Early cultural remains are found from Middle East in Asia. Ubeidiya culture is named after a most elaborately researched site of the same name situated in Israel in the Middle East in the continent of Asia.
The Site
The site Ubeidiya is located in the central Jordan valley, which is an extension of rift valley of East Africa. The site is situated on a small hill about 1.5 km. from the Lake Kinneret on the west bank of River Jordan. The principle formation of Ubeidiya is exposed at this place. Climate in the Central Jordan valley belongs to Mediterranean climate zone, characterized by a short rainy winter and a long dry summer.
Geological Features
Excavations had been carried out at Ubeidiya and showed the nature of the deposits and related climate for the deposition as well as artifacts left by human beings. Geological formations show that Ubeidiya had experienced tectonic movements at the end of Pliocene period and Pleistocene period. These eruptions laid basalts on the valley floor/ Limnic. Marshy and fluvial sediments gradually accumulated. These sediment are termed as “Ubediya Formation”. A later movement further tilted the formation. They found four cycles in the Ubeidiya formation (Figure 11.5). Two of the deposits are of low salt content and were deposited by of lakes or ponds. These deposits are called Limnic, Li (inferior or lower) and Lu (upper). The other two depositions were fluviatile in nature and named as Fi, the lower one and Fu, the upper one. The limnic and fluviatile deposits alternated with each other indicating that in ancient times there was an alternating existence of a lake and marshy land and a flowing stream.
Palaeoecology
Artefacts and faunal remains are found to be concentrated in Fi cycle. According to Bar Yosef and Goren-Inbar (1993) man appeared to have chosen a most suitable place for habitation. They lived on the shores of a lake into which a stream flowed with an adjoining marshy land. Large quantity of fresh water molluscs and mammalian remains were found. There were wild boars, elephants, monkeys, rhinoceros, roe deer, giraffe, horses, wild ox, bear, hyaena and others. Beyond the lake the hill sides were covered by Savannah type of grass land and woods of pistachio and oak trees.
Ubeidiyan Culture
Large quantity of tools and artefacts are found from Fi cycle. These are divided into four successive phases. These are named as IVO meaning Israel Variant of Oldowan. Besides the artefacts, living floors are also found in this deposit. Similar to people at Olduvai Gorge the Ubeidiyans also carried large flat square pieces of basalt. These were used as seats as well as base for hammering objects. Tools consisted of chopping tools, polyhedron and spheroids, picks and trihedrals, cores and flakes. Assemblages are quite homogenous. No change is observed in the typo- technological context within the formation. There is evidence of butchering of a hippopotamus.. There is close similarity with the Oldowan cultural assemblage. Ubeidiya site is dated to 1.4 million years ago (Tchernov, 1988). It was one of the stations in the route of migration of Homo erectus into Eurasia.
