Examining indicators of hunter-gatherer mobility in arid environments: The example of the final Middle Paleolithic site of Besor 37 (Northern Negev, Israel)

Besor 37 is an open-air site in the northwestern Negev Desert (Israel). Excavations at the site in 2020 uncovered a rich, in situ Middle Paleolithic assemblage composed of flint and limestone artifacts, animal bones and charcoal. The good preservation of the site is due to its rapid burial by overbank deposition of fluvially reworked loess. Dating using both Optically Stimulated Luminescence and 14C suggests an average age of 46.6 ± 2.4 ka. Using a macro and micro-archaeological approach, we determined the technological organization and the nature of occupation with reference to spatial patterning of the assemblages. To integrate the site into a regional perspective we used comparative data from four other Late Middle Paleolithic sites, also located in the southern Levantine desert region; Far’ah II, Rosh Ein Mor, Nahal Dimona 24 and Tor Faraj. We evaluate measures of curation, artifact density and assemblage composition to define site type and mobility system. We propose that Besor 37 represents an ephemeral residential occupation, frequented repeatedly by high mobility hunter-gatherers, possibly part of a larger seasonal, perhaps circular mobility pattern.