The adoption of cattle pastoralism in the Arabian Peninsula: A reappraisal

Abstract

The translocation of livestock into the Arabian Peninsula was underway by the sixth millennium BC. It remains unclear, however, whether nascent pastoralism in Arabia focused on specialised cattle herding, intensive caprine husbandry, or more extensive forms of sheep, goat and cattle management. Here, the role of Bos in Neolithic animal exploitation systems in the Arabian Peninsula is re-examined in the context of fisher-hunter-gatherer groups inhabiting the coasts of the Arabian Gulf, agro-pastoralist settlements located in the Jordanian highlands, and hunter-herder communities in adjacent Jordanian steppe (badia). By the late sixth millennium BC, cattle from southern Mesopotamia were imported to the Arabian littoral via Ubaid exchange networks but remained a relatively unimportant part of local hunter-gatherer-herder subsistence for at least a millennium. New zooarchaeological evidence indicating cattle herding in the Jordanian highlands by the late eighth millennium BC suggests a southern transmission route originating out of Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B settlements and the subsequent spread of cattle along the Sarawat mountains into the interior or down the relatively arid Red Sea coast via land or boat. Cattle eventually played a central role in the symbolic and ritual lives of herders in southern Arabia,but the use of the term 'cattle pastoralism' to describe early Neolithic subsistence systems in the region is premature. K E Y W O R D SNeolithic, translocation, cattle, aurochsen, zooarchaeology sion on Ubaid animal use, as well as Louise Martin and two anonymous reviewers for their comments which improved this manuscript. I also thank the organisers of the conference "Third International Conference on the Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula," in particular Rémy Crassard for his efforts to bring together this workshop and volume, and also CEFASS and NCCA. ORCIDCheryl A. Makarewicz https://orcid.

Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’ in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla

“…Domestic cattle is also attested to in the steppic and arid areas of the southern Levant from as early as the 7 th millennium BCE, and in southern Arabia from the end of the 7 th to the early 6 th millennia BCE. The present assemblage would appear to be consistent with a dispersal into northern Arabia, from an adjacent region like the Levant [26,66]. Cranial metrical data (Table 2) fits in the range of large specimens of Neolithic cattle from Kerma [67], and Shi'b Kheshiya [68].…”

Monumental landscapes of the Holocene humid period in Northern Arabia: The mustatil phenomenon

“…Given the timing of the site, this may well represent domesticated cattle ( Bos taurus ). However, it is also possible that they are wild aurochs ( Dreschlser, 2007 ; Makarewicz, 2020 ; McCorriston and Martin, 2009 ; Uerpmann, 1987 ; Zeder, 2017 ). The domestication of aurochs appears to have occurred somewhere in the upper or middle Euphrates Valley at ca.…”

Following the herds? A new distribution of hunting kites in Southwest Asia

“…PPN and PN lithics as well as gold show repeated contact with the levant (Guagnin et al, 2021). Cattle are thought to have been introduced via southern Jordan (Makarewicz, 2020) and 'Ubaid pottery was traded along the Gulf coast, possibly in exchange for date products (Carter, 2018). Large engravings of camels also show evidence of repeated contact across the Nefud desert (Charloux et al, 2022).…”

“…Along the Gulf coast, trade with 'Ubaid pottery is well documented throughout the sixth and fifth millennia BCE, likely a result of maritime trade, and it is possible that date products were traded in exchange (Carter, 2018). Moreover, the introduction of domesticated livestock was the result of either contact with, or migration from the Levant into the Arabian Peninsula (Crassard and Drechsler, 2013), although the routes along which pastoralism found its way into Arabia remain unclear (Drechsler, 2009;Makarewicz, 2020). In the context of this extreme connectedness, the distribution of the star-shaped kites now provides the first direct evidence of contact through, rather than around the Nafud desert, underlining the importance of areas that are now desert had under more favourable climatic conditions in enabling the movement of humans and wildlife.…”