Epipalaeolithic Occupation and Palaeoenvironments of the Southern Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia, During the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene
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Accepted Manuscript Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Yamandú H. Hilbert, Tom S. White, Ash Parton, Laine Clark-Balzan, Rémy Crassard, Huw S. Groucutt, Richard P. Jennings, Paul Breeze, Adrian Parker, Ceri Shipton, Abdulaziz Al-Omari, Abdullah M. Alsharekh, Michael D. Petraglia PII: S0305-4403(14)00277-5 DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2014.07.023 Reference: YJASC 4144 To appear in: Journal of Archaeological Science Received Date: 13 May 2014 Revised Date: 11 July 2014 Accepted Date: 25 July 2014 Please cite this article as: Hilbert, Y.H., White, T.S., Parton, A., Clark-Balzan, L., Crassard, R., Groucutt, H.S., Jennings, R.P., Breeze, P., Parker, A., Shipton, C., Al-Omari, A., Alsharekh, A.M., Petraglia, M.D., Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene, Journal of Archaeological Science (2014), doi: 10.1016/ j.jas.2014.07.023. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1 Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud 2 desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene 3 Yamandú H. Hilbert 1, Tom S. White* 2, Ash Parton 2, Laine Clark-Balzan 2, Rémy 4 Crassard 1, Huw S. Groucutt 2, Richard P. Jennings 2, Paul Breeze 3, Adrian Parker 4, Ceri 5 Shipton 5, Abdulaziz Al-Omari 6, Abdullah M. Alsharekh 7 and Michael D. Petraglia 2 6 1 CNRS, UMR 5133 ‘Archéorient’, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, 7 rue Raulin, 7 69007 Lyon, France 8 2 School of Archaeology, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, 9 University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2HU, UK 10 3 Department of Geography, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, UK 11 4 Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gibbs Building, Gipsy Lane, 12 Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK 13 5 School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia 14 6 Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 15 7 Department of Archaeology, College of Tourism and Archaeology, King Saud University, 16 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 17 18 ABSTRACT 19 The transition from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early Holocene is poorly represented in 20 the geological and archaeological records of northern Arabia, and the climatic conditions that 21 prevailed in the region during that period are unclear. Here, we present a new record from the 22 site of Al-Rabyah, in the Jubbah basin (southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia), where a 23 sequence of fossiliferous lacustrine and palustrine deposits containing an archaeological 24 assemblage is preserved. Sedimentological and palaeoenvironmental investigations, both at 25 Al-Rabyah and elsewhere in the Jubbah area, indicatMANUSCRIPTe phases of humid conditions, during 26 which shallow lakes developed in the basin, separat ed by drier periods. At Al-Rabyah, the 27 end of a Terminal Pleistocene phase of lake expansion has been dated to ~12.2 ka using 28 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), with a mid-Holocene humid phase dated to after 29 ~6.6 ka. Palaeoecological reconstructions based primarily on non-marine molluscs and 30 ostracods from the younger lacustrine deposits indicate a relatively shallow body of 31 freshwater surrounded by moist, well-vegetated environments. A lithic assemblage 32 characterized by bladelets and geometric microliths was excavated from sediments attributed 33 to a drier climatic phase dated to ~10.1 ka. The lithic artefact types exhibit similarities to 34 Epipalaeolithic industries of the Levant, and their occurrence well beyond the ‘core region’ of 35 such assemblages (and at a significantly later date) has important implications for 36 understanding interactions between Levantine and Arabian populations during the Terminal 37 Pleistocene–Early Holocene. We suggest that the presence of foraging populations in the 38 southern Nefud during periods of drier climate is due to the prolonged presence of a 39 freshwater oasis in the Jubbah Basin during the Terminal Pleistocene–early Holocene, which 40 enabled them to subsist in the region when neighbouring areas of northern Arabia and the 41 Levant were increasingly hostile. 42 ACCEPTED 43 *Corresponding author: [email protected], +44 (0)1865 275134 44 45 KEYWORDS 46 Epipalaeolithic, Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene, Palaeoecology, OSL, Nefud, Saudi 47 Arabia. 48 1 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 49 1. INTRODUCTION 50 51 Previous research in the southern Nefud has identified archaeological assemblages of both 52 Middle Palaeolithic and Neolithic age. The former, characterised by Levallois stone tool 53 technologies, have been dated to humid periods during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 7 and 5 54 (Petraglia et al., 2012). Neolithic assemblages similar to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNA 55 and PPNB), recovered from the surface, have been assigned an age of ~9–8 ka, inferred from 56 proximal Holocene sequences (Crassard et al., 2013). This repeated occupation of the region 57 highlights its importance to human populations over a long period of time, but until now very 58 little evidence for occupation during the intervening period, encompassing the transition from 59 the Pleistocene to the Holocene, has been forthcoming (cf. Maher, 2009). The recovery of a 60 lithic assemblage with affinities to the Levantine Epipalaeolithic (EP) from a dated sequence 61 at Al-Rabyah, in the Jubbah basin, has therefore provided an important opportunity to 62 examine human responses to climatically driven landscape change in the southern Nefud at 63 that time. 64 The Levantine EP is dated to between c. 24 and 11.8 ka and is characterized by a diverse 65 range of lithic industries accompanied by a variety of bone tools, body ornaments, mobile art 66 and other cultural expressions (e.g. Bar-Yosef, 1970; Henry, 1982; Goring-Morris, 1995; 67 Goring-Morris and Belfer-Cohen 1997; Shea, 2013). EP lithic assemblages are typified by 68 blade and bladelet production, based on pyramidalMANUSCRIPT single platform cores. Blanks are further 69 transformed into microliths, which show great morph ological and regional variability through 70 time (e.g. Henry, 1988; Neeley and Barton, 1994; Goring-Morris, 1995; Barton and Neeley, 71 1996; Belfer-Cohen and Goring-Morris, 2002; Maher et al., 2012; Shea, 2013). The core 72 region for the Levantine EP encompasses the Sinai Peninsula, the eastern Mediterranean and 73 Iraq, with the majority of important sites located in the central part of this region (cf. Shea, 74 2013). There are also many general similarities between the Levantine EP and lithic 75 assemblages of roughly equivalent age in Mediterranean North Africa, the Nile Valley and 76 montane western Asia (Kozlowski, 1999; Garcea, 2010; Schild and Wendorf, 2010; Düring, 77 2011; Shea, 2013). In the Arabian Peninsula, evidence for the presence of post-Middle 78 Palaeolithic human groups prior to the Neolithic has so far only been found at a handful of 79 sites in northernACCEPTED and central-southern Saudi Arabia (cf. Maher, 2009; Groucutt and Petraglia, 80 2012) and in southern Oman (Rose and Usik, 2009; Hilbert, 2014), although the assemblages 81 from the latter exhibit few similarities with the Levantine EP and are instead more 82 characteristic of local lithic industries. This technological and spatial disconnect between the 83 core area of EP industries in the Levant and those from southern Arabia highlights the paucity 84 of sites that can be reliably attributed to this period across much of the Arabian interior, and 85 the resulting lack of understanding of the Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene in Arabia. 2 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 86 The apparent absence of Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene sites in the Arabian Peninsula has 87 been attributed to the harsh, arid environmental conditions that prevailed across much of the 88 region during the last glacial period, making Pre-Neolithic human incursions into the interior 89 extremely difficult (e.g. Uerpmann et al., 2009; Bretzke et al., 2013). Although it is 90 reasonable to assume that the timing of any demographic expansions into the Arabian desert 91 belt would have coincided with periods of increasingly humid climate, it is important to 92 consider the spatial and temporal variability of these climatic phases across Arabia during the 93 Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene. Palaeoclimatic evidence from the Levant suggests that 94 the early Holocene period remained relatively dry (e.g. Vaks et al., 2006; Enzel et al., 2008; 95 Petit-Maire et al., 2010), whereas regions of Yemen and southern Oman, located closer to the 96 Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and associated monsoon rain belt, became 97 increasingly humid at ~11 ka (Radies et al., 2005; Davies, 2006; Lézine et al., 2007; 98 Fleitmann et al., 2007). It has therefore been suggested that the onset of wetter conditions 99 occurred earlier in southern Arabia than in the central desert regions (Parker, 2009). To the 100 north, in the southern Nefud desert, Holocene lake formation has been dated to ~10 ka 101 (Whitney and Gettings, 1982; Whitney, 1983; Whitney et al., 1983; Engel et al., 2012). Most 102 recently, evidence from a locality at Jebel Qatar (JQ-200) has indicated humid conditions in 103 the Jubbah basin between ~9–8 ka (Crassard et al., 2013). These findings are at odds with a 104 broader analysis of the timing of late Quaternary lake formation across the Nefud (Rosenberg 105 et al., 2013), which reported no Holocene lake MANUSCRIPTformation; similarly, no evidence for lake 106 formation during the early Holocene has been reported from neighbouring regions such as 107 Jordan (Petit-Maire et al., 2010; Cordova et al., 2013).