Camels in Saudi oasis during the last two millennia; the examples of Dûmat al-Jandal (Al-Jawf Province) and al-Yamâma (Riyadh Province) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Bone remains of camel (Camelus dromedarius) have been found in several sites of south-eastern Arabia, dating from the Late Holocene period to the Bronze Age, and generally attributed to wild animals. The new camel finds from the Early Bronze Age site of Ra's al-Hadd (HD-6) - dated with radiocarbon technique between 2890-2580 BC - are the oldest camel evidence in the Sultanate of Oman. This discovery represents an opportunity for a critical review of all available data in the Arabian Peninsula. These remains are important because widen our knowledge about camel spreading trajectory and raise an obvious question about its domestication or wild status. This study contributes to the debate about camel status and the relationship between late prehistoric communities and this animal
A remarkable new site consisting of a concentration of as many as forty or more camel skeletons has been discovered in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region in the United Arab Emirates. Eight camel bone samples (from six individuals) from the site have been AMS radiocarbon dated by the Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research, Kiel University, Germany, revealing that they date from the second half of the fifth millennium BC. The site is located in an interdunal area to the south-east of the Baynunah Plantation, not far from the Ruwais–Habshan pipeline. The spread of camel bones extends over an area of about 10,000 m2. Preliminary analysis of the bones suggests that they are from wild dromedaries. Other archaeological finds associated with the camel bones include a finely made flint arrowhead. This important newly discovered site will provide a valuable opportunity to examine a large sample of wild camel bones during the later prehistory of south-eastern Arabia. Future detailed investigations at the site will throw fresh light on the early interactions between the communities inhabiting late prehistoric Arabia and the camel.
Water and Life in Arabia, ed. by Walid Yassin and Paul Yule, 2017
This contribution raises awareness for two linked essentials in studying Arabia's past: to understand its 5th millennium BCE mobile pastoral societies as the socio-hydraulic prime movers and progenitors of sedentary oasis horticulture, and to demand the establishment of archaeohydrology as a principal discipline for conducting (pre-) historic research on presentday arid Arabia. While since 2008 the sociohydraulic trajectory from mobile pastoralism to oasis horticulturalism throughout the 5th-4th millennia remains the subject of our constantly upgraded sets of theses/model, first solid stratigraphical evidence for this transition came to the fore with most recent field research in Rajajil, northwestern Saudi Arabia; the question of proto-oases is raised. Arid Arabia's greatest (pre-) historic achievement, the oasis socio-economy, not only sustainably established sedentary life in the arid environments of the Arabian Peninsula, it also became a paradigm for permanent desert life exported from here to other arid lands of the ancient world.
The Neolithic peopling of Arabia is a subject of increasing debate, as different scenarios are proposed to describe the relatively sudden appearance of seemingly homogeneous archaeological sites throughout the south of the Peninsula during the Early Holocene. Such sites are identified by the co-occurrence of a laminar core reduction strategy with its supposed fossile directeur, the " Fasad point. " This techno-typological package has been used by some to link these sites with an expansion of pastoralists from the Levant. A recent study of blade technologies in Southern Arabia, however, demonstrates a large degree of internal variability within these reduction strategies, whilst an interregional study of Fasad points reveals this artifact category to be both time-transgressive and morpho-metrically variable across parts of Southern Arabia. Archaeological findings from al-Hatab Rockshelter in Dhofar, Oman go further to challenge the notion of an expansion originating in the Levant and spreading across Southern Arabia. Here we demonstrate that an indigenous occupation with a blade technology and tanged points pre-dates the 'Levantine expansion' by at least four millennia. Based on the lithic assemblage from al-Hatab, we argue the Arabian Late Palaeolithic developed locally in Southern Arabia, forming part of the previously defined Nejd Leptolithic tradition. The evidence from al-Hatab in conjunction with recent genetic findings indicates that some groups in Southern Arabia have persisted there since the Late Paleolithic ca 13,000 years ago, if not earlier. Résumé : Le peuplement néolithique de l'Arabie est devenu le sujet de nombreux débats, alors que différents scénarios ont été proposés pour expliquer l'apparition soudaine de sites archéologiques apparemment homogènes à travers le sud de la péninsule au cours de l'Holocène ancien. Ces sites sont identifiés par la concomitance d'une stratégie de débitage laminaire avec son fossile directeur supposé : la « pointe de Fasad ». Cet assemblage typo-technologique est utilisé pour relier ces sites à l'expansion de pasteurs venus du Levant. Une étude technologique récente sur le débitage laminaire d'Arabie du Sud a cependant montré une forte variabilité parmi ces stratégies de débitage, alors qu'une étude interrégionale des « pointes de Fasad » révèle que ce type est à la fois trans-chronologique et de morphométrie différente suivant les régions d'Arabie. Les découvertes archéologiques dans l'abri d'al-Hatab, dans le Dhofar (Oman), contredisent le scénario d'une origine levantine, démontrant l'existence d'une occupation indigène qui possédait une technologie laminaire et des pointes pédonculées, et qui précédait « l'expansion levantine » de plusieurs millénaires. Dans cet article, nous utilisons l'assemblage lithique d'al-Hatab pour définir une nouvelle industrie au sein du Paléolithique récent d'Arabie du Sud, qui se développe localement et appelée le Hatabien. Les vestiges provenant d'al-Hatab, ainsi que les données génétiques, suggèrent que des groupes en Arabie du Sud ont perduré sur place depuis le Paléolithique récent, il y a 10 000 à 15 000 ans.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2019
In recent years, the Arabian Peninsula has emerged as a key region for elucidating hominin and faunal evolution and dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Central to this research is the middle Pleistocene site of Ti's al Ghadah (TAG) which has yielded a diverse and abundant fossil faunal assemblage and the earliest chronometrically dated evidence for hominins in this part of the world. Here, we present the first detailed taphonomic study of the large Unit 5 fossil assemblage from the site. We aim to assess which actor/s were responsible for the accumulation of the assemblage and evaluate evidence that might be consistent with the accumulation of fauna by hominins. We also describe, for the first time, fossils and lithic artefacts from stratigraphic horizons not previously considered, providing taphonomic insights into their accumulation. The taphonomic work shows that the Unit 5 faunal assemblage was accumulated by ambush predators, likely large felids and hominins, in a lake side environment, and that carcasses were subsequently scavenged by more durophagus carnivores such as hyenas and canids. Less can be reliably said regarding the newly described fossil assemblages given their poor preservation and significant wind abrasion, but large carnivores again appear to have played a role, and hominins probably played a role in the accumulation of at least one of these. This study provides the first detail insights into the interplay between hominins, carnivores, and herbivores in Arabia, and suggests that watering holes have been a focus on the Arabian landscape for resources since the middle Pleistocene.