International audiencePaleohydrological and archaeological evidence from the Southern and South-Eastern Arabian Peninsula reveal strong relations between phases of human settlements and climate change linked to the Indian monsoon system. During the early to mid-Holocene, large fresh-water lakes extended in the lowland deserts of Ramlat as-Sab'atayn (Yemen) and Wahiba Sands (Oman), which were very similar to those occurring in the North, in the Rub' al-Khali (Saudi Arabia), at that time. Many archaeological sites, characterized by scattered stone artefacts, ostrich-eggshells and bones around hearths, are related to this lacustrine phase, which culminated around 10 000­8000 cal yr B.P. in the lowland deserts before the lakes progressively dried up. The last record of fresh-water bodies' extensions date back 7300 cal yr B.P. at Shabwa (Yemen) and 7500 cal yr B.P. at al-Haid (Oman). Then, fresh-water was probably available only from seasonal run-off from adjacent highlands, where paleolakes persisted into the late Holocene. Dry climate conditions in the inland desert of Yemen during the late Holocene coincide with a phase of intensive human inhabitation as testified by development of irrigation in the piedmontane areas, numerous necropolises of built collective burials and houses

Le Yémen de l'âge du Bronze est encore fort mal connu. Les cadres solides qui commencent à être établis pour les hauts plateaux , manquaient à peu près totalement pour la zone du désert du Ramlat as-Sabatayn et l'est du pays. Les travaux menés sur deux nécropoles montrent l 'existence dans la première moitié du IIIe millénaire de groupes sociaux à structure sans doute complexe, pratiquant l'élevage sur les zones steppiques. Ces groupes utilisent communément une céramique fort élaborée. Ces nouvelles données modifient sensiblement les définitions culturelle et techno-économique des établissement humains de la région : la perception que nous avions précédemment en faisait en effet essentiellement des groupes de petite dimension, avec une culture matérielle acéramique alors qu 'existe aussi une autre forme sociale ; celle-ci consiste en de grands groupes reposant sur un système technologique plus complexe qui comprend poterie et métallurgie. Avec des datations comparables à celles connues pour les premières occupations agricoles développées sur les hauts plateaux , nous pouvons maintenant attester l'existence d 'un complexe de type Bronze ancien sur la bordure sud-ouest du désert d'Arabie.

This paper provides a new, interpretive gazetteer and chronology of Hadramawt’s highland monuments based on results from archaeological survey and test excavations by the RASA‐AHSD (Roots of Agriculture in southern Arabia‐Arabian Human Social Dynamics) Project. With the exception of a few incidental sightings and an unpublished pipeline survey, the prehistoric record of southern Yemen’s highland plateau has been largely unknown. There are few settlements, so that understanding human landscape history must begin with the numerous small‐scale stone monuments left by mobile people. With examples representing monuments from the fifth, fourth, third and first millennia BC, the corpus of small excavations and radiocarbon dates reported here provides the first guide to the monument types of South Arabian highlands. Monument building began under more moist conditions and appears to have commemorated animal sacrifices long before commemorating mortuary rites and interment. There appears to be a temporal break of 1000 years before the widespread and varied practices of Bronze Age tomb construction, which lasted through the third millennium BC. After another break in monument construction, tombs were reused in the first millennium BC, sometimes with successive ritual visits. The data presented offer new material for the interpretation of the lives and activities of prehistoric pastoralists throughout the Holocene.

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