Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans

Description

Quaternary of the Levant presents up-to-date research achievements from a region that displays unique interactions between the climate, the environment and human evolution. Focusing on southeast Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel, it brings together over eighty contributions from leading researchers to review 2.5 million years of environmental change and human cultural evolution. Information from prehistoric sites and palaeoanthropological studies contributing to our understanding of 'out of Africa' migrations, Neanderthals, cultures of modern humans, and the origins of agriculture are assessed within the context of glacial-interglacial cycles, marine isotope cycles, plate tectonics, geochronology, geomorphology, palaeoecology and genetics. Complemented by overview summaries that draw together the findings of each chapter, the resulting coverage is wide-ranging and cohesive. The cross-disciplinary nature of the volume makes it an invaluable resource for academics and advanced students of Quaternary science and human prehistory, as well as being an important reference for archaeologists working in the region.

Yehouda Enzel is a professor and Chair of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has studied the geomorphology and Quaternary geology of diverse continental environments for over thirty years, as well as aspects of palaeofloods, palaeohydrology, palaeolimnology, dust, loess, and soils. In 2005, Professor Enzel was awarded the Geological Society of America Farouk El-Baz Desert Research Award. Ofer Bar-Yosef is Emeritus Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Harvard University. He has been involved in a wide range of prehistoric site excavations since 1959, in Israel, Sinai (Egypt), Turkey, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Georgia, and the People's Republic of China. Professor Bar-Yosef has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) since 2001 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy since 2005.

'This comprehensive, stimulating and innovative volume explores, in 85 chapters, the complex patterns of ever-changing interactions between Quaternary environments and prehistoric humans in the regional crossroads between Asia, Europe and Africa (encapsulated in the term, the Levant). The focus is mainly on Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel, but the scientific implications extend well beyond this region. The two editors have assembled a stellar cast of some 160 authors and have allowed them free rein to present diverse insights into causes and consequences of human migrations, cultural changes, agricultural origins, regional tectonics, climatic changes and much more.' Martin Williams, The University of Adelaide, Australia ''Monumental' does not do justice to this outstanding volume. Now, thanks to Yehouda Enzel and Ofer Bar-Yosef, the Levant has the foundation text it deserves. This book will be the keystone in the arch of research for a region that is fundamental to understanding the dispersals and evolution of hominins and humans. Read, learn and admire.' Clive Gamble, Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins, University of Southampton