Uranium series dates from Qesem Cave, Israel, and the end of the Lower Palaeolithic, 2003, Barkai, R. , Gopher, A. , Lauritzen, S. E. , And Frumkin, A.

Israel is part of a geographical ?out of Africa? corridor for human dispersals. An important event in these dispersals was the possible arrival of anatomically modern humans in the Levant during the late Middle Pleistocene1,2,3. In the Levant the Lower Paleolithic ends with the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex, characterized by striking technological developments4,5 including the introduction of advanced technological innovations such as systematic blade production and the disappearance of hand-axes . These reflect new human perceptions and capabilities in lithic technology and tool function, as well as innovative human adaptation6. Qesem Cave, discovered in 2000, has a rich, well-preserved Acheulo-Yabrudian sequence holding great promise for providing new insights into the period. Here we report the dates of this cave obtained by U-series of speleothems and their implications. The results shed light on the temporal range of the Acheulo-Yabrudian and the end of the Lower Paleolithic, suggesting a long and unique cultural phase between the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian and the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian, starting well before 350 kyr and ending at ca. 200 kyr.

Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans, 2007, Vaks, A. , Barmatthews, M. , Ayalon, A. , Matthews, A. , Halicz, L. And Frumkin, A.

One of the first movements of early modern humans out of Africa occurred 130?100 thousand years ago (ka), when they migrated northward to the Levant region. The climatic conditions that accompanied this migration are still under debate. Using high-precision multicollector?inductively coupled plasma?mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) U-Th methods, we dated carbonate cave deposits (speleothems) from the central and southern Negev Desert of Israel, located at the northeastern margin of the Saharan-Arabian Desert. Speleothems grow only when rainwater enters the unsaturated zone, and this study reveals that a major cluster of wet episodes (the last recorded in the area) occurred between 140 and 110 ka. This episodic wet period coincided with increased monsoonal precipitation in the southern parts of the Saharan- Arabian Desert. The disappearance at this time of the desert barrier between central Africa and the Levant, and particularly in the Sinai-Negev land bridge between Africa and Asia, would have created a climatic ?window? for early modern human dispersion to the Levant.