Technological Organization, Mobility, and Behavior at the Middle Paleolithic Site of Nesher Ramla

The Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nesher Ramla was discovered in 2009 in a karst sinkhole in central Israel and subjected to large-scale excavations in 2010-2011. The sinkhole acted as a sedimentary basin in which colluviation of soils eroded from surrounding slopes, short-term waterlogging, and pedogenesis were intermittent with in situ human activities (Frumkin et al., 2015; Friesem et al., 2014; Tsatskin and Zaidner, 2014; Weissbrod and Zaidner, 2014; Zaidner et al., 2014, 2016). The site's eight-meter-thick Middle Paleolithic sequence comprised six geo-archaeological units (Units I-VI) that significantly vary in the density and types of finds and the presence of features, suggesting that the role of the site in the Middle Paleolithic settlement system of the southern Levant has shifted several times. Ongoing studies of the site-such as those collated in this volume-make use of extensive datasets encompassing stone tools, ground stone tools, fauna, flora (charcoal remains), and combustion features. Together, they constitute one of the most important Middle Paleolithic archaeological and environmental records of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 and 5 in southwest Asia.