Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
3.1 - The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
from VII. - Western and Central Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction: The Levantine Corridor
The region that is the focus of this chapter is but a small stretch of land enjoying Mediterranean climate, located between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and one of the harshest deserts on earth to the east. The Levantine Corridor (Goren-Inbar & Speth 2004), despite its small size, has been subject to one of the most intensive archaeological efforts anywhere. Here some of the world’s most important prehistoric sites have been discovered during almost one hundred years of excavation. Together with new sites, they remain the source for many of the cutting-edge questions and debates in palaeoanthropology today. The story of the Levant in early prehistory is first of all the story of a corridor, the main pathway leading out of Africa taken by continuous waves of human groups reaching out for new territory in Eurasia. Some of the very early evidence for human presence outside of Africa is succeeded in the region by indications of subsequent Lower Palaeolithic dispersals, followed by the earliest movement of anatomically modern humans out of Africa during the Middle Palaeolithic.
Our current focus on the Levantine Corridor, to the exclusion of the remainder of Asia, is due to the fact that Central Asian data are almost nonexistent to date. R. Dennell provides the few data from Central Asia in his recently published book (Dennell 2009), and the reader is advised to consult this monumental work. Yet even this scholar, who has focused considerable attention on Asia, wrote: “The Palaeolithic record of the west region, covering an area c. 16 times larger than Britain, is largely unknown, and mostly comprises surface artifact collections that are not datable” (Dennell 2009: 325). Central Asia is clearly a key region for the discussion of the most significant questions in early prehistoric archaeology today. Currently, political and geographical difficulties stand in the way of scholars working in these vast regions, but exciting discoveries will surely emerge with the advance of research in the future.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1357 - 1378Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
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