PleisTechnoVar aims to study and compare variability in the technical behaviours of modern humans in Eastern Africa, the Nile Valley and the Levant. Lithic assemblages from different sites are studied in each region. You will find here a brief description of the sites under study.

Porc-Epic Cave is located 2kms away from Dire-Dawa, in Southeastern Ethiopia. It is a large cave located within the Jurassic limestone cliffs ("Antal Limestone") at approximately 140m above the Datchatu wadi (Laga Datchatu) which crosses Dire-Dawa. Porc-Epic cave was first discovered in 1929 by P. Teilhard de Chardin and H. de Monfreid. What they first noticed was the red paintings occurring on the cave walls. H. Breuil and P. Wernert conducted excavations in the cave for the first time in 1933, which led to the discovery of a human mandible. Further excavations were later undertaken in 1974 under the supervision of J.D. Clark, and then in 1975-76 under the supervision of K.D. Williamson. These excavations have led to almost completely empty the cave from its sediments (which were at some places more than 2 meters deep!), and tens of thousands of artefacts were recovered including stone tools (lithic artefacts), animal bones, pieces of ochre, shells, and one human remain (the mandible). Most of them are attributed to the Middle Stone Age (300 000-30 000 years ago), and probably dated to the later part of the Middle Stone Age (75 000 - 50 000 years ago (?)), while the material coming from the upper levels, and possibly related to the rock art, are probably much later.

Buticha cave (Goda means cave in Oromiya), located about 35 kms from Dire-Dawa, was first reported in 2007 by the South East Ethiopia Cave Survey Project, led by Dr Zelalem Assefa. It is a small three-chambered karstic cave with two mouths opening to galleries, joined by a third chamber. Small rock paintings in dark pigment were noted in the northeastern gallery, while the southwestern gallery showed a large pit, dug by one of the local farmers "to find pretty rocks" for sale. And indeed, in the walls of the pit, a large number of stones and bones were still visible. The team decided to conduct small excavations first in 2008 and then in 2011. In total, approximately two square meters of around two meter deep, have been excavated. It has yielded numerous stone artefacts, animal (micro- and macro-fauna) and human bones, ostrich eggshell fragments and beads, and ochre. This material dates from several periods of occupation of the cave, which correspond to levels dated to (1) 65-25 000 years ago, (2) 8 000-6 000 years ago and (3) 2 000 years ago.

All the material is stored at the National Museum of Ethiopia / Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH) in Addis Ababa.

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