A. YAROSHEVICHDepartment of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Israel Department of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Israel E-mail: allmile@yahoo.com Introduction The transition to the production of microliths is undoubtedly one of the turning points in the history of stone tools. Microlithic tools appeared in Africa, Europe, and Southwest Asia at the end of the Pleistocene and by the time of the last glacial maximum (ca.20 thousand years AGO) already accounted for a significant proportion of tool sets. In the south of the Levant, microliths began to be produced around 30 thousand years ago. The Ahmar complexes are characterized by straight pointed plates, while in the Aurignacian complexes there are dufour-type plates with opposite or alternating shallow or semi-circular retouching. Transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Epipaleolithic ca. 20 thousand years AGO is marked by a more frequent use of steep retouching and an increase in the number of microliths in gun sets. Technomorphological characteristics of microliths formed the basis for regional cultural periodization of the Epipaleolithic (Bar-Yosef, 1970, 1998; Goring-Morris, 1998). If plates with a blunted back are typical of the Kebari culture (ca. 20 - 14.5 thousand years ago), then the geometric kebara (ca. 14.5-12.5 thousand years ago) is characterized by a predominance of trapezoids/rectangles with a blunted back, and the almost synchronous Mushabian culture in the Negev and Sinai is represented by points of the la Mouillah type. natufa (approx. 13,0-10,2 thousand bp) are characterized by segments with retouching of the helwan type (Helwan) or steep retouching. Diversity is also noted within cultures. For example, according to the metric parameters of trapezoids/rectangles in the geometric kebara culture, the Central Mediterranean zone is well distinguished, where narrow elongated products are common [Henry, 1989, p. 198; Goring-Morris, 1987, p.130]. Despite the fact that the chronological and regio ... Read more