The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry in Southern Arabia

Abstract

Despite the numerous studies proposing early human population expansions from Africa into Arabia during the Late Pleistocene, no archaeological sites have yet been discovered in Arabia that resemble a specific African industry, which would indicate demographic exchange across the Red Sea. Here we report the discovery of a buried site and more than 100 new surface scatters in the Dhofar region of Oman belonging to a regionally-specific African lithic industry - the late Nubian Complex - known previously only from the northeast and Horn of Africa during Marine Isotope Stage 5, ∼128,000 to 74,000 years ago. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates from the open-air site of Aybut Al Auwal in Oman place the Arabian Nubian Complex at ∼106,000 years ago, providing archaeological evidence for the presence of a distinct northeast African Middle Stone Age technocomplex in southern Arabia sometime in the first half of Marine Isotope Stage 5.

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

“…A similar expansion model is suggested by another line of evidence, from the Dhofar region (Oman), where a number of stratified and surface sites clearly attest the use of a Nubian (Type 1 and 2) Levallois technology (Rose et al, 2011;Usik et al, 2013). This technology was formerly known in South Egypt, North Sudan, and more sporadically in Ethiopia (Guichard and Guichard, 1965;Van Peer, 1992).…”

“…Conversely, the picture emerging from the most recent data from Arabia (Armitage et al, 2011;Petraglia et al, , 2012Rose et al, 2011;Usik et al, 2013) favors the scenario of major expansion waves from Africa, and maybe from elsewhere, during the humid phases of MIS 5. This is in line with a number of paleoenvironmental factors combined with site distribution in East Africa during the early Middle Stone Age, which suggest that Homo sapiens spread in and out of East Africa during MIS 5 (Basell, 2008).…”

“…Finally, SD2 exhibits a discoidal flaking system which is neither time nor space restricted and never prevalent in either the Levantine or East African records. The idiosyncratic meaning of the Wadi Surdud assemblages also holds true at the scale of the southern Arabian Peninsula, where a large majority of the Middle Paleolithic assemblages are based on the Levallois debitage (Inizan and Ortlieb, 1987;Crassard, 2008;Crassard, 2009;Crassard and Thiébaut, 2011;Rose et al, 2011;Usik et al, 2013).…”

“…While these sites perhaps have a low potential per se for discussing expansion models in and across Arabia, they provide valuable information when compared with stratified contexts at a local scale. The increased interest in the Arabian Pleistocene archaeological record over the last decade (see Groucutt and Petraglia, 2012) has resulted in the recovery of several stratified archaeological complexes in Oman (Rose et al, 2011), in the United Arab Emirates (Armitage et al, 2011), in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen . Although the mesh size is still very coarse given the overall area of the Arabian Peninsula (Fig.…”

Middle Palaeolithic find spots with Nubian cores from the Southern Negev and the Arava, Israel

“…The Nubian technology is a specific variant of the Levallois technology (GoderGoldberger et al 2016, Guichard & Guichard 19651968;Usik et al 2013;Van Peer 1992) found within Middle Paleolithic techno-complexes at surface sites across the western High Desert in Egypt (Chiotti et al 2009;Olszewski et al 2005), the central Negev highlands (Goder-Goldberger et al 2016) and Arabia (Crassard & Hilbert 2013;Hilbert et al 2016;Rose et al 2011;Usik et al 2013). Common to these finds is a technological package composed of the Levallois Nubian technology alongside both Levallois centripetal and bidirectional modes of production.…”