These seventeen essays are written in honour of Lorraine Copeland which reflect her interest in the prehistory of the Near East and her belief that river sediments were the key to providing a preliminary chronological framework for lithic industries' during the Palaeolithic and Neolithic. The majority of the papers, which all begin with French and English abstracts, focus on archaeological investigations, lithic assemblages and environmental remains from specific sites and areas, including the north Levantine rift valley, El Meirah and El Kowm in Syria, neanderthal burials in the Dederiyeh cave in Syria, Mureybet, the Kahabur basin and Tell Sabi Abyad. Other contributors discuss more general themes such as the idea of frontiers and territories, the transition from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic and the Palaeolithic of the Euphrates Valley in Syria. The papers are supported by numerous illustrations and tables of data. Ten papers in French, seven in English.