Long-Term Human–Environment Interactions and Ecological Variability on the Lebanese Coast

Abstract

The Levantine corridor represents a key biogeographic interface linking Africa, Europe, and Asia, yet paleoecological and behavioral models of the region have been disproportionately shaped by evidence from the southern Levant. This geographical bias has limited our understanding of environmental variability and human adaptation across the broader eastern Mediterranean. This dissertation addresses this gap by investigating long-term human–environment interactions in the central Levant through the analysis of legacy faunal assemblages from coastal Lebanon. Focusing on material from the Paleolithic sites of Naame, Nahr Ibrahim, Ras el-Kelb, and the Late Epipaleolithic site of Antelias Cave, the study integrates zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses, dental wear proxies (mesowear and microwear), enamel stable carbon and oxygen isotope data, and GIS-based spatial modelling. This multiproxy approach enables the reconstruction of herbivore community structure, vegetation patterns, and hominin subsistence strategies across multiple phases of the Pleistocene. The results demonstrate the long-term persistence of Mediterranean woodland and ecotonal environments along the Lebanese coastal corridor over nearly 400,000 years. Faunal, dental wear, and isotopic evidence consistently indicate herbivore communities structured around C3-dominated vegetation and stable habitat mosaics, despite glacial–interglacial climatic fluctuations. Across this period, hominin populations repeatedly exploited these environments, focusing primarily on large-bodied, high-ranked prey while maintaining flexible subsistence strategies adapted to heterogeneous landscapes. Analysis of the Late Epipaleolithic assemblage from Antelias Cave further reveals locally structured patterns of resource use within a compact and topographically diverse landscape, highlighting continuity in flexible, mosaic-based subsistence strategies into the terminal Pleistocene.

Die Dissertation ist gesperrt bis zum 19. Mai 2028