Trajectories of Culture Change in Northwest Africa and the Levant: Parallels and Contrasts

This considers the similarities and differences in the Stone Age/Paleolithic archaeological sequences of northwest Africa (nwA) and the eastern Mediterranean Levant (eML). For the purposes of this discussion, nwA consists of the modern nation states of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. The eML region is similarly defined as the combined territories of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian National Authority, and Syria. The time period under discussion spans the later Middle Pleistocene and the early Upper Pleistocene, roughly between 250 ka and 40 ka. It begins with the earliest Middle Stone Age (MSA) or Middle Paleolithic (MP) assemblages and ends with the widespread appearance of the Upper Paleolithic (UP) or Later Stone Age (LSA) industries across the two regions. In nwA, the makers of these archaeological assemblages were members of the taxon Homo sapiens. The situation in the eML is more complicated, as both H. sapiens and Neanderthals are implicated.