Occupation Duration and Identification of Technological Traditions: Insights from the Late Middle Paleolithic Site of Nahal Dimona 24 in the Negev Desert, Israel

Nahal Dimona 24 is a Middle Paleolithic rock shelter, the first Middle Paleolithic sheltered site identified and excavated in the arid Negev region, southern Israel. The site exhibits at least one well preserved in situ archaeological horizon that was dated by Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to MIS 3-4 (Late Middle Paleolithic). The lithic assemblage from Nahal Dimona 24 in dominated by the centripetal Levallois knapping mode, sharing technological characteristics with earlier Middle Paleolithic sites from the southern Levant such as Qafzeh Cave and Nesher Ramla Quarry. At the same time, Nahal Dimona 24 differs from other late Middle Paleolithic sites mainly in the paucity of unidirectional convergent Levallois strategy and triangular end-products. Within the southern Levant Middle Paleolithic, dominance of centripetal Levallois knapping mode has frequently been associated with MIS 5 chronology and is seen by some as a cultural marker of human demic diffusion into the Levant during this time span. Based on the lithic assemblage and OSL ages from Nahal Dimona 24, we suggest that within the technological variability of the Middle Paleolithic in the Levant, the dominance of a specific lithic production mode is not a sufficient cultural or chronological marker. We further propose that since long stratified sequences may be a result of many visits by different human groups, short-term occupations like Nahal Dimona 24 might shed new light on the use of the different modes of Levallois preparation in the late Middle Paleolithic since they may better reflect the use of specific technological traditions related to Levallois preparation.