Emiran


Emiran culture was a culture that existed in the Levant, and Arabia between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic periods. It is the oldest known of the Upper Paleolithic cultures and remains an enigma as it transitionally has no African progenitor. This has led some scholars to conclude that the Emiran is autochthonous to the Levant.

Emiran period

Emiran culture apparently developed from the local Mousterian without rupture, keeping numerous elements of the Levalloise-Mousterian, together with the locally typical Emireh point. The Emireh point is the type tool of stage one of the Upper Paleolithic, first identified in the Emiran culture. Numerous stone blade tools were used, including curved knives similar to those found in the Châtelperronian culture of Western Europe.
The Emiran eventually evolved into the Ahmarian, and later the Levantine Aurignacian culture, still of Levalloise tradition but with some Aurignacian influences.
According to Dorothy Garrod, the Emireh point, known from several sites in Palestine, is the hallmark of this culture.

Relationships

"Levantine Aurignacian", from the Levant, is a type of blade technology very similar to the European Aurignacian, following chronologically the Emiran and Early Ahmarian in the same area of the Near East, and closely related to them.