Excavations of the Dederiyeh Neanderthal Cave, Afrin, Syria

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Since 1989 a joint Japan-Syria expedition to Afrin Valley has been conducting the field investigations at the Dederiyeh cave. Nine seasons, 1993 through 2002, excavations were concentrated in the third chamber of the cave and found a sequence of the Levantine Mousterian deposit associated with Neanderthal skeletal remains (Akazawa and Muhesen, 2002/03).In the next 2003 to 2004 seasons' excavation work, a sequence of superimposed geological layers was revealed. The lithic industries obtained from uppermost part of the deposit indicated the presence of mixed assemblages of different periods between Middle Paleolithic and historic. The middle part of the deposit next to the uppermost deposit yielded fewer artifacts of Middle Paleolithic type. At the lower part of the deposit of square K-22 produced a number of Middle Paleolithic specimens assigned to earlier type of Levantine Mousterian flakes and cores and several cores and side-scrapers of Lower Paleolithic of Yabrudian type. The last s … More eason's excavations did not produce large number of archaeological and anthropological materials, but interesting features characterized by having wide distribution of limestone gravels with regularity, were detected in excavation area established in the first chamber. It was designated as parts of Natufian period construction.Three significant contributions stand out for Levantine prehistoric studies : (1)Clarifying the morphology of the Nathan house construction and their habitation behavioral pattern in the cave, (2)its chronological position as humans in the context of the Levantine prehistory, and more specifically, (3)indicating the differences of the geographical and/or chronological distribution between Dederiyeh Natufians and other Natufian as suggested by different Levantine and finally more significantly, (4)a far more thorough understanding of occupation history of the cave, the chronology and paleontology of from the Middle Paleolithic to the Natufian in the Levant can be established at a single site than was hitherto available. Less