Investigations of the prehistory of Western Asia began during the late nineteenth century in two subregions: the Caucasus by Germans and Russians, and the Holy Land and adjacent countries by a wave of scholars and educated travelers who searched for its antiquities and who noticed the presence of prehistoric stone tools. This was already at the time when the antiquity of humankind had become an accepted notion in Europe. Hence, the first excavations were carried out at the turn of the century, in Lebanon, by Abbs; P. G. Zumoffen. But it was not until the excavations in 1925 in Wadi Amud caves by F. Turville-Petre, who discovered a fragmentary skull at Zuttiyeh cave, that the search gained momentum. Other scholars who followed and published a considerable amount of new data were D. Garrod, R. Neuville, M. Stekelis, Father J. F. Ewing, and A. Rust. Thus the period between the two World Wars became a Golden Age for prehistoric research that expanded to western Iran, and research by others in the Caucasus Mountains. Among the most notable discoveries were the human relics uncovered in the caves of Mount Carmel (el-Wad, Skhul, and Tabun caves), Qafzeh Cave, and Ksar Akil. These continue to attract scholars from different countries to Western Asia. Further discoveries of human remains were made in the Iraqi cave site of Shanidar, and the investigations of the cultural expressions of the Palaeolithic period were, and are, being published in local languages as well as English, French, German, and Russian. Even today, this is the only region in the entire world that is being searched by archaeologists from numerous different schools and countries, from Japan in the east through the USA in the west.
In addition to systematic excavations, often carried out by variable digging methods and degrees of precision, numerous survey projects have facilitated the recognition of the prehistory of this region. Due to an ease of conducting archaeological research, most of the surveys addressing the distribution of Palaeolithic sites were done in the Levantine countries and include the various vegetation belts from the Mediterranean forests through the arid zone. Hence, our knowledge of past geomorphologic changes and the possible impact on human societies of hunter-gatherers is reasonably fair. In spite of the paucity of lakes in this area, pollen cores that reflect environmental fluctuations provide some information mainly in relation to the Upper Pleistocene although hints concerning the past 1.8 million years are also available.
World History
