The Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) in the Levant presents a unique phenomenon, diverse forms of blade production dominate the technological organization. Contrary to the discontinuous presence of blade production across Eurasia, both before and after the EMP, blades and their by-products were, between 250 and 160,000 years ago, the main "behavioral package" in the Levant region.

The EMP lithic assemblages comprised of several techno-typological traits, the use of Levallois, Laminar, and cores on flakes reduction strategies. Furthermore, it seems that within each single reduction sequence there is versatility, changes which occur between technological concepts allows prolongation of the core’s utility and enhanced control of blank production.

Here, we reassess the assemblages of Abou-Sif, excavated between 1928-1934, and among the first EMP sites excavated and analysed in the region. These lithic assemblages, despite biased collection methods, will contribute to the understanding of the EMP technological organization. These results not only highlight the techno-typological diversity in the mode of production but also reflect the narrow variation that is shared among all known EMP sites. The possible social and demographic implications of this low-diversity within a cohesive geographical and chronological framework will be discussed with regards to the previous Late Lower and later Middle Paleolithic records in the Levant.

Pollen-based vegetation change has been inferred from sediments in Kalavan Red Lake. This small lake is placed in the beech-oak-hornbeam forest, about three kilometres away from the village of Kalavan (Gegharkunik Province of the Republic of Armenia) which is rich with archaeological sites spread in the Barepat River valley spanning from the Palaeolithic period onwards. It has the potential to document the Holocene forest history and climate and human impacts on the Lesser Caucasus. However, this lake happens to be formed by a large landslide.

Pollen and XRF analysis are provided over the last 3800 years. The basal age of the Kalavan sediment approximates the landslide age. This created a not vegetated slope including the lake catchment. Erosion and sedimentation processes brought coarse and heavy minerogenic elements, declining with the catchment revegetation by tall-grassland. This shift in the sedimentation continues, suggesting less erosion in the catchment when an admixture of Quercus and grasslands settled. Starting from 2000 cal. BP, arboreal pollen increases successively thanks to the step afforestation of Quercus, Carpinus orientalis and Fagus.

The comparison with available pollen reconstruction illustrates the uniqueness of the vegetation dynamic recorded at Kalavan. However, the duration of this succession is also questionable. An intermediate hypothesis is proposed: the Kalavan's dynamic is first initiated by the landslide with the tall-grass development, then paced by the regional vegetation dynamic.

Linking vegetation history and erosion with regional climate and archaeological data helps to evidence short-term climate change and human impact. Antique arid phase (2000–1600 cal. BP), the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age affect the vegetation, while demography variations during the Medieval period and Modern Age are shown by habitation and pastoral activity.

Classification of the Paleolithic into Lower, Middle, and Upper has both chronological and cultural meanings serving as a framework for reconstructing cultural evolution and interpreting behavioral processes. Traditionally, the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Eurasia is regarded as a bio-cultural turning point, in which local Neanderthals were replaced by incoming Homo sapiens populations, carrying with them a novel technological repertoire. As such, the basic classification of archeological data into broad spatially and temporally coherent blocks is not neutral and disconnected from the paradigmatic view of a “transition” as a developmental event. Initially, the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) was introduced to describe the first cultural stage within the Upper Paleolithic and was later modified to define the cultural transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. In the last 20 years, the IUP has increasingly been used as a chronological-biological taxonomic unit to describe modern human dispersals into Eurasia, overriding its use within a cultural taxonomic system. In this paper, we evaluate the applicability of the term as a taxonomic unit. The construction of a chronicle and histories, based on well-documented and published data from the late Middle Paleolithic through to the earliest Upper Paleolithic sites across southwest Asia, are used to evaluate the applicability of the term Initial Upper Paleolithic as a taxonomic unit. Within this perspective, the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition is viewed as a social and demographic process that is manifested differently in each of the sub-regions of southwest Asia: the Levant, Southern Caucasus, Armenian Highlands, and the Zagros.