Douara Cave (Mugharet et Douara I), a large cave in the Palmyra Basin of central Syria, lies halfway along the south-easterly-facing limestone cliff that flanks the Syrian desert. It was chosen for excavation after extensive reconnaissance of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan in 1967 [Suzuki and Kobori (eds.), 1970. Report of the Reconnaissance Survey on Palaeolithic Sites in Lebanon and Syria].

A test trench excavated in 1970 revealed an impressive sequence of superimposed occupations in the interior of the cave, which produced a wealth of archaeological material. The results [Suzuki and Takai (eds.), 1973, 1974. The Palaeolithic Site at Douara Cave in Syria, Parts I and II] were regarded as sufficiently promising to justify further excavation. The actual excavation of the cave was performed during 1974 [Hanihara and Sakaguchi (eds,), 1978. Paleolithic Site of the Douara Cave and Paleogeography of Palmyra Basin in Syria, Part I; Hanihara and Akazawa (eds.), 1979, 1983. Paleolithic Site of the Douara Cave and Paleogeography of Palmyra Basin in Syria, Parts II and III] and 1984. The objective of this volume is to report on the results of the 1984 excavations at Douara Cave proper as well as associated field investigations in the Palmyra Basin.

Throughout the project, including the laboratory work after excavation, the major source of financial support was the National Foundation for Overseas Scientific Research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. On behalf of the University of Tokyo, we wish to express our profound thanks to the Foundation for the following grants: G-59041017 (1984), and G-60043019 (1985), without which the successful completion of this undertaking would have been impossible.

Support for the 1984 season's work came from a number of sources, both individual and institutional. We express our sincere gratitude to all, but it is only proper to formally acknowledge at least some of those to whom we are especially indebted. Among many whose interest and encouragement supported the work, we are particularly grateful to the Syrian Arab Republic's Department of Antiquities and Museums and its Director General, Afif Bahnassi, its Director of Archaeological Excavations, Adnan Bounni, its Director of Archaeological Research, Kassem Toueir, and Nassib Salibi, Shahia Loris, Sahar Al-Houssami, and the other staff members for the help and kindness that made the 1984 season's work possible. In Palmyra, working facilities were kindly made available by the Department of Antiquities and Museums; we thank the following people for their constant generosity during the stay: Khaled Assad, Director of Antiquities and Museums in Palmyra, Alt Taha, Ahmed Taha, and the other museum staff members concerned

Facilities were made available by several other sources; we thank the following for their kindness: Toshio Tada, Japanese Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic, and the staff of the Japanese Embassy in Damascus, Adel Abdulsalam and Sultan Mhesen, Professors of Damascus University, Giro Orita, veterinary specialist of ICARDA in Aleppo, and Yoshio Kuramochi, General Manager of Marubeni Corporation in Damascus. The success of the 1984 season's work in Syria could never have been achieved without their help.

With the exception of the contributions dealing with the lithic materials, the series of papers presented in this volume are concerned with various aspects of the intricate problems of Pleistocene ecology. They are interdisciplinary and embrace the allied fields of geomor phology, pedology (soil analysis), geochemistry, paleontology (not included in this volume), paleobotany, and geophysics. In short, they involve all of those disciplines of the natural sciences that are directly related to Paleolithic archaeology.

In connection with the Douara project, every possible effort has been made to employ specialized techniques to obtain data that will lead to an understanding and interpretation of the complex series of both natural and cultural events which took place during the time span concerned. As a result of their direct dependence upon what the natural environment has to offer and their technological (as well as social) inability to control the environment to any appreciable extent, Paleolithic hunter-gatherers generally display cultural characteristics which are intelligible only in terms of ecological adaptation. Under these circumstances, the premise of the Douara project is that an understanding of the dynamics of prehistoric subsistence economy and site formation processes is crucial for overall interpretation of the period. Thus, the major goal of the study is to analyze the nature of past cultural adaptation in an arid environment.