Jabrud

A site of three rock shelters in Syria, each with long series of Palaeolithic industries, as well as some Natufian and Neolithic material. Jabrud is the type site of the Jabrudian industry, which is broadly contemporary with the Amudian and Late Acheulian of the Middle East. The Jabrudian is distinguished by well-made, thick side scrapers of Mousterian type and some bifacial blades similar to those of the Amudian as well as hand axes. At Jabrud the industry bears a strong resemblance to some Mousterian industries from France. The dating probably falls within the Riss-Würm interglacial or the first Würm interstadial. It marks one of the ways in which the transition from Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic cultures occurred in the Levant, about 150,000 BP, a kind of final Acheulian.

Several rock shelters at Jabrud in the Anti-Lebanon hills of Syria were excavated in the 1930s and seem to provide a long lower, middle and upper Palaeolithic sequence of over 30 layers. The precise significance of the various suggested cultures (Jabrudian, Pre-Aurignacian, Nebekian etc) is far from agreed, and their exact dating is also in doubt.