On variability and complexity: Lessons from the levantine middle paleolithic record

A century of research has led to the recognition of multiple levels of technological variability in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic (MP) that cannot be resolved through single-cause explanatory models. Recent ecological models argue for continual occupation of the region and competitive coexistence of Neanderthal and modern human populations. Current paleogenetic studies underline the feasibility of the latter scenario. The Levantine MP offers a perspective on the interface of historical circumstances and long-term evolutionary mechanisms that structured in-tandem trajectories of technological and behavioral changes as well as insights into the dynamics of nondirectional behavioral complexities in the archaeological record.