ABSTRACT
Both H. sapiens and Neandertals inhabited the Levant between 170,000 and 50,000 years ago, and both used the same type of Middle Palaeolithic tool-kit. Major changes occurred after 50,000–45,000 years ago, with the appearance of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) followed by the Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP), both of which were blade technologies. Personal ornaments were also commoner and there was an increase in the trapping of small, agile animals such as hare. Shortly after the appearance of the IUP in the Levant, Upper Palaeolithic assemblages (presumably made by our species) appear ca. 45,000 years ago in the Zagros Mountains of Iraq and Iran, and replace the previous Mousterian ones, and probably also the Neandertals that made them. The appearance of our species in Iran was likely a complex process rather than a single major dispersal event.
