The Acheulo-Yabrudian (A-Y, 400–200 ka)
The Acheulo-Yabrudian (A-Y) period represents the passage between the Acheulean and the Middle Palaeolithic. Using Qesem Cave as a reference, whose first occupation dates back 400,000 years, the last Acheulo-Yabrudian transitional period would roughly correspond to a 26,000-year interval between 220,000 and 194,000 BC. It should be noted, however, that while Qesem shows no traces of subsequent occupation in the Middle Palaeolithic, Pyrgos/Mavroraki shows a continuity of occupation and settlement that ends towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
In the A-Y, the Acheulean tradition is still present in the production of smaller, yet squat and massive, artefacts, including small hand axes that retain the essential flaking technology of the Lower Palaeolithic (Culley, Popescu, Clark: 2013). However, the main characteristic of this phase is the recycling of older artefacts characterized by morpho-technical attributes centred on retouched edges, indicating the preservation of distinct morphologies with a reduction in size and an increase in edge functionality. Most of the production is associated with the Quina technology, characterized by the reduction through scalar and multidirectional retouching of thick patinated nucleoid flakes.
The characteristic Quina retouch is executed through successive, often overlapping, scale-like removals arranged in variable or radial orientations, resulting in an intensely incised surface, sometimes accompanied by fine micro-hammering to remove irregularities. At Pyrgos/Mavroraki, the massive back scrapers (as n. Q5 and n. 2207) display the typical scale and transverse retouch, with double edge retouching and dorsal hammering (Litov, Marinelli, Lemorini, Barkai: 2025), highlighted by a thick waxy patina.
ο»Ώ
The areas most affected by the recycling process, besides the cutting edge, are the parts slightly raised from the dorsal or ventral surface, such as the ridges, curves, and bulb of the proximal part, which is sometimes removed and transformed into a finely retouched cutting edge. The modification, fully visible where the original patina has been removed by the new retouching, nevertheless preserves the dimensions and morphology of the original artefact, especially in the case of bifacial tools. Quina tools are a well-known category within the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian cultural complex in Europe, called "La Quina" after an archaeological site in the Charente region of France. However, findings over the past 50 years have demonstrated the earliest onset of their production in the Levant, at the end of the Lower Palaeolithic, and their presence is considered a key marker for the identification of the Acheulo-Yabrudian cultural complex (Shimelmitz, Kuhn, Bisson, et al.: 2021). In the Levantine landscape, the Quina bifacial scraper is considered a specialized late Lower Palaeolithic lithic tool for butchering and processing small game, characterised by intense stepped retouching on every available edge.
The Quina biface, which preserves the Acheulean bifacial system, is likely the first type of scraper developed at the beginning of the Acheulo-Yabrudian period (Gopher, Barkai: 2017), although thinner "demi-quina scrapers"(often dejeté) with graduated and stepped retouching on one face and part of one edge are also present. This process made them functionally more versatile, and their introduction may have been influenced by the need for more efficient tools for processing smaller prey (Lemorini et al., 2016; Litov, Marinelli et al., 2025).
Also typical are the combined Quina scrapers, which have a thick, irregular, or prismatic body, with sharp opposing edges and burin tips that allow the tool to be used on a variety of materials and for various tasks
The first examples of bifacial knives linking the Quina retouching technique with the characteristics of a back knife also appear in the Acheulean-Yabrudian production. These tools have a sharp cutting edge opposite a thick back created using the specific Quina method of sharp, deep retouching that forms a steep edge.
ο»Ώ
