Session: #475

Content:

The Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) is emerging as a key to understanding the spread of anatomically modern human populations (AMHs) throughout Eurasia and the pronounced technocultural dynamics marking the period between c. 55 and 35 kya. The IUP macro-phenomenon has been argued to consist of a series of broad technological and typological similarities shared across vast geographic distances, either because of common origin or technological convergence. Yet, IUP assemblages also appear to exhibit striking regional variation and it is presently unclear to what extent this is linked to the flexible nature of the phenomenon itself, for example as an adaptive strategy, or has primarily to do with divergent regional histories. Confirmation of the latter may provide evidence for the importance of inter-hominin relations in the emergence and consolidation of the IUP across Eurasia. Given this situation, it is interesting that there has so far been little explicit attempt towards ‘extracting’ the regional and temporal structures defining the IUP. Conversely, it remains an important open question which specific technological behaviors ‘unite’ the IUP (i.e. are ubiquitous) and which behaviors instead circumscribe regional peculiarities. These and related questions gain further immediacy due to the mounting evidence for elevated hominin diversity at the end of the Late Pleistocene.

This session invites researchers with diverse backgrounds to share and discuss present work on the IUP across Eurasia and to interrogate the ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’ of the phenomenon. We welcome fieldwork-oriented contributions, assemblage-level and regional analyses, macro-level analyses and theoretically informed reflections as to the nature and structure of the IUP.

Session: #475

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