"‘Ubeidiya"

‘Ubeidiya, located at the central Jordan Valley, is a key site for the study of Early Pleistocene hominin lifeways, with a possibility to establish environmental datasets in direct association with stratified archaeological and fossil assemblages. The terrestrial layers of ‘Ubeidiya yielded rich lithic assemblages of the Early-Acheulian type, and an abundance of faunal remains, but so far only a few plant remains. The findings indicate that the site preserves traces of one of the earliest migrations of hominins out of Africa.

A renewed excavation directed by the archaeologists Miriam Belmeker and Omri Barzilai took place on October 2021 and November 2022, aiming to establish a more accurate chronological framework for the site (current estimates are between 1.6-1.2 million years ago) and to enhance our knowledge regarding the site’s environmental background. Under this framework, pollen samples were collected intensively by the members of the lab.

Minji Jin, a Ph.D. student, recently started to learn how to extract and identify pollen, and she is planning to analyze ‘Ubeidiya’s pollen samples as part of her dissertation.

The project is funded by The Israel Science Foundation (ISF), the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the Irene Levi-Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation.