Levallois/ non-Levallois determinations in the early Levant Mousterian: Problems and Questions for 1983

Some promising new ways of dealing with flint artifacts (e.g. wear analysis, core-reconstruction and replication of tools) are under way on Levant material, but are not yet often usable. We must therefore continue to use the Bordean scheme. In the Middle Paleolithic this concerns the presence/absence of Levallois techniques. Today, a divergence of views has developed as to what are the criteria for this attribute, and this affects interpretations. Often, whole concepts are based on a particular reading of these criteria. One way of improving the situation (introduction of an 'intermediate' class) is suggested. An experiment to see if corereduction techniques could be deduced from scar patterns is described, using blades from the Early Mousterian site of Hummal la. It is proposed that a reassessment of the Levallois problem should take place soon.