Quaternary International xxx (xxxx) xxx Please cite this article as: Marion Prévost, Quaternary International, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.01.002 Available online 20 January 2021 1040-6182/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Early evidence for symbolic behavior in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic: A 120 ka old engraved aurochs bone shaft from the open-air site of Nesher Ramla, Israel Marion Pr´ evost a, * , Iris Groman-Yaroslavski b , Kathryn M. Crater Gershtein b , Jos´ e-Miguel Tejero c, d , Yossi Zaidner a, ** a Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 9190501, Israel b Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, 3498838, Israel c Centre National de la Recherche Scientifque de France (CNRS), UMR 7041, ArScAn ´ equipe Ethnologie pr´ ehistorique, 92023, Nanterre, France d Seminari d’Estudis I Recerques Prehist` oriques (SERP), Universitat de Barcelona, 08001, Barcelona, Spain A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Middle paleolithic Aurochs bone Engraved object Symbolic mediated behavior Non-utilitarian object ABSTRACT During the Middle Paleolithic in Eurasia, the production of deliberate, abstract engraving on bone or stone materials is a rare phenomenon. It is now widely accepted that both anatomically modern humans and hominins that predate them have produced deliberate engravings associated with symbolic behavior. Within the Levantine Middle Paleolithic context, only fve examples of intentional engravings are known thus far. In this paper, we present an aurochs bone fragment that bears six deep, sub-parallel incisions, recovered at the open-air Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla in Israel. The item, found in an anthropogenic accumulation of artifacts in Unit III of the site, was dated to early Marine Isotope Stage 5 (ca. 120 ka). Unit III is a stratigraphically well-defned layer that is characterized by intense on-site knapping activities with predominance of the centripetal Levallois reduction method and by intense exploitation of aurochs and tortoises. This paper presents a multidisciplinary study of the bone and the incisions, including zooarchaeological, macro- and microscopic analyses, Scanning Electron Microscope analysis and experimental replications. The macroscopic and microscopic attributes of the incisions, and the comparisons with experimental material exclude a taphonomic or utilitarian origin of the incisions. The study indicates that the engravings were most likely produced by a right-handed individual in a single working session. The morphology and characteristics of the incisions, especially the presence of longi- tudinal polish and striations in one of the incisions, suggest that they were made by a fint artifact, likely retouched. The engraved bone from Unit III at Nesher Ramla is one of the oldest deliberate abstract manifes- tations produced by Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age hominins and the oldest known so far in the Levant. As such, it has major implications for our understanding of the emergence and early stages of the development of human symbolic behavior. 1. Introduction Although evidence and expressions of symbolic behavior are much more developed in modern human (Homo sapiens) populations, it is now accepted that archaic populations also developed such behaviors. Among Homo erectus populations, only a single example of non- utilitarian composition is known so far (Joordens et al., 2015); whereas Neanderthal populations in Eurasia have developed fairly complex symbolic mediated behavior. Initially related to the “modern human behavior” concept, symbolic mediated behavior is defned as a practice in which the individuals understand that an artifact might possess a meaning and that this meaning is construed and depends on collectively shared beliefs (Henshilwood, 2014). In this sense, an artifact (e.g., an engraved object, drawing, personal adornment, etc.) or a “non-material” act (i.e., burial practice) with a meaning must have been made to mediate (= to organize) the thinking, action(s), or communi- cation between individuals or groups (Henshilwood, 2014). For the Neanderthal populations in Eurasia and the Levant, the * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Marion.prevost@mail.huji.ac.il (M. Pr´ evost), Yzaidner@mail.huji.ac.il (Y. Zaidner). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.01.002 Received 9 August 2020; Received in revised form 30 November 2020; Accepted 3 January 2021