摘要：The excavations at Kebara Cave (Mt. Carmel, Israel) revealed an important archaeological sequence of late Middle Paleolithic units superimposed by Early Upper Paleolithic ones. This sequence provides important insights concerning our knowledge of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Levant. Here we present a detailed description of the lithic assemblage from Unit V, considered as the last Middle Paleolithic occupation on site. This assemblage is dated to 48/49 ky cal BP, thus representing the final stages of the Middle Paleolithic in the region. Although in previous publications the material of Unit V was considered as a Middle/Upper Paleolithic admixture, the results of the current study indicate (at least concerning the assemblage presented here) that the number of Upper Paleolithic items is negligible. We discuss the role of this assemblage for understanding some of the late Middle Paleolithic lithic variability, as well as the appearance of the Upper Paleolithic blade technology in the Levant. After a detailed synthesis of the archaeological evidence (lithics, stratigraphy and radiometric dating) from Kebara and other sites, we demonstrate that the lithic technology at the end of the local Middle Paleolithic is focused on flake production by using centripetal and bi-directional prepared Levallois cores, while the retouched component of the assemblage is dominated by typical Middle Paleolithic forms. Accordingly, one cannot observe a direct continuity between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic techno-typologies.
