ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL PROGRA M ON OLDER PLEISTOCENE OF UBEIDIYA (ISRAEL) - RESULTS 1992-1994

'Ubeidiya is the subject of a French-Israeli Research Programme undert aken since 1988. The site, located 4 km South of the Sea of Galilee an d first excavated between 1960-1974 is known for having yielded remain s of Homo sp. (cf. erectus?) together with a developed Oldowayan and e arly Acheulian lithic industry and a very diverse fauna. Analysis of f auna allowed us to date the site to about 1.4 Ma, to define a typical perilimnic environment with a mosaic landscape, and to recognize a uni que biogeographical diversity with a mixture of animal taxa originatin g from Europe, East Africa and Southeast Asia. New finds (Giraffa, a n ew Equid, Leptobos, a fine specimen of Praemegaceros, an Alcelaphinae) enrich the faunal list and confirm these results. The new excavations lead to an extension of the faunal list. A detailed sedimentological study of the oldest fossiliferous layers shows a regressive sequence f rom lacustrine to coastal deposits followed by deltaic sediments. Both our research and earlier excavations have recovered a lithic industry with many similarities with those of Bed II in Olduvai Gorge.