Middle Paleolithic occupation on a Marine Isotope Stage 5 lakeshore in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

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Article

Petraglia, Michael D.¹  Alsharekh, Abdullah M.²  Crassard, Remy³  Drake, Nick A.⁴  Groucutt, Huw¹  Parker, Adrian G.⁵  Roberts, Richard G.⁶ 

[1] Univ Oxford, Sch Archaeol, Res Lab Archaeol & Hist Art, Oxford OX1 2HU, England

[2] King Saud Univ, Dept Archaeol, Coll Tourism & Archaeol, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

[3] CNRS, UMR5133, Lyon, France

[4] Kings Coll London, Dept Geog, London WC2R 2LS, England

[5] Oxford Brookes Univ, Dept Geog & Anthropol, Oxford OX3 0BP, England

[6] Univ Wollongong, Ctr Archaeol Sci, Sch Earth & Environm Sci, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

关键词: Paleolithic;    Paleolake;    Arabia;    Optically stimulated luminescence;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.04.006

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Major hydrological variations associated with glacial and interglacial climates in North Africa and the Levant have been related to Middle Paleolithic occupations and dispersals, but suitable archaeological sites to explore such relationships are rare on the Arabian Peninsula. Here we report the discovery of Middle Paleolithic assemblages in the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia associated with stratified deposits dated to 75,000 years ago. The site is located in close proximity to a substantial relict lake and indicates that Middle Paleolithic hominins penetrated deeply into the Arabian Peninsula to inhabit landscapes vegetated by grasses and some trees. Our discovery supports the hypothesis of range expansion by Middle Paleolithic populations into Arabia during the final humid phase of Marine Isotope Stage 5, when environmental conditions were still favorable. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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