Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia

• Issues of Evolution and Chronology.- Evolutionary Implications of Altered Perspectives on Hominine Demes and Populations in the Later Pleistocene of Western Eurasia.- Chronological and Biogeographic Perspectives on Later Human Evolution.- The Chronology of the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant.- Progress in ESR and U-Series Chronology of the Levantine Paleolithic.- Gif Labotatory Dates for Middle Paleolithic Levant.- The Faunal Sequence of the Southwest Asian Middle Paleolithic in Relation to Hominid Dispersal Events.- Archaeological Assemblages: Cultural Interpretations and Subsistence Strategies.- The Earliest Paleolithic Occupation in Syria.- Site Formation Processes in Kebara and Hayonim Caves and Their Significance in Levantine Prehistoric Caves.- Intrasite Spatial Patterns and Behavioral Modernity.- The Lithic Assemblages of Amud Cave.- Hayonim Cave Lithic Assemblages in the Context of the Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic.- Bitumen as Hafting Material on Middle Paleolithic Artifacts from the El Kowm Basin, Syria.- The Technological Abilities of the Levantine Mousterians.- The Role of Hunting and Scavenging in Neandertal Procurement Strategies.- Pleistocene Species Trends at Hayonim Cave.- Neandertal and Early Modern Human Mobility Patterns.- Prospects for Stable Isotopic Analysis of Later Pleistocene Hominid Diets in West Asia and Europe.- The Human Fossils.- Climatic Changes, Paleogeography, and the Evolution of the Neandertals.- Sapiens and Neandertals.- Anatomy of the Neandertal Infant Skeleton from Dederiyeh Cave, Syria.- The Search for the Earliest Modern Europeans.- Does Any Mousterian Cave Present Evidence of Two Hominid Species?.- Morphological Variation in West Asian Postcrania.- Ontogenetic Variation in Late Pleistocene Homo Sapiens from the Near East.- Upper Limb Versus Lower Limb Loading Patterns among Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic Hominids.- A Reassessment of the Tabun C2 Mandible.- Cultural and Human Evolution: Views from Neighboring Regions.- The Evolution of Culture.- Domestic Fire as Evidence for Language.- A Comparative Perspective on Paleolithic Cultural Patterns.- The Middle and the Early Upper Paleolithic around the Black Sea.- Turkey as a Key.- The Impact of Climatic Changes on the Demography of Late Neandertal and Early Anatomically Modern Populations in Europe.- Why Anatomically Modern People Did Not Disperse from Africa 100,000 Years Ago.- Afterword.

`I recommend this book as an excellent summary of this emerging reality.' American Scientist, 87 (1999) `This text is a must for researchers in Old World prehistory or the origins of modern humans and would serve well as a classroom text on Eurasian prehistory.' Science Books and Films (September/October 1999)