Accueil > Equidae monodactyles > Equidés monodactyles fossiles (Equus, Allohippus, (...) > Moyen Orient, Middle East > Kebara, Israel
Kebara, Introduction (english)
The studied material belongs mostly to the Jerusalem collections (M. Stekelis excavations, 1950-1960) ; a few specimens (Turvelle-Petre excavations, 1931) are preserved at the British Museum (Kebara B, D, E).
Archeological levels were mostly determined thanks to the informations kindly provided by Professors Ofer Bar-Ytosef and Liliane Meignen.
Some fossils were not seen by me but published by Simon Davis (1980) and his data were included in my scatter diagrams of upper cheek teeth.
Upper cheek teeth
The first scatter diagram compares the teeth from Kebara to the teeth of E. hemionus onager. Three species are probably represented at Kebara :
E. hydruntinus, most teeth,
E. hemionus onager, two premolars and three molars,
E. caballus, one molar.
The second scatter diagram is done according to the archeological levels.
Natufian : a molar may be referred to E. hemionus onager.
Upper Paleolithic (UP) and limit UP-Mousterian : a molar of E. hydruntinus and two teeth of E. hemionus onager.
Mousterian : one large molar probably caballine, three teeth of E. hemionus onager, a score of E. hydruntinus teeth.
Lower cheek teeth
Most may belong to E. hydruntinus.
Two premolars (Mousterian A2/5 and Upper Paleolithic-Mousterian A2/4 39) probably belong to a Caballine.
Limb bones (see Simpson’s ratio diagrams)
Kebara B, Natufian
A subadult anterior first phalanx belonged to E. hydruntinus. This specimen is slightly smaller than a specimen from Agios Georgios (Macedonia) about 12 Ka old (Bassiakos et Tsoukala, 1996).
A fragment of MC may also be referred to E. hydruntinus.
Upper Paleolithic (UP) or limit UP-Mousterian
A very badly preserved (South Terrace) belonged possibly to a Caballine.
A fragmentary MC (Kebara E), slightly smaller than Quneitra 1035, may be referred to a Caballine ; other MC may be referred to E. hydruntinus.
A fragmenatry MT (A2/4) may be referred to a Caballine. Two other may be referred to E. hydruntinus.
An anterior second phalanx (Ph2) belongs to an E. hydruntinus.
A posterior Ph2 can be referred to E. hemionus onager.
Tableau 1 gives a summary of species by levels.
Bassiakos, Y. & Tsoukala, E., 1996. ESR dating of Quaternary fossil remains ; a hyaenid tooth example and new data on the fauna from Agios Georgios Cave (Kilkis, Macedonia). Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium of the Hellene Archaeometrical Society, Thessaloniki : 59-76, 7 fig., 5 tabl.
Davis Simon, 1980. Late Pleistocene and Holocene equid remains from Israel. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 70, 289-312.