Open-air surface accumulations and scatters of material cultural remains often are perceived as less-reliable archaeological archives, where it is difficult to distinguish anthropogenic versus geogenic formation processes or to assess their specific effects on the integrity of archaeological records. Here we analyze the depositional histories of three Middle Paleolithic open-air sites in the Negev desert of Israel, combining archaeological and geomorphological methods to create a conceptual model of multi-scale effects on the archaeological remains. Relying on the long research history in archaeology and geomorphology in the Negev, we show that integration of archaeological and geomorphological methodologies provides nuanced insights to our understanding of the archaeological record. The links established between regional and local geomorphic processes and lithic taphonomy by applying such a multi-scale analysis further allow back-tracking environmental processes from flint taphonomic attributes. Placing each site within the range of regional and local processes of exposure and burial by using informed and critically evaluated data helps to create a robust regional archaeological data base. We suggest that our approach is useful in other arid zone contexts and may have implications for understanding Pleistocene population movements across such regions.

Precipitation and net primary productivity are positively correlated in arid environments. Both variables are, in turn, correlated with mammal species richness, but this relationship is not necessarily positive. With increasing precipitation in arid areas of low to moderate productivity, mammal richness increases linearly; as rainfall and productivity increase beyond this point, mammal richness is known to decline in some areas, producing a relationship that has been termed “unimodal” or “humped.” In the Great Basin of the arid western United States, studies of the relationship between rodent species richness and precipitation have revealed only a positive relationship between these two variables. It has, however, been argued that if areas of higher precipitation were to be sampled within this region, the decline phase would become evident. When latest Pleistocene and Holocene small mammal assemblages from the northern Bonneville Basin (central Utah) are examined across a temporal moisture gradient, species richness declines as moisture declines. Since the Great Basin was significantly moister during the latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene than it has been since that time, the unimodal response model does not appear to apply to this region.

The Tree Shelter site dates to the Early to Mid-Holocene (8000 to 4900 14C yr BP). Present conditions around the site are hyperarid, but charcoal remains indicate less severe aridity at the time of its occupation. The environment around the site then supported a rich wadi vegetation, which allowed hunting during the Epipaleolithic and herding during the Neolithic occupation. Although more favorable than today, the environmental conditions also displayed a desert character and seem to have limited the range of domestic herbivores introduced in the area.