Palaeolithic occupation of the Anatolian High Plateau during a cold period: An MIS 6 aged artifact from the Avlam Valley, Eskiehir, NW Turkey

Abstract

In the Avlam Valley, 10km north of Eskiehir (NW Anatolia), an undamaged triangular Levallois flake was encountered in a paleosol, 430cm beneath the ground surface. The artifact has a minimal dorsal retouch on the right margin, and there is a light beige partial patina on the ventral surface. Based on the technological investigations, this artifact was made using the centripetal recurrent Levallois technique. An observation of the trench walls revealed the triple nature of the stratigraphy: an upper gravelly sand (Unit-1), an underlying reddish-brown pebbly paleosol (Unit-2), and a lowermost dominantly pink, finer-grained deposit (Unit-3) where the artifact was retrieved. Optically stimulated luminescence ages indicate a strong influence of global marine isotopic stages (MIS) on the trench stratigraphy, with the deposit hosting the artifact dating to 148 +/- 20 ka (MIS 6 cold period). The available pollen data from the same stratigraphic level verified an open steppe landscape with some arboreal plant cover during deposition. This is the first stratigraphically dated Middle Palaeolithic artifact from NW Anatolia, and one of the few in the whole country, thus igniting further discussion about the ways Pleistocene hominins adapted to cold and arid environmental conditions.