Human occupation of the northern Arabian interior during early Marine Isotope Stage 3

Abstract

The early part of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (c. 60-50 ka) is a crucial period for studying human demography and behaviour in Southwest Asia, and how these relate to climatic changes. However, the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records for MIS 3 in critical areas such as the Arabian Peninsula remain poorly developed. Here, we present findings from the Al Marrat basin in the Nefud desert, which provides the first clear evidence for both increased humidity and human occupation of the interior of northern Arabia during early MIS 3. A Middle Palaeolithic assemblage, dated by OSL to c. 55 ka, was found stratified within a sequence of relict palustrine deposits indicative of shallow water body formation in the Al Marrat basin. Hominin presence in northern Arabia at this time coincides with the intensification and northward displacement of monsoon rainfall systems during a period of maximum insolation. These findings add to a growing corpus of palaeoenvironmental evidence, which indicates that the Arabian interior was neither arid nor unpopulated during early MIS 3, and that hydrodynamic responses to enhanced moisture availability facilitated demographic expansions into the Arabian interior.

Reconstructing palaeoclimate and hydrological fluctuations in the Fezzan Basin (southern Libya) since 130 ka: A catchment-based approach

“…Furthermore, it supports the findings of other recent studies that show that palaeolake shorelines were suitable for past human occupation and dispersal (e.g. Jennings et al, 2016;Roach et al, 2016;Groucutt et al, 2015;Groucutt et al, 2018).…”

Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years

“…a detailed record for the woodlands, a southern extension of the Palaearctic biome 4,16 . However, in the past decade, research in the Arabian Peninsula has begun to document hominin occupations of the arid Saharo-Arabian biome during episodically wetter periods characterized by grasslands, lakes and rivers 5,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] . Emerging patterns of spatially divergent cultural-evolutionary developments in Southwest Asia include a young (less than 200 thousand years ago (ka)) Acheulean in central Arabia 24 , a technology typically associated with earlier hominins such as Homo erectus.…”

Palaeoenvironmental dynamics and Palaeolithic occupation at Katoati, Thar Desert, India

“…A growing body of evidence now supports repeated hominin occupations during the late Pleistocene, evident in the presence of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages, within the Arabian interior (e.g., Petraglia et al, 2011; Groucutt et al 2015b, 2016; Jennings et al, 2016). Palaeoenvironmental approaches have illuminated key windows of opportunity for expansions into Arabia in the latter stages of MIS 5 (~85–71 ka) and at the start of MIS 3 (~55 ka) apparent as phases of lacustrine and fluvial activity, and both are associated with hominin occupations (e.g., Breeze et al, 2016; Jennings et al, 2016), offering notable comparisons to Katoati. Significantly, the time frame for expansions of modern humans out of Africa overlaps with these pulses of humidity and hominin occupation evident in both regions (Groucutt et al, 2015a).…”