Research Affiliate

Leslie Quintero
(Assistant Research Anthropologist, Research Director - Lithic Technology Laboratory, Ph.D. 1998 University of California Riverside)
Office: Lithic Technology Laboratory
Phone: (951) 827-7317
Email: quintero@ucr.edu

Dr. Quintero's major research focuses on the prehistory of the Near East, in particular the Levant. Topical fields of interest include prehistoric human ecological adaptations in arid environments, prehistoric lithic economies, and faunal analysis especially regarding the domestication of animals during the Neolithic of the Near East. For the past two decades extensive field and laboratory studies, centered in Jordan, have concentrated on the development of agrarian and pastoral socioeconomic structures. Current archaeological projects are primarily in Jordan's eastern and southern deserts. These researches explore early hominid adaptations on the margins of now-dry Pleistocene lakes and seek to reconstruct human lifeways in Jordan's distant past.

Selected publications in major fields of research include: The Acheulian of the al-Jafr Basin, Jordan (in press); Prehistoric Exploitation of Eocene Flint in the al-Jafr Basin of Southeastern Jordan (in press); The Naviform Core-and-Blade Industry in Orthoquartzite at 'Ain Jammam, Jordan (in press); Highland Towns and Desert Settlements: Origins of Nomadic Pastoralism in Jordan (in press); From Flint Mine to Fan Scraper: The Late Prehistoric Jafr Industrial Complex (2002); Lithic Industrial Behavior at 'Ain Ghazal: A Study of MPPNB Debitage Loci (1997); Pragmatic Studies of Near Eastern Neolithic Sickle Blades (1997); Bawwab el-Ghazal: A Temporary Station of Hunting Pastoralists in the Eastern Jordanian Desert (1997); 'Ain Soda and 'Ain Qasiya: New Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Sites in the Azraq Shishan Area, Eastern Jordan (1997); The 'Ain Ghazal Dog: A Case for the Neolithic Origins of Canis familiaris in the Near East (1997); Flint Mining in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic: Preliminary Report on the Exploitation of Flint at Neolithic 'Ain Ghazal in Highland Jordan (1996); Paleolithic Hunters in the Azraq Oasis (1996); Neolithic Millstone Production: Insights from Research in the Arid Southwestern United States (1996);Evolution and Economic Significance of Naviform Core-and-Blade Technology in the Southern Levant (1995); Naviform Core-and-Blade Technology: Assemblage Character as Determined by Replicative Experiments (1994).