Levantine corridor

The Levantine corridor is the relatively narrow strip between the Mediterranean Sea to the northwest and deserts to the southeast which connects Africa to Eurasia. This corridor is a land route of migrations of animals between Eurasia and Africa. In particular, it is believed that early hominins spread from Africa to Eurasia via the Levantine corridor and Horn of Africa.[2] The corridor is named after the Levant.

Fertile Crescent; the Levantine corridor is by the sea

Layer sequence at Ksar Akil in the Levantine corridor, and discovery of two fossils of Homo sapiens, dated to 40,800 to 39,200 years BP for "Egbert",[1]and 42,400–41,700 BP for "Ethelruda".[1].

The Neolithic
↑ Mesolithic
Fertile Crescent Heavy Neolithic Shepherd Neolithic Trihedral Neolithic Pre-Pottery (A, B) Qaraoun culture Tahunian culture Yarmukian Culture Halaf culture Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period Ubaid culture Nile valley Faiyum A culture Tasian culture Merimde culture El Omari culture Maadi culture Badari culture Amratian culture Europe Arzachena culture Boian culture Butmir culture Cardium pottery culture Cernavodă culture Coțofeni culture Cucuteni-Trypillian culture Dudeşti culture Gorneşti culture Gumelniţa–Karanovo culture Hamangia culture Khirokitia Linear Pottery culture Malta Temples Ozieri culture Petreşti culture San Ciriaco culture Shulaveri-Shomu culture Sesklo culture Tisza culture Tiszapolgár culture Usatovo culture Varna culture Vinča culture Vučedol culture Neolithic Transylvania Neolithic Southeastern Europe China Peiligang culture Pengtoushan culture Beixin culture Cishan culture Dadiwan culture Houli culture Xinglongwa culture Xinle culture Zhaobaogou culture Hemudu culture Daxi culture Majiabang culture Yangshao culture Hongshan culture Dawenkou culture Songze culture Liangzhu culture Majiayao culture Qujialing culture Longshan culture Baodun culture Shijiahe culture Yueshi culture Tibet South Asia Lahuradewa Mehrgarh Rakhigarhi Kalibangan Chopani Mando Jhukar Daimabad Chirand Koldihwa Burzahom Mundigak Brahmagiri Other locations Philippine Jade culture Jōmon cultures Capsian culture Savanna Pastoral Neolithic
farming, animal husbandry pottery, metallurgy, wheel circular ditches, henges, megaliths Neolithic religion Neolithic decline
↓ Chalcolithic

Location and geography

The Levantine Corridor is the western part of the Fertile Crescent, the eastern part being Mesopotamia.

Dispersal route for plants

Botanists recognize this area as a dispersal route of plant species.[3]

Dispersal route for humans

The distribution of Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroups suggests that during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, the Levantine corridor was more important for bi-directional human migrations between Africa and Eurasia than was the Horn of Africa.[4]

The term is used frequently by archaeologists as an area that includes Cyprus, where important developments occurred during the Neolithic revolution.[5]

The first sedentary villages were established around fresh water springs and lakes in the Levantine corridor by the Natufian culture.[6]

References

1. Higham, Thomas F. G.; Wesselingh, Frank P.; Hedges, Robert E. M.; Bergman, Christopher A.; Douka, Katerina (2013-09-11). "Chronology of Ksar Akil (Lebanon) and Implications for the Colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans". PLOS ONE. 8 (9): e72931. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...872931D. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072931. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3770606. PMID 24039825.
2. N. Goren-Inbar, John D. Speth (eds.), "Human Paleoecology in the Levantine Corridor". 1994, ISBN 1-84217-155-0 (book review)
3. Bar-Yosef O. Pleistocene connections between Africa and Southwest Asia: an archaeological perspective, African Archaeological Review, 1987, vol. 5, pp. 29–38.
4. J. R. Luis et al., "The Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of Human Migrations" Archived 2012-02-16 at the Wayback Machine, American Journal of Human Genetics, 74: 532-544.
5. Alan H. Simmons (15 April 2011). The Neolithic Revolution in the Near East: Transforming the Human Landscape. University of Arizona Press. pp. 33–. ISBN 978-0-8165-2966-7. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
6. Graeme Barker (5 December 2000). Archaeology of Drylands: Living on the Margins. Taylor & Francis. pp. 68–. ISBN 978-0-415-23001-8. Retrieved 27 September 2012.