Last time we saw how the earlier part of the Epipalaeolithic differed from the Upper Palaeolithic mostly in terms of the degree of changes which had been gathering over the course of the later Upper Palaeolithic, rather than the sudden appearance of new techniques and traditions. The later Epipalaeolithic is more of a change than we saw in this previous transition.
First, the later Epipalaeolithic takes place largely at the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. While the exact point where the earlier and later Epipalaeolithic are divided differs in different parts of the Near East, the later Epipalaeolithic usually falls during this stage at the beginning of the Holocene. This first part of the Holocene has two phases, the Bølling Allerød is the first of these from about 14,500 to 12,750 years ago, when things began to warm up, more rain fell, glaciers in northern Europe began to melt and sea levels began to rise. Then came the Younger Dryas from about 12,750 to 11,500 years ago, when the climate changed its mind a little bit and went back towards a time of cold and dry for a thousand years. This meant that communities across the Near East had to deal with more than one major change in climate during the later Epipalaeolithic.
Many trends which we saw from the Upper Palaeolithic and earlier Epipalaeolithic continued and grew in the later Epipalaeolithic. The trade of exotic goods – such as sea shell beads and obsidian – continued to happen between communities across the Near East. In the later Epipalaeolithic we actually see a wider range of things being traded around, with the addition of stone beads to the repertoire of travelling exotics.
The later Epipalaeolithic also continued the earlier trends of greater use and greater processing of plant foods. The finds of grinding stones, mortars and pestles and other tools for processing plant remains not only continue in the later Epipalaeolithic of the Near East, but these tools become more common and more varieties are seen on sites across the region. One potential use of these tools has been found from the later Epipalaeolithic, making it by far the oldest evidence of its kind in the archaeological record – bread. Lumps of charred food remains were found at the site of Shubayqa 1 in Jordan dating from about 14,400 years ago were identified as preserved lumps of charred bread, making them the oldest evidence for the making of bread anywhere in the world.
These preserved chunks of charred bread were found inside the fireplace of Structure 1 at Shubayqa 1, which links this site not only to the oldest evidence for bread but to another new development which we see across the Near East in the later Epipalaeolithic – houses. Stone house foundations begin to appear across sites in the later Epipalaeolithic, indicating that people were routinely putting greater effort into setting up house, and is one of the lines of evidence which suggests that people were more permanently living within one site rather than moving frequently across the landscape between camps.
This increased sedentism – staying in one place rather than constantly moving – is suggested by a series of other things which either resulted from this longer-term residence or allowed it to continue. The first of these is evidence for storage – for the storing of food reserves for times of the year when food might not be as plentiful around the site. Another of these is some slight indications of over-hunting in the areas around a few sites in the southern Levant, although such evidence of over-hunting is not consistently seen across the Near East during the later Epipalaeolithic, and is not necessarily even seen across all of the southern Levant in this period. Another indication of less frequent human movement is the appearance of the house mouse, which changes during the late Epipalaeolithic from a local species of wild mouse to a commensal species with humans. This means that mice took advantage of our longer residences and our stored food and moved themselves in alongside us to help themselves when we were not looking, ultimately domesticating themselves into animals adapted to living alongside and off of human communities.
Episode Bibliography:
Arranz-Otaequi, A., Gonzalez Carretero, L., Ramsey, M.N., Fuller, D.Q. and Richter, T. 2018. Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(31): 7925-7930.
Asouti, E., Baird, D., Kabukcu, C. Swinson, K., Martin, L., Garcia-Suarez, A., Jenkins, E. and Rasheed, K. 2020. The Zagros Epipalaeolithic revisited: new excavations and 14C dates from Palegawra cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. Public Library Of Science One 15(9): e0239564.
Atici, L. 2009. Specialisation & diversification: animal exploitation strategies in the terminal Pleistocene, Mediterranean Turkey. Before Farming 2009(3): article 1.
Baird, D., Asouti, E., Astruc, L., Baysal, A., Baysal, E., Carruthers, D., Fairbairn, A., Kabukcu, C., Jenkins, E., Lorentz, K., Middleton, C., Pearson, J. and Pirie, A. 2013. Juniper smoke, skulls and wolves’ tails. The Epipalaeolithic of the Anatolian plateau in its south-west Asian context; insights from Pinarbaşi. Levant 45(2): 175-209.
Baysal, E. 2013. Epipalaeolithic marine shell beads at Pinarbaşi. Central Anatolia from an eastern Mediterranean perspective. Anatolica 39: 261-276.
Baysal, E.L. and Erek, C.M. 2018. Material movement in the Near Eastern Epipalaeolithic: implications of the shell and stone beads of Direkli Cave, Turkey. Journal of Field Archaeology 43: 591-603.
Belmaker, M. and Brown, A.B. 016. A new look at “on mice and men”: should commensal species be used as a universal indicator of early sedentism? In N. Marom, R. Yeshurun, L. Weissbrod and G. Bar-Oz (eds.), Bones and Identity: Zooarchaeological Approaches to Reconstructing Social and Cultural Landscapes in Southwest Asia. Oxford: Oxbow Books: 25-44.
Boyd, B. 2018. Settled? Recent debates in the archaeology of the Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic of southwest Asia. Asian Archaeology 1: 63-73.
Cuchi, T., Papayianni, K., Cersoy, S., Aznar-Cormano, L., Zazzo, A., Debruyne, R., Berthon, R., Bălăşescu, A., Simmons, A., Valla, F., Hamilakis, Y., Mavridis, F., Mashkour, M., Darvis, J., Siahsarvi, R., iglari, F., Petrie, C.A., Weeks, L., Sardari, A., Maziar, S., Denys, C., Orton, D., Jenkins, E., Zeder, M., Searle, J.B., Larson, G., Bonhomme, F., Auffray, J.C. and Vigne, J.D. 2020. Tracking the Near Eastern origins and European dispersal of the western house mouse. Nature: Scientific Reports 10: 8276.
Delage, C. 2018. Revisiting rolling stones: the procurement of non-local goods in the Epipalaeolithic of the Near East. Quaternary International 464: 159-172.
Flannery, K. V. (1969). Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran
and the Near East. In P.J. Ucko and G.W. Dimbleby (eds.), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. Chicago: Aldine: 73–100.
Hartman, G., Bar-Yosef, O., Brittingham, A., Grosman, L., Munro, N.D. 2016. Hunted gazelles evidence cooling, but not drying during the Younger Dryas in the southern Levant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(5), 3997-4002.
Henton, E., Martin, L., Garrard, A., Jourdan, A.-L., Thirwall, M. and Boles, O. 2017. Gazelle seasonal mobility in the Jordanian steppe: the use of dental isotopes and microwear as environmental markers, applied to Epipalaeolithic Kharaneh IV. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 11: 147-158.
Jones, M.D., Abu-Jaber, N., AlShdaifat, A., Baird, D., Cook, B.I., Cuthbert, M.O. et al. 2019. 20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia. WIREs Water 6, e1330, doi: 10.1002/wat2.1330.
Martinoli, D. 2004. Food plant use, temporal changes and site seasonality at Epipalaeolithic Öküzini and Karain B caves, southwest Anatolia, Turkey. Paléorient 30(2): 61-80.
Munro, N. 2009. Epipalaeolithic subsistence intensification in the southern Levant: the faunal evidence. In J.J. Hublin and M.P. Richards (eds). The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence. London: Springer: 141-155.
Munro, N. and Bar-Oz, G. 2005. Gazelle bone fat processing in the Levantine Epipalaeolithic. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 223-239.
Munro, N. and Br-Oz, G. 2007. Gazelle bone marrow yields and Epipalaeolithic carcass exploitation strategies in the southern Levant. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 946-956.
Peasnall, B.L. 2000. The Round House Horizon Along the Taurus-Zagros Arc: a Synthesis of Recent Excavations of Late Epipalaeolithic and Early Aceramic Sites in Southeastern Anatolia and Northern Iraq. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Michigan.
Richter, T. and Maher, L. 2013. Terminology, process and change: reflections on the Epipalaeolithic of South-West Asia. Levant 45(2): 121-132.
Ridout-Sharpe, J. 2015. Changing lifestyles in the northern Levant: Late Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic shells from Tell Abu Hureya. Quaternary International 390: 102-116.
Stutz, A.J., Munro, N.D. and Bar-Oz, G. 2009. Increasing the resolution of the Broad Spectrum Revolution in the southern Levantine Epipalaeolithic (19-12 ka). Journal of Human Evolution 56: 294-306.
Weide, A., Riehl, S., Zeidi, M. and Conard, N.J. 2018. A systematic review of wild grass exploitation in relation to emerging cereal cultivation throughout the Epipalaeolithic and aceramic Neolithic of the Fertile Crescent. Public Library of Science One 13(1): e0189811.
Pre-History Podcast 