Pages: 211-215

Analysing my book written 30 years ago I see my great error in dividing archaeological materials of the Near East into several archaeological cultures. In fact archaeological cultures are absent in the Near East. The units that existed there should rather be considered chronological stages. They are similar to the stages distinguished in the European Early Upper Palaeolithic. The European Mousterian has no local subdivisions, and therefore there are no subdivisions to be considered as a source of the European Upper Palaeolithic.