Dating the Kebaran site of Nahal Hadera.

Direct luminescence chronology of the Epipaleolithic Kebaran site of Nahal Hadera V, Israel
D.I. Godfrey-Smith 1, K.B. Vaughan 1, A. Gopher 2, R. Barkai 2
1Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3J5, Canada
2Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel

Abstract
We report direct luminescence ages for the culture-bearing sediments of the Kebaran site of Nahal Hadera V (NHV) in the coastal plain of Israel. Although the site contains, in addition to rich lithic deposits, plentiful mammalian bone, it has proved to be undatable using radiocarbon dating, in spite of the fact that the cultural context places the time of occupation well within the range of radiocarbon dating. In contrast, luminescence dating of the site sediments proved successful. Luminescence ages were determined using the single aliquot additive-dose (SAA) method, applied to sand-sized quartz extracts to determine past equivalent doses (De). Dose rates (R) were calculated using thick source alpha counting for the uranium (U) and thorium (Th) concentrations and x-ray fluorescence analysis for the potassium (K20) concentration. Of the five samples collected at the site, four represent cultural and subcultural deposits and the fifth represents the geological substrate for the archaeological deposit, a quartz-rich, carbonate-cemented dune sand known as aeolianite or kurkar. The luminescence age of the kurkar is 42.7 ± 6.3 ka. Human occupation of the site occurred between 21.3 ka and 14.0 ka ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum.

This is me looking for the earliest appearance of the Halfan derived Kebaran culture arriving in Israel. The Kebarans appeared to have moved out of Northern Nubia and up as far as Syria, and as far as the Afalou site site IN North Africa. This seems to have been because of a new found taste for eating wild grasses which gave them access to a new food source, allowing greater population density which leads to a popultion expansion. All the North African populations from Algeria to Israel show varying levels of sub-Saharan ancestry at this point, but the population didn’t seem to reach as far as Morocco, or into Turkey.