Resumen de Factors of Habitat Selection of Acheulean Sites at Ramat Yiron, Israel
In this paper we attempt to define the environmental setting that may have caused the recurrent habitat selection of the Ramat Yiron small basaltic plateau as a habitat node by Acheulean hunter-gatherers. The study defines the two following main habitatselection factors. One, geologic-geomorphic factors : Ramat Yiron already formed, at the time a raised level landform overlooking the proximate landscape and associated with perennial water sources due to superjacence of basalt over chalky limestone. Two, geobotanic factors : edaphic conditions, existing at the time as they do today, placed Ramat Yiron at the meeting of two vegetation formations : a closed Mediterranean forest over well-drained soils of montmorillonitic weathering and open parkland and grassland over leached kaolinitic soils and ill-drained grummosol. The conjunction of two environments is regarded as facilitating the amplification of advantages and mitigation of disadvantages of both.
