Quneitra: A Mousterian Site on the Golan Heights
The open-air Middle Paleolithic site of Quneitra, excavated in 1982-1983 and 1985, yielded abundant material which enabled multidisciplinary research on a broad range of archaeological, geological, and biological topics. The volume is an endeavor to describe the activities of a hunter-gatherer community seasonally occupying the shores of a freshwater lake. The archaeological horizon is characterized by a wealth of basalt and flint artifacts and manuports. In addition to the presentation of the stratigraphy of the site and thorough analyses of lithic technology, geological and geomorphological processes are studied. Hypotheses are formulated as to hominid procurement and subsistence behavior and taphonomic processes, and the paleoenvironment of the region is reconstructed from stratigraphic, geological, and faunal data. The fact that Quneitra is the only known Paleolithic entity in the Levant which is sealed by pyroclastic depositional material enabled radiometric dating of the site.