TYPOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC KNAPPED STONE TOOL OF KARAIN B CHAMBER

We have primarily constituted a middle Paleolithic knapped stone type list of B chamber in this study which is based on the typological classification of the knapped stone tools recovered from the middle Paleolithic layers of Karain B chamber. Our investigations have revealed the existence of both middle and upper Paleolithic techno-typological characteristics of the tools at P.III geological unit. This situation, however, brings the idea that P.III geological unit can be a transitional phase from the middle Paleolithic to the upper Paleolithic period, we highly believe. In this layer, P.III, we faced with the density and variability of side scrapers in particular; middle and upper Paleolithic knapped stone tool types such as retouched flake, point, denticulated and notched tool, composite tool, end scraper, borer, burin, retouched blade and retouched crested blade have been identified as well. The knapped stone tools of the geological layers P.IV, P.V, P.VI and P.VII represent the similar tool forms of Karain Type Mousterian industry which is well known from the Karain E chamber. Beside the side scrapers which are numerous in number and characterized by many sub-types, in those layers, P.IV-P.VII, there are also retouched flakes, points, denticulated and notched tools that produced by middle Paleolithic technology. In addition, increasing number of the tools’ blanks which are made by levallois technology is observed in those geological layers as well.