Arid regions are considered a challenging ecosystem to inhabit, and yet they are scattered with numerous remains of Paleolithic sites. People living in the desert, or crossing through, are constrained by resource availability, the most crucial of these is water. The loess sequence of the Lower Besor Basin in the northern Negev, is the result fluvially reworking and redepositing of the aeolian loess that accreted across the central Negev highlands during the late Pleistocene (~95-12 ka). Ongoing erosion over the last 12 ka has revealed archaeological finds, thin occupational layers embedded within the fine sediments, suggesting that occupation along the Besor River banks, a perennial stream, occurred throughout the late Pleistocene.
In this talk we demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach allows us to contextualize ecologically, a sequence of temporal changes in past hunter-gatherer lifeways in the Besor Basin. We present the results of test excavations from four sites dated between ~70-27 ka. At each of the sites we uncovered in situ archaeological surfaces, with hearths surrounded by scatters of lithic artifacts and faunal remains. The sites were dated using 14C, OSL and ESR dating methods and sediment samples were analysed to reconstruct the environment. Initial results suggest that in the Besor Basin, situated at the desert margins, favorable environmental conditions persisted during the late Middle and Upper paleolithic (~80-27 ka).
