Bladelets and microliths have been recognized as key parts of the late prehistoric cultural dynamics on a global scale and recently discussed in relation to the range expansion of Homo sapiens in the late Pleistocene. This paper focuses on some of the current issues on bladelet technology in the Levant, including 1) the occurrences of bladelets in the Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) and Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) and 2) evolutionary reasons for the development of the UP bladelet technology.

To discuss the first issue, we examine frequencies and production technology of bladelets in the LMP, IUP, and Early Upper Paleolithic (Ahmarian) assemblages from the Jebel Qalkha area, southern Jordan. We then discuss the results in light of relevant data from other sites in the Levant. A clear increase in bladelets coincides with the Ahmarian, as already known, but we suggest that the unified production of blades and bladelets in the Ahmarian most likely derived from the IUP which provided a technological basis, on which the miniaturization of blades/bladelets was achieved in the Ahmarian through the changes in platform preparation technique. We also examine bladelet production in the LMP that shares some technological elements with the IUP bladelet production. However, they fundamentally differ from each other in the relationship of the bladelet production to the main flaking system of the whole assemblages.

To examine the second issue, we evaluate performance characteristics of bladelets from a viewpoint of changing mobility patterns from the LMP to the Ahmarian and suggest that the settlement/procurement patterns since the IUP provided conditions, in which the miniaturization of blade blanks became beneficial. The employment of bladelet technology is likely to have facilitated the transportability of tools/blanks and the efficient consumption of raw material, highlighting flexible implementations in response to variable conditions of raw material availability, mobility, and provisioning strategies. The bladelet technology was increasingly employed from the IUP to the Ahmarian probably as a versatile strategy in raw material economy, which was advantageous under variable mobility patterns and thus kept its popularity for a long time until the Epipaleolithic.

叶片和微石已被认为是全球范围内史前晚期文化动态的关键部分，最近就更新世晚期智人的范围扩张进行了讨论。本文重点讨论黎凡特小叶片技术的一些当前问题，包括 1) 旧石器时代中晚期 (LMP) 和旧石器时代初期 (IUP) 小叶片的出现和 2) UP 小叶片发展的演化原因技术。

为了讨论第一个问题，我们研究了来自约旦南部杰贝尔卡尔卡地区的 LMP、IUP 和旧旧石器时代早期（Ahmarian）组合中叶片的频率和生产技术。然后我们根据黎凡特其他地点的相关数据讨论结果。众所周知，刀片的明显增加与 Ahmarian 一致，但我们认为 Ahmarian 的刀片和刀片的统一生产很可能源自 IUP，它提供了技术基础，在此基础上实现了刀片/刀片的小型化在 Ahmarian 通过平台制备技术的变化。我们还研究了 LMP 中的叶片生产，它与 IUP 叶片生产共享一些技术元素。然而，

为了研究第二个问题，我们从改变从 LMP 到 Ahmarian 的移动模式的角度评估了叶片的性能特征，并建议自 IUP 以来的结算/采购模式提供了条件，其中叶片坯的小型化变得有益。刀片技术的采用可能促进了工具/毛坯的可运输性和原材料的有效消耗，突出了灵活实施以应对原材料可用性、移动性和供应策略的可变条件。从 IUP 到 Ahmarian 越来越多地采用刀片技术，这可能是原材料经济中的一种通用策略，