Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:55:45.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Middle Palaeolithic of Arabia: Implications for modern human origins, behaviour and dispersals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Michael D. Petraglia  and
Abdullah Alsharekh
Michael D. Petraglia
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, England
Abdullah Alsharekh
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Museology, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2456, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Middle Palaeolithic record of the Arabian Peninsula can provide crucial evidence for understanding human dispersal. The authors summarise the archaeological evidence and suggest some of the routes taken by the earliest humans coming out of Africa, including one implying the use of boats. Early populations adapted to a hospitable environment, but had later to adapt to the advance of the desert.

Keywords

Arabian peninsulaMiddle Palaeolithicmodern human originsbehaviourdispersals
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 298 , December 2003 , pp. 671 - 684
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, R. J. 1997. Middle East and Arabia, in: Thomas, D. S. G. (ed.). Arid zone geomorphology: process, form and change in drylands: 507–521. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Alsharekh, A. 1995. The archaeology of central Saudi Arabia. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Amirkhanov, H. 1994. Research on the Palaeolithic and Neolithic of Hadhramaut and Mahra. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 5: 217–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, M. C. & Clark, G. A.. 1993. Cultural and natural formation processes in Late Quaternary cave and rockshelter sites of western Europe and the Near East, in Goldberg, P., Nash, D. T. & Petraglia, M. D. (ed.). Formation processes in archaeological context: 33–52. Madison: Prehistory Press.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1993. Site formation processes from a Levantine viewpoint, in Goldberg, P., Nash, D. T. & Petraglia, M. D. (ed.). Formation processes in archaeological context: 13–32. Madison: Prehistory Press.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1994. The contributions of Southwest Asia to the study of the origin of modern humans, in Nitecki, M. H. & Nitecki, D. V. (ed.). Origins of anatomically modern humans: 23–66. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1998. Early colonizations and cultural continuities in the Lower Palaeolithic of Western Asia, in Petraglia, M. D. & Korisettar, R. (ed.) Early human behaviour in global context: 221–279. London: Routledge Press.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. Bar-Yosef, O. & Kuhn, S. L.. 1999. The big deal about blades: laminar technologies and human evolution. American Anthropologist 101: 322–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, R. W. 1971. Climatic changes and the evolution of landform in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82: 2713–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, G. 2000. The Middle Paleolithic in the Wadi al-Hasa: an overview, in Coinman, N. R. (ed.). The Archaeology of the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan, Volume 2: Excavations at Middle, Upper and Epipaleolithic sites: 67–94. Arizona State University, Anthropological Research Papers No. 52.Google Scholar
De Maigret, A. 1984. Archaeological activities in the Yemen Arab Republic, 1984. East and West 34: 439.Google Scholar
Field, H. 1960. North Arabian desert archeological survey, 1925–50. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. XLV, no. 2. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Foley, R. & Lahr, M.. 1997. Mode 3 technologies and the evolution of modern humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7: 3–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, X. & Norton, C. J.. 2002. A critique of the Chinese ‘Middle Palaeolithic’. Antiquity 76: 397412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrard, A. N., Harvey, C. P. D. & Switsur, V. R.. 1981. b. Environment and settlement during the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene at Jubba in the Great Nefud, Northern Arabia. Atlal 5: 137–148.Google Scholar
Gilmore, M., Al-Ibrahim, M., & Murad, A. S.. 1982. 1 — Preliminary report on the northwestern and northern region survey 1981 (1401). Atlal 6: 9–23.Google Scholar
Glennie, K. W. & Singhvi, A. K.. 2002. Event stratigraphy, paleoenvironment and chronology of SE Arabian deserts. Quaternary Science Reviews 21: 853–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goren-Inbar, N., Belitzky, S., Goren, Y., Rabinovich, R. & Saragusti, I.. 1992. Gesher Benot Ya’aqov—the “bar”: an Acheulian assemblage. Geoarchaeology 7: 27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. G. 1999. The Human Career. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, S. L. 1995. Mousterian Lithic Technology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahr, M. M. & Foley, R.. 1994. Multiple dispersals and modern human origins. Evolutionary Anthropology 3: 48–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahr, M. M. & Foley, R.. 1998. Towards a theory of modern human origins: geography, demography, and diversity in recent human evolution. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 41: 137–176.3.0.CO;2-Q>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahr, M. M. & Foley, R.. 2001. Mode 3, Homo helmei, and the pattern of human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene, in Barham, L. & Robson-Brown, K. (ed.). Human roots: Africa and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene: 23–39. Bristol: Western Academic & Specialist Press Limited.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K. & Chappell, J.. 2001. Sea level change through the last glacial cycle. Science 292: 679–686.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lambeck, K., Esat, T. M. & Potter, E-K.. 2002. Links between climate and sea levels for the past three million years. Nature 419: 199–206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McBrearty, S. & Brooks, A. S.. 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClure, H. 1976. Radiocarbon chronology of late Quaternary lakes in the Arabian desert. Nature 263: 755–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClure, H. 1978. Al-Rub’ al-Khali, in Al Sayari, S. S. & Zötl, J. G. (ed.). Quaternary period in Saudi Arabia: 252–263. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClure, H. 1994. A new Arabian stone tool assemblage and notes on the Aterian industry of North Africa. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 5: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P. A. & Stringer, C. (ed.). 1989. The human revolution. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Nayeem, M. A. 1990. Prehistory and protohistory of the Arabian peninsula, Saudi Arabia. Vol. 1. Hyderabad: Hyderabad Publishers.Google Scholar
Parr, P. J., Zarins, J., Ibrahim, M., Waechter, J., Garrard, A., Clarke, C., Bidmead, M. & al-Badr, H.. 1978. Preliminary report on the second phase of the northern province survey 1397/1977. Atlal 2: 29–50.Google Scholar
Petraglia, M. D. 2003. The Lower Paleolithic of the Arabian Peninsula: occupations, adaptations, and dispersals. Journal of World Prehistory, 17: 141–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petraglia, M. D., Schuldenrein, J. & Korisettar, R.. 2003. Landscapes, activity, and the Acheulean to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Kaladgi Basin, India. Eurasian Prehistory, in press.Google Scholar
Quintana-Murci, L., Semino, O., Bandelt, H-J., Passarino, G., Mcelreavey, K. & Santachiara-Benerecetti, S.. 1999. Genetic evidence of an early exit of Homo sapiens sapiens from Africa through eastern Africa. Nature Genetics 23: 437–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhotert, H. (ed.). 1938. Transjordanien. Stuttgart: Vorqeschichtliche Forschungen.Google Scholar
Rohling, E. J. 1994. Glacial conditions in the Red Sea. Paleoceanography 9: 653–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohling, E. J., Fenton, M., Jorissen, F. J., Bertrand, P., Ganssen, G. & Caulet, J. P.. 1998. Magnitudes of sea-level lowstands of the past 500,000 years. Nature 394: 162–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stringer, C. 2000. Coasting out of Africa. Nature 405: 24–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stringer, C. 2002. Modern human origins: progress and prospects, Philosophical Transactions Royal Society of London 357: 563–579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trinkaus, E. (ed.). 1989 The emergence of modern humans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van Campo, E., Duplessy, J. & Rossignol-Strick, M.. 1982. Climatic conditions deduced from a 150-kyr oxygen isotope-pollen record from the Arabian Sea. Nature 296: 56–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Peer, P. 1998. The Nile corridor and the Out-of-Africa model. Current Anthropology 39: S115–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, R. C., Buffler, R. T., Bruggemann, J. H., Guillaume, M. M. M., Berhe, S. M., Negassi, B., Libsekal, Y., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., Von Cosel, R., Neraudeau, D. & Gagnon, M.. 2000. Early human occupation of the Red sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial. Nature 405: 65–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wendorf, F., Schild, R. & Close, A. (eds.) 1993. Egypt during the Last Interglacial. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whalen, N. M. & Pease, D. W.. 1992. Archaeological survey in southwest Yemen, 1990. Paléorient 17/2: 129–33.Google Scholar
Whalen, N., Killick, A., James, N., Morsi, G. & Kamal, M.. 1981. Saudi Arabian archaeological reconnaissance 1980: b. preliminary report on the western province survey. Atlal 5: 43–58.Google Scholar
Whalen, N. M., Siraj-Ali, J., Sindi, H. O., Pease, D. W. & Badein, M. A.. 1988. A complex of sites in the Jeddah - Wadi Fatimah area. Atlal 11: 77–85.Google Scholar
White, M. & Ashton, N.. 2003. Lower Palaeolithic core technology and the origins of the Levallois method in NW Europe. Current Anthropology, in press.Google Scholar
Zarins, J., Ibrahim, M., Potts, D. & Edens, C.. 1979. Saudi Arabian archaeological reconnaissance 1978: the preliminary report on the third phase of the comprehensive archaeological survey program - the central province. Atlal 3: 9–42.Google Scholar
Zarins, J., Whalen, N., Ibrahim, M., Jawad Mursi, A. A. & Khan, M.. 1980. Comprehensive archaeological survey program, preliminary report on the central and southwestern provinces survey: 1979. Atlal 4: 9–36.Google Scholar
Zarins, J., al-Jawad Murad, A. & Al-Yish, K. S.. 1981. The comprehensive archaeological survey program. a. The second preliminary report on the southwestern province. Atlal 5: 9–42.Google Scholar
Zarins, J, Rahbini, A.-A. & Kamal, M.. 1982. 2-Preliminary report on the archaeological survey of the Riyadh area. Atlal 6: 25–38.Google Scholar