This chapter has presented the description of the flint artifacts collected from the Douara Cave Site in Syria. The excavation was carried out for about one month from August to September, 1970.

The Douara Cave Site is located about 20 km northeast of the town of Palmyra in the north Syrian desert. The cave is on the southern slope of Jebel ed Douara in the Mountain masses that bound the Palmyra Basin on the north. The floor of the cave is about 557 m above sea level. The cave is large in size, about 10 m wide at the entrance and about 14 m deep, with a roof some 12 m high at the center of the opening. The cave mouth opens to the southeast.

The 1970 season's research was only a preliminary excavation to learn the general conditions of the deposits inside and outside of the cave and to examine the horizontal and vertical distributions of the Middle, Upper and post-Palaeolithic deposits whose existence was suggested by the flint materials collected during the 1967 survey (Suzuki and Kobori, 1970). The: main excavation will be made in the near future.

The method of excavation, after removal of the feces layer from the cave floor, was by a grid system of 1 × 1 m units. A total of 22 units was sounded in the 1970 season. The excavation was carried out in trenches designated A, B and C.

From the excavations of the three trenches, it was found that the sequence of deposits could be divided into 14 geologically defined layers (designated from the top as Layers A through N). However, the layers producing human artifacts are limited to the upper nine layers. Layers A through E have the richest archaeological deposits, yielding a large quantity of artifacts, while the underlying Layers F through I have poor archaeological deposits even if consideration is given to the relatively small areas excavated in these layers. On the other hand, the underlying Layers J through N are sterile.

From the total excavation, some 3,500 flint artifacts were found. The volume of the deposits and the quantity of artifacts in Layers A through E were enough to examine the typological and technological characteristics of the collections both quantitatively and qualitatively. The flint assemblages from Layers A through E of the Douara Cave contain two distinct industries: an industry with a large quantity of blade and bladelet elements of Upper Palaeolithic character found in Layers A and B, and an industry of Middle Palaeolithic character with a large proportion of Levallois flakes found in Layers C, D and E.

The Upper Palaeolithic found in Layers A and B corresponds both typologically and technologically to the terminal stage (Stage 6) of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Asia as represented by the industries of Kebarah (Layer C), Yabrud Shelter III (Layers 4, 6, 7) and Zarzi (Layer B), i.e. to the Kebaran, Nebeldan and Zarzian industries respectively. This stage probably dates to the end of the final stadial of the Last Pluvial (Howell, 1959 : 31-32).

The Middle Palaeolithic assemblages in Layers C, D and E are identified both typologically and technologically as belonging to the Levalloiso-Mousterian or Mousterian of Levallois facies of the Middle Palaeolithic in Western Asia. These assemblages are characterized by the dominance of the Levallois technique in the production of tool blanks and by Middle Palaeolithic tools of the Levallois type. Other tools of Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic types are very few. The Levalloiso-Mousterian industries have been found in dozens of sites in Western Asia. However, these assemblages exhibit a great typological and technological variability. It remains to clarify and interpret the variability among the Levalloiso-Mousterian in Western Asia in connection with the Levalloiso-Mousterian of Douara Cave.

Support for the research on which this study is based has come from a number of sources, both individual and institutional. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all. Foremost among them, I must thank the Syrian Arab Republic's Department of Antiquities and its Director General, Dr. A.H. Darkal, and its Director of Excavations, Dr. A. Bounni, and the Department of Antiquities in Palmyra and its Director, Mr. K. Assad, for permission to borrow the total collection from the Douara Cave for further study and to study the Jerf Ajla and Yabrud Collections during my stay in Syria.

The success of this paper and of the analysis of the material (at The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, from 1970 through 1973) could never have been achieved without a great deal of help from friends and colleagues, many with special knowledge and skills. Mr. H. Abe, Archaeological Institute of Keio University, Mr. T. Tsurumaru, Department of Anthropology, University of Tokyo, and Miss T. Namiki and Mrs. Y. Torisu, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, to whom I am indebted for their enormous personal contributions through every phase of the research.

The English was improved by Professor C. T. Keally, International Division, Sophia University, Tokyo, and I also wish to greatfully acknowledge him.