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Le Paléolithique d'El Kowm (Syrie)

Research Project
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01.04.2007
 - 31.03.2010

The El Kowm area (central Syria) can be considered as a region of reference for early Prehistory in the Near East. The presence of permanent water sources in the heart of the arid steppe favored continuous occupations since the beginning of the Quaternary. Since 1997, the Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science of the University of Basel has undertaken a complete interdisciplinary research program of this major site of Hummal under the direction of Prof. Dr. J.-M Le Tensorer associated with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria. The site of Hummal is a prominent mound at an artesian spring built out of the sediments which piled up during the Quaternary. The impressive stratigraphy -twenty meters high- comprises more than 25 geological units preserving a great number of archaeological levels. It covers an extremely long period of time ranging from the Oldest Paleolithic (Oldowan) to Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian) over more than a million years. Therefore, it is the longest and most important cultural sequence known as yet in an arid landscape in the Middle East. The outstanding feature of the Mousterian period (around 150,000 to 80,000 years ago) consists in the remains of a giant camel. The animal measured over 3 meters at shoulder-height. Roughly speaking, it was bigger than the modern camel by 1,5 to 1,75 time. In the same layers, beside the large amount of flint tools, we also found 3 human remains at Hummal. For the moment, the scanty evidence does not allow a clear determination of the species (Neanderthal or archaïc Homo sapiens). Moreover, the archaeological results are of outstanding importance. The study of transitional cultures such as Yabrudian and Hummalian between Old Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic might certainly provide an answer to one of the most important question into which scientists have been looking for a certain time: the origins of Modern Man.

Collaborations & Cooperations

2014 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Jammous, Bassam, Director General, Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées, Research cooperation

Publications

Le Tensorer, Jean-Marie (2010) ‘Le Paléolithique ancien de Syrie et l’importance du Golan comme voie de passage lors de l’expansion des premiers hommes hors d’Afrique’, in Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées (ed.).

Hauck, Thomas et al. (2010) ‘Variation in lower and middle palaeolithic land use strategies in the Syrian desert steppe : the example of Hummal (El Kowm area)’, in Conard, N. J., Delagnes, A. (ed.) Settlement dynamics of the middle paleolithic and middle stone age. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag (Tübingen publications in prehistory), p. S. 145–162.

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Le Tensorer, Jean-Marie, Muhesen, Sultan and Schmid, Peter (2009) ‘Le Paléolithique de Hummal à El Kowm : premier bilan des fouilles syro-suisses 1999-2008’, Chronique Archéologique en Syrie, pp. 9–23.

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Le Tensorer, Jean-Marie and Schmid, Peter (2009) ‘Out of Africa : über die frühesten Auswanderer und die Wurzeln unserer Kultur : on the earliest emmigrants and the roots of human culture’. Anthropologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Zürich.

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Schmid, Peter and Le Tensorer, Jean-Marie (2009) ‘Out of Africa’, Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich, 154(3/4), pp. 63–67.

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Le Tensorer, Jean-Marie et al. (2007) ‘Long-term site formation processes at the natural springs Nadaouiyeh and Hummal in the El Kowm oasis, Central Syria’, Geoarchaeology, 22(6), pp. 621–639. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20177.

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Le Tensorer, JM (2006) ‘Les cultures acheuléennes et la question de l’émergence de la pensée symbolique chez Homo erectus à partir des données relatives à la forme symétrique et harmonique des bifaces’, Comptes rendus palévol, 5(1-2), pp. 127–135. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2005.12.003.

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Leuzinger, Urs and Jagher, Reto (2005) ‘Eldorado für Faustkeilforscher’, Archäologie in Deutschland, 2005, pp. 10–15.

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Le Tensorer, Jean-Marie, Muhesen, Sultan and Jagher, Reto (2001) ‘Paleolithic settlement dynamics in the El Kowm Area (Central Syria)’, in Conard, N. J. (ed.) Settlement dynamics of the middle paleolithic and middle stone age. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag (Tübingen publications in prehistory), p. S. 101–122.

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Members (18)

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Jean-Marie Le Tensorer

Principal Investigator
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Peter Schmid

Principal Investigator
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Sultan Muhesen

Principal Investigator
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Heba Al Sakhel

Co-Investigator
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Hani Elsuede

Project Member
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Kristin Ismail-Meyer

Project Member
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