area will probably reveal the tech- conditions by keeping total population at low num-
nical and organizational pre-adaptations that made bers with relatively high mobility. High altitude ex-
a successful population change its lifeways — a ploitation was left to special task groups.
change for which the direct evidence is the kind of Some of these same factors are relevant when
archaeological residues we call 'Early Upper Palaeo- we assess 'old ways of life' at the time of the Middle
lithic'. Despite the capabilities of Middle Palaeolithic to Upper Palaeolithic transition. The Middle Palaeo-
humans, Upper Palaeolithic populations within the lithic is characterized by a low degree of regionali-
30 ka following their appearance did technologically zation — the same or similar lithic technologies
much better, most of the time, in every ecological prevail over large areas, such as the entire Levant.
context. A striking illustration is successful survival Only a few occurrences of symbolic behaviour
in subarctic conditions, through numerous techno- are encountered in Middle Palaeolithic deposits of
logical innovations (Soffer 1989b), and their success Western Asia; they include burials (several with grave
in colonizing the Americas. offerings), the use of red ochre and rare marine shells.
The development of tangible expressions of self- Sub-Saharan Africa seems to have been richer, with
awareness and of changing intra- and inter-societal, examples of barbed points in Zaire (Brooks et al.
as well as societal/environmental relationships, is 1995), bone objects in Howieson's Poort in south
reflected in their body decorations, decorated ob- Africa and the early appearance of ostrich eggshell
jects, portable art, rock art, and specially designed beads (Ambrose 1998). TTiere were low levels of over-
tools. These were created by populations when and all fertility in the temperate zone but possibly higher
where the need for such expressions arose (Belfer- ones in subtropical latitudes.
Cohen 1988). Not all groups of foragers were in the In each case the revolution is technical with
same situation, had the same social structure or the immediate socio-economic implications. The Neolithic
same needs. Hunting and gathering groups have is driven by environmental deterioration during the
long differed in their responses to regional carrying Younger Dryas; it is still not known what precisely
capacities, through their particular technologies and triggered the Upper Palaeolithic revolution.
social organization. The continuous success of one With the passage of time, the socio-economic
group could have caused the decline of a neighbour- effects of each revolution became permanent fea-
ing group. Demographic modelling by Zubrow (1989) tures of the new cultural pattern, whether early Up-
indicates how quickly a less successful population, per Palaeolithic or early Neolithic. The immediate
in this case the Neanderthals, may disappear. But results would be new planning and scheduling of
this did not happen at the same pace everywhere. In subsistence strategies, increased rates of survival of
Iberia we now know that the Neanderthals survived newborns and prolonged survival of the elders in
for at least another 13,000-15,000 years after the first the group. This would bring not only a population
arrival of the Cro-Magnons in that same general area. increase but selective advantages in long-term moni-
Similar interpretations concerning the relationships toring of the environments treasured in the prolonged
between incoming and local populations would 'living memory' of the group. It would also enable
doubtless apply to the Mesolithic/Neolithic transi- the formation of long-distance social alliances in the
tion in most of Eurasia, but discussion of this issue is Early Upper Palaeolithic surpassing those of the Mid-
beyond the scope of this article. dle Palaeolithic, and long-distance exchange and
trade relations in the Neolithic.
Concluding remarks The practical results of the revolution in each
case were immensely important, both immediately
The core area where the transition to agricultural and in the longer term. The following are merely
subsistence began is characterized by a high degree examples: (a) improved subsistence strategies with
of topographical and phytological variability in a new technologies/techniques such as spear-throw-
relatively small geographical area. Resources, espe- ers and the earliest archery in the Early Upper Pal-
cially plant foods, are predictable, highly accessible aeolithic, and improved archery in the Neolithic; (b)
and reliable. improved clothing, especially needed in northern
A summary of the old ways of life would indi- latitudes in the Early Upper Palaeolithic and the use
cate a low degree of mobility especially in lusher areas of linen with other traditional materials in the
(perhaps even semi-sedentism), coupled with sea- Neolithic; (c) improved gathering and transport de-
sonal exploitation of ecotonal resources. Groups were vices including baskets, sledges, and the first ap-
able to sustain themselves in steppic and semi-desertic pearance of storage facilities; (d) the first use of

157
 Ofer Bar-Yosef

grinding stones for food processing in the Upper Plenum Press.

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Neolithic; (e) increase in the number of exploited chaeological Science 25,377-92.
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raw materials or the frequency of their use in the Transition and the Genetics of Popidations in Europe.
Early Upper Palaeolithic (i.e. antlers and bones, spe- Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
cial hard rocks), and long-distance procurement of Arensburg, B., L.A. Schepartz, A.M. Tillier, B. Vander-
raw materials, curation of artefacts, and import of meersch & Y. Rak, 1990. A reappraisal of the ana-
exotic raw materials (such as obsidian) in the tomical basis for speech in Middle Palaeolithic
Neolithic; (f) improved systems of long-distance, hominds. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
intergroup communication in the Early Upper Pal- 83,137-46.
aeolithic (drums?) that enabled small groups to move Bar-Yosef, D.E., 1991. Changes in the selection of marine
over large areas and keep in contact with others. shells from the Natufian to the Neolithic, in Bar-
Yosef & Valla (eds.), 629-36.
This may have included the first referential and even Bar-Yosef, O., 1992. The role of Western Asia in modern
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responsible for the views expressed in this article. Fe (NM): School of American Research Press, 39-
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