Late Pleistocene palaeolake in the interior of Oman: a potential key area for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans out‐of‐Africa?

Climatic changes in Arabia are of critical importance to our understanding of both monsoon variability and the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa. The timing of dispersal is associated with the occurrence of pluvial periods during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 (ca. 130-74ka), after which, arid conditions between ca. 74 and 10.5 ka are thought to have restricted further migration and range expansion within the Arabian interior. Whilst a number of records indicate that this phase of aridity was punctuated by an increase in monsoon strength during MIS 3, uncertainties regarding the precision of terrestrial records and suitability of marine archives as records of precipitation, mean that the occurrence of this pluvial remains debated. Here we present evidence from a series of relict lake deposits within southeastern Arabia, which formed at the onset of MIS 3 (ca. 61-58 ka). At this time, the incursion of monsoon rainfall into the Arabian interior activated a network of channels associated with an alluvial fan system along the western flanks of the Hajar Mountains, leading to lake formation. Multiproxy evidence indicates that precipitation increases intermittently recharged fluvial systems within the region, leading to lake expansion in distal fan zones. Conversely, decreased precipitation led to reduced channel flow, lake contraction and a shift to saline conditions. These findings are in contrast to the many other palaeoclimatic records from Arabia, which suggest that during MIS 3, the latitudinal position of the monsoon was substantially further south and did not penetrate the peninsula. Additionally, the occurrence of increased rainfall at this time challenges the notion that the climate of Arabia following MIS 5 was too harsh to permit the further range expansion of indigenous communities.

Section: Palaeoclimatic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

An early MIS 3 pluvial phase in Southeast Arabia: Climatic and archaeological implications

Parton

Farrant

Leng

et al. 2013

“…During some of these periods large lakes formed in northwestern regions such as Mudawwara, Tayma and Jubbah, and in southern regions such as Mundafan and Khujaymah, and in eastern regions such as Saiwan (McClure, 1976(McClure, , 1984Garrard et al, 1981;Petit-Maire et al, 2002Rosenberg et al, 2011Rosenberg et al, , 2012Engel et al, 2011;Petraglia et al, 2011Petraglia et al, , 2012Crassard et al, 2013a). Numerous smaller interdunal and terminal alluvial fan lakes have been reported from the Rub' al-Khali, Nefud and Ramlat as-Sab'atayn (McClure, 1976(McClure, , 1984Schulz and Whitney, 1986;L ezine et al, 1998;Thomas et al, 1998;Rosenberg et al, 2011) and the western Hajar (Parton et al, 2013).…”

Section: Palaeohydrology and Hominin Dispersals In The Arabian Peninsulamentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote sensing and GIS techniques for reconstructing Arabian palaeohydrology and identifying archaeological sites

Breeze

Drake

Groucutt

et al. 2015

107

a b s t r a c tFreshwater availability is critical for human survival, and in the Saharo-Arabian desert belt repeated fluctuations between aridity and humidity over the Quaternary mean the distribution of freshwater was likely a primary control upon routes and opportunities for hominin dispersals. However, our knowledge of the spatio-temporal distribution of palaeohydrological resources within Arabia during MideLate Pleistocene episodes of climatic amelioration remains limited. In this paper we outline a combined method for remotely mapping the location of palaeodrainage and palaeolakes in currently arid regions that were formerly subject to more humid conditions. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by mapping palaeochannels across the whole Arabian Peninsula, and palaeolakes and marshes for select regions covering c. 10% of its surface. Our palaeodrainage mapping is based upon quantitative thresholding of HydroSHEDs data, which applies flow routing to Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, while our palaeolake mapping uses an innovative method where spectral classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery is used to detect palaeolake deposits within endorheic (closed) basins, before modelling maximum lake extents by flooding the basin to the level of the elevation of the highest detected deposit. Field survey in the Nefud desert and the Dawadmi and Shuwaymis regions of Saudi Arabia indicates accuracies of 86% for palaeodrainage mapping, and 96% for identifying former palaeolake basins (73% accuracy of classification of individual deposits). The palaeolake mapping method has also demonstrated potential for identifying surface and stratified archaeological site locations, with 76% of the surveyed palaeolake basins containing archaeological material, including stratified Palaeolithic archaeology. Initial examination of palaeodrainage in relation to archaeological sites indicates a relationship between mapped features and previously recorded Palaeolithic sites. An example of the application of these data for period-specific regional palaeohydrological and archaeological reconstructions is presented for a region of Northern Saudi Arabia covering the southern Nefud desert and adjacent lava fields.

“…These new data give a more complex picture of the human settlement dynamics in Arabia, in particular during the wet phases driven by the North-South migration of the ITCZ, when a greater amount of biomass would have survived, changing the arid steppes and deserts of Arabia in open and semi-arid savannahs (Rosenberg et al, 2011). Conversely, the hyper-arid phases would have resulted in the extinction of the Arabian populations (McClure, 1971;Petraglia and Alsharekh, 2003;Rose, 2007b;Preusser, 2009;Rosenberg et al, 2012). This scenario could have repeatedly occurred throughout the Pleistocene, and in particular during the hyper-arid events of MIS 4, a period which has not Fig.…”

Section: Mis 5 Inter-regional Expansionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1) Some three-quarters of the more than 3 million km 2 total area of the Arabian Peninsula are covered by deserts, where the opportunities for recovering Pleistocene stratified archaeological contexts are limited to isolated paleolakes Rosenberg et al, 2011Rosenberg et al, , 2012. (2) A large portion of the Arabian Pleistocene shorelines and its potential archaeological record are now submerged, in particular for the time periods corresponding to the phases of marine regression, when the distance between the sides of the Red Sea was the most favorable for sea crossing (Bailey et al, 2007;Bailey, 2009;Lambeck et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural and human dynamics in southern Arabia at the end of the Middle Paleolithic

Delagnes

Crassard

Bertrán

et al. 2013

a b s t r a c tThe Arabian Peninsula has long been considered as a region devoid of long-term human settlement until the Holocene period, as a result of drastic climatic changes throughout the Pleistocene. It might be expected that the area was deserted during hyper-arid and arid periods, and populated by new migrant groups during humid events, according to a "push and pull" phenomenon. Although this scenario may be perfectly valid for a large part of the Peninsula, a set of recent data points to the persistence of populations in several regions, which may have served as refugia for human groups who developed their own technological traditions. Such a scenario is suggested by:(1) The succession of dense human occupations under arid conditions between ca. 60 and 50 ka, in the Wadi Surdud basin, a small sedimentary basin in the foothills of the Yemeni Western Highlands. This archaeological site complex encompasses several successive human settlements characterized by a Middle Paleolithic tradition which significantly differs from the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age contemporaneous traditions from neighboring regions; (2) The regional diversity of the Middle Paleolithic throughout the Saharo-Arabian arid belt during MIS 3, expressed by an array of local techno-typological facies that likely relate to distant and disconnected source regions where populations contracted when climate worsened.Together with a set of high-resolution archaeological contexts recently discovered in the Arabian Peninsula and dated to MIS 5, these data suggest that the major human expansion waves which occurred in the region during the Upper Pleistocene are correlated with the wet phases of MIS 5, while populations probably contracted into a few refugia areas at the beginning of MIS 3.