Middle-late Quaternary palaeoclimate variability from lake and wetland deposits in the Nefud Desert, Northern Arabia

Abstract

Records of former lake and wetland development in present day arid/hyper-arid environments provide an important source of information for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental studies. In Arabia, such records are typically confined to eccentricity-modulated insolation maxima, and are often spatially and temporally discontinuous. Here we present records from a single locality in Northern Arabia of wetter interludes during both global interglacial and glacial conditions, providing a unique opportunity to examine the nature of these events in a common setting. At Jubbah, in the southern Nefud Desert, lake and wetland deposits reveal the repeated formation of a water body within a large endorheic basin over the past ca. 360 kyr. Lake/wetland formation occurred during MIS 11/9, 7, 5, 3 and the early Holocene, assisted by local topographic controls, and spring recharge. Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoecological data reveal the existence of a large still water body formed during either MIS 11 or 9 (ca. 363 ka), and basin wide alluviation followed by lake formation during MIS 7 (ca. 212 ka). During MIS 5e (ca. 130 ka) a large freshwater lake occupied the basin, while during MIS 5a (ca. 80 ka) the basin contained a shallow wetland and freshwater lake complex. Lake/wetland formation also occurred during early MIS 3 (ca. 60 ka), at the Terminal Pleistocene-Holocene transition (ca. 12.5 ka), and the early-middle Holocene (ca. 9-6.5 ka). Phases of lake and wetland development coincided with human occupation of the basin during the Middle Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic periods, highlighting the significance of the region for early demographic change.

Human responses to climate and ecosystem change in ancient Arabia

“…Jubbah is a dune-bounded endorheic basin that measures ∼20 × 5 km with deposits extending to a depth of ca. 30 m (56)(57)(58). At Jubbah, there are no inflowing drainage channels, which suggests that the water bodies formed as a result of surface expression of water from the shallow Saq aquifer, recharged by both local and regional rainfall onto the dune field.…”

Sediment-filled karst depressions and <i>riyad</i> – key archaeological environments of south Qatar

“…During glacialinterglacial cycles, and even on millennial timescales over the Holocene, geological records from different parts of the Arabian Peninsula indicate considerable fluctuations (e.g. Fleitmann et al, 2007;Engel et al, 2012Engel et al, , 2017Preston et al, 2012;Dinies et al, 2015Dinies et al, , 2016Guagnin et al, 2016;Parker et al, 2016, Breeze et al, 2017Parton et al, 2018). The closest palaeoclimate record on the Arabian Peninsula is located at Ras al-Khaimah, UAE (Preston et al, 2012;Parker et al, 2016), where lake deposits reflecting a rainfall surplus date between 9.0-8.3 and 3.0 ka cal BP.…”

“…To verify the existence of former surface runoff patterns into the Asaila basin (see geomorphic map in Inizan, 1988) and to localize relict fluvial landforms, a magnetometer prospection was carried out in the area of the Acila 36 excavation (Inizan, 1988;Pelegrin and Inizan, 2013) in the northern part of the basin (Fig. 2).…”

“…7500-6500 BCE). They existed mostly in direct proximity to outcrops of flint raw material (Pfeiffer, 2015;Drechsler et al, 2016), comprising regular blades from bidirectional naviform cores (Inizan, 1988;Pelegrin and Inizan, 2013). In contrast, Middle Neolithic artefacts, i.e.…”

“…In the course of the archaeological survey, shallow, sediment-filled karst depressions referred to as riyad (singular rawdha or rawdah) (Batanouny, 1981;Babikir, 1986;Sadiq and Nasir, 2002;Al-Yousef, 2003;Macumber, 2011Macumber, , 2015) turned out to be focal points of historic occupation, in contrast with the barren surrounding hamada (Eichmann et al, 2014;Gerber et al, 2014;Pfeiffer, 2015). A second priority of the SQSP was assigned to the large depression of Asaila in centralwestern Qatar (locally referred to as Jaow Al Bahath), which, compared to the rest of Qatar, preserves a high concentration of Early and Middle Neolithic single flint artefacts and flint artefact scatters, along with numerous findings of the pre-Islamic, Islamic and Modern periods (Kapel, 1967;Inizan, 1988;Pelegrin and Inizan, 2013;Drechsler, 2014;Drechsler et al, 2016).…”