The Negev desert is a part of the northern Saharo-Arabian desert belt, a major physical barrier between Africa and southwest Asia. Its location at the crossroads of the two continents makes it a perfect region to trace the presence of early hominins on the route from Africa to the Levant in major dispersal events. Geomorphological mapping in the central Negev region allows a reconstruction of the Plio-Pleistocene landscape, and the processes that shaped the Negev desert. Features that characterize this arid to hyper-arid region are the sequences of alluvial surfaces and wetland deposits, covering the last 2 Ma, now evident in the present-day landscape as a series of abandoned alluvial terraces standing 100-5 m above the active stream channels, containing conglomerates, fine silty sediments and travertines.

In this study we integrate alluvial terraces with scattered outcrops of travertines and wetland deposits, marking the locations of past water resources in the central Negev. The environmental reconstruction enabled us to conceive a conceptual model and produce a detailed map that predicts the preferable locations for archaeological sites from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods. The outcome of this study is a validated model for tracing Paleolithic sites in their geomorphological contexts and a better understanding of the role of the Negev in Middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Likewise, the prediction model for the Negev could be applied to other desert regions globally.

内盖夫沙漠是撒哈拉-阿拉伯沙漠带北部的一部分，是非洲和西南亚之间的主要物理屏障。它位于两大洲的十字路口，是追踪从非洲到黎凡特的主要传播事件中早期人类存在的完美地区。内盖夫中部地区的地貌测绘可以重建上新世 - 更新世景观，以及塑造内盖夫沙漠的过程。这个干旱到超干旱地区的特征是冲积表面和湿地沉积物的序列，覆盖最后 2 Ma，现在在当今的景观中很明显，作为一系列位于活跃河流上方 100-5 m 的废弃冲积阶地河道，包含砾岩、细粉质沉积物和石灰华。

在这项研究中，我们将冲积阶地与石灰华和湿地沉积物的分散露头整合在一起，标志着内盖夫中部过去水资源的位置。环境重建使我们能够构思一个概念模型并制作详细的地图，预测旧石器时代下中叶考古遗址的最佳位置。这项研究的结果是一个经过验证的模型，用于在地貌环境中追踪旧石器时代遗址，并更好地了解内盖夫在中更新世人类扩散中的作用。同样，内盖夫的预测模型可以应用于全球其他沙漠地区。