A Synthesis and Critical Inventory of Nubian Cores in Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic Assemblages

Abstract

Nubian Levallois technology has become a prominent and hotly debated topic in current Palaeolithic discourse, with important arguments surrounding modern human dispersals, cultural interactions and technological innovations resting on the presence of Nubian cores in lithic assemblages. However, not all published instances of Nubian cores fulfil their strict technological criteria, with resultant implications for how their presence in space and time is interpreted. To address this, this dataset compiles a comprehensive literature review of 154 published sites where Nubian cores have been reported. Each case is presented with key contextual information synthesised from the literature, and the identification of Nubian cores is critically evaluated. The dataset shows that over the last decade, while there has been a marked increase in the number and distribution of sites with reported Nubian cores, these artefacts increasingly diverge from the technological and morphological characteristics that define this core type. As such, 24 identifications are queried as not fulfilling the strict Nubian core criteria. A further three are rejected with no supporting evidence in the literature, and four noted as contested cases. This dataset serves as a key resource for studies of Nubian Levallois technology, providing a centralised literature review with spatial and contextual data to support robust future research on the topic.

Keywords

• nubian levallois cores
• middle palaeolithic
• middle stone age
• spatial data
• literature review