Back to ‘Ubeidiya: Renewed Excavations at an Early Pleistocene Site in the Levant

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

'Ubeidiya, Central Jordan Valley, Israel, is one of the earliest prehistoric sites outside Africa. Extensive excavations in the second half of the twentieth century yielded important archaeological, paleontological, and geological data, which provided insights into early Pleistocene hominins’ expansion out of Africa. The primary geological descriptions of the site were its four cycles: Limnic Inferior (Li), Fluviatile Inferior (Fi), Limnic Upper (Lu), and Fluviatile Upper (Fu). A composite stratigraphic column detailing the correlation on either side of the anticline summit has been extensively used as the model for within-site chronology. Here we present preliminary field observations from new excavations conducted in 2021 and 2022 at 'Ubeidiya. We could not securely identify a correlation between strata on both sides of the anticline summit and between trenches IIa and Ia, which formed the basis for the famous stratigraphic diagram, and could not confirm the published stratigraphic schema. Thus, a detailed revision is warranted. Outstanding questions, such as the presence of Oldowan in the Li cycle, may need to be reexamined to understand better the tempo and mode of the expansion of the early Pleistocene from Africa to Eurasia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35765.0