Late Pleistocene lakeshore settlement in northern Arabia: Middle Palaeolithic technology from Jebel Katefeh, Jubbah

Groucutt, Huw S.; Shipton, Ceri; Alsharekh, Abdullah; Jennings, Richard; Scerri, Eleanor M. L.; Petraglia, Michael D.

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.001

Cited by 33 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Of these sites, JKF-1 in the Jubbah basin, which dates to between~90e85 ka and~50 ka, is of some interest given the proximity to the Al-Jawf sites. There, mainly single platform unidirectional cores on quartzite and preferential Levallois with centripetal preparation were collected and excavated; a low number of quartz bidirectional and recurrent Levallois cores was also present (Groucutt et al, 2015b). Also located in the Jubbah basin, the site of JSM-1 yielded a small sample of preferential Levallois cores with centripetal and bidirectionalcrossed preparations (Petraglia et al, 2012, fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nubian technology in northern Arabia: Impact on interregional variability of Middle Paleolithic industries

Hilbert

Crassard

Charloux

et al. 2017

Quaternary International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since 2013, the authors have conducted archaeological surveys across the Al-Jawf province in northern Saudi Arabia. In the past two seasons, 48 sites were mapped and characterized by the presence of Levallois technology and, therefore, attributed to the Middle Paleolithic of Arabia. Preferential Levallois reduction using different methods of dorsal core preparation have been found at these sites. The technological variability includes Nubian Levallois methods, preferential Levallois with centripetal preparation, as well as recurrent centripetal reduction methods. In Arabia, sites with Nubian Levallois reduction are known from southern Oman, eastern Yemen, and central Saudi Arabia, while in Africa this reduction method has been identified across much of the northeastern continent. Preferential Levallois with centripetal preparation and recurrent centripetal Levallois methods have been found across Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Outside of Arabia, these methods have been found in many regions across the Old World. In this paper, we present the results from technological analyses on the Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the newly discovered Al-Jawf sites. The technological data are used to place these sites into a wider regional framework, assessing whether connections with known lithic industries from across the Near East and northeastern Africa can be surmised.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nubian technology in northern Arabia: Impact on interregional variability of Middle Paleolithic industries

Hilbert

Crassard

Charloux

et al. 2017

Quaternary International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A field survey of the basin was undertaken to record archaeological sites and investigate the nature of the large areas of detected palaeolake deposits, many of which were found to be preserved as inverted relief features (IRFs). These features are low‐relief mounds which have often been found to preserve palaeoenvironmental and archaeological evidence elsewhere in Arabia (Petraglia et al , ; Hilbert et al , ; Groucutt et al , ,). During this survey, the IRF at ALM 3, which measures 18 m × 14 m with a height of 1.3 m, was identified, excavated and sampled for various palaeoenvironmental analyses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The presence of the jebels has served to shelter the basin from eastward transport and deposition of aeolian sand, resulting in a topographic depression approximately 9 Â 2.5 km. The basin is situated 50 km south of the Jubbah Palaeolake, the most well-known of these depressions, which contains an extensive suite of palaeolake sediments and numerous archaeological sites dating to MIS 5 and the early Holocene (Petraglia et al, 2011(Petraglia et al, , 2012Crassard et al, 2013;Hilbert et al, 2014;Groucutt et al, 2015d).…”

Section: Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Jennings

Parton

Clark-Balzan

et al. 2016

J Quaternary Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

“…An analogous explanation to that we have proposed for MDF-61 can be applied to other lakeside Middle Palaeolithic sites in Arabia. At JKF-1 in the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia hominins also transported lithics from a raw material source to the far side of a lake Groucutt et al, 2015a). Elsewhere in the Nefud desert, Lower and Middle Palaeolithic lithic assemblages have been found associated with small lake basins .…”

Section: Timing Of Human Occupation At Mdf-61mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human occupation of the Arabian Empty Quarter during MIS 5: evidence from Mundafan Al-Buhayrah, Saudi Arabia

Groucutt

White

Clark-Balzan

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

International audienceThe Empty Quarter (or Rub' al Khali) of the Arabian Peninsula is the largest continuous sandy desert in the world. It has been known for several decades that Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits, representing phases of wetter climate, are preserved there. These sequences have yielded palaeontological evidence in the form of a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and have been dated using various radiometric techniques. However, evidence for human presence during these wetter phases has until now been ephemeral. Here, we report on the first stratified and dated archaeology from the Empty Quarter, recovered from the site of Mundafan Al-Buhayrah (MDF-61). Human occupation at the site, represented by stone tools, has been dated to the later part of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 using multiple luminescence dating techniques (multigrain and single grain OSL, TT-OSL). The sequence consists primarily of lacustrine and palustrine sediments, from which evidence for changing local environmental conditions has been obtained through analysis of fossil assemblages (phytoliths and non-marine molluscs and ostracods). The discovery of securely-dated archaeological material at ∼100 to 80 ka in the Empty Quarter has important implications for hypotheses concerning the timing and routes of dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa, which have been much debated. Consequently, the data presented here fill a crucial gap in palaeoenvironmental and archaeological understanding of the southern Arabian interior. Fossils of H. sapiens in the Levant, also dated to MIS 5, together with Middle Palaeolithic archaeological sites in Arabia and India are thought to represent the earliest dispersal of our species out of Africa. We suggest that the widespread occurrence of similar lithic technologies across southern Asia, coupled with a growing body of evidence for environmental amelioration across the Saharo-Arabian belt, indicates that occupation of the Levant by H. sapiens during MIS 5 may not have been a brief, localized ‘failed dispersal’, but part of a wider demographic expansion

show abstract

Late Pleistocene lakeshore settlement in northern Arabia: Middle Palaeolithic technology from Jebel Katefeh, Jubbah

Cited by 33 publications

References 44 publications

Nubian technology in northern Arabia: Impact on interregional variability of Middle Paleolithic industries

Nubian technology in northern Arabia: Impact on interregional variability of Middle Paleolithic industries

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

Human occupation of the Arabian Empty Quarter during MIS 5: evidence from Mundafan Al-Buhayrah, Saudi Arabia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About