In the early 20th century, a distinctive Paleolithic stone artefact type was identified in North Africa, differing from those described before in Europe. The Nubian Levallois core, a unique form of Middle Stone Age technology, produced pointed artifacts that aided human adaptation. Over time, this method was found beyond Egypt and Sudan, appearing at certain sites in East Africa, the southern Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula during MIS 5 (130 ka - 74 ka).  Consequently, Nubian cores have been used as a proxy for understanding modern human dispersal and interactions within and outside of Africa at this time, prompting heated debate. Recently a new scenario of independent invention has been raised by the discovery of identical technology in South Africa  during MIS 3 (59 ka - 24 ka), raising new questions: Why was this method adopted despite not being as widespread as other Levallois techniques? What sort of variability do these cores show across time and space?

An early attempt to address these questions involved researching the metric variability of Nubian cores and the spatial distribution of sites during my master’s study in 2022. Recently, in collaboration with Dr. Emily Hallinan , a leading expert in this area , we elevated this research to a higher resolution to explore these questions in more depth for a special volume  in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology (JPA). Utilizing Hallinan’s new systematic dataset  of global Nubian core occurrences, we analyzed the distribution of 84 sites featuring Nubian cores across Africa and Southwest Asia, using modeled Pleistocene conditions for various bioclimatic and topographic variables. We compared this with 81 contemporaneous sites where these cores are absent to address what factors may have driven their adoption. Additionally, we conducted metric analyses of cores from 14 new and previously published sites to better understand patterning in artifact form.

Several studies have examined the impact of environmental factors on aspects of lithic variability at various spatial and temporal scales in Africa. Our study is the first to systematically and quantitatively apply this approach to questions surrounding the distribution and variability of Nubian Levallois technology at an inter-regional scale. The results showed that Nubian cores during MIS 5 were present in areas characterized by aridity, complex topography, and high biomass, whereas for MIS 3, only temperature was a significant predictor. Metric results reveal distinct patterns in both space and time, with the largest and most standardized cores found in Southern Arabia during MIS 5, and the smallest cores in Eastern and Southern Africa during MIS 3.

What did our study add to current Nubian Levallois research? Instead of broad qualitative assumptions about potential relationships between sites with these cores, we provided quantified, detailed characteristics for the spatial distribution of sites with Nubian Levallois cores, and statistically tested their significance against other sites from the same periods. Further, we assessed the environmental impact on the discarded dimensions of the cores, and highlighted trends in technological behavior through time and space.

Would we stop there? While our study provided novel results and a robust basis for future model-testing, we plan to address regional trends at a finer-scale, as well as examining differences in core shape, and the pointed tools they produced. Finally, we aim to clarify the technological and functional advantages of this method through future experimental work replicating this distinctive – and controversial – Paleolithic technology.