PALEOENVIRONMENT. THE STONE AGE DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.4.003-025 A.P. Derevianko Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia E-mail: [email protected] The Middle Paleolithic of Arabia* The study focuses on the origin and evolution of the Middle Paleolithic in the Arabian Peninsula, a major crossroads of human and animal migrations connecting Africa with Eurasia in the Late Middle and Early Late Pleistocene. Middle Paleolithic human dispersal in Arabia was caused by intermittent environmental changes and related fl uctuations of the Bab-el-Mandeb level. A key role in the African Middle Paleolithic was played by Afro-Arabian Nubian lithic industries showing characteristic Levallois features and associated with anatomically modern humans who had migrated from Africa. Arabian fi nds are discussed with reference to the Out-of-Africa and Multiregional models of human evolution. Based on the totality of cranial, archaeological, and paleogenetic data, it is proposed that modern humankind emerged from an admixture of at least four related taxa, which had evolved in Africa and Eurasia. A hypothesis about the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa across Arabia to Southeast Asia and Sahul 70–50 ka BP is discussed. Keywords: Aridization, pluvials, Pleistocene, Levallois reduction method, bifaces, Afro-Arabian Nubian industry. The main Middle Paleolithic sites would emerge between the African and Arabian shores. of Arabia During aridization of the climate on the Peninsula, desertifi cation would intensify, particularly in the interior Owing to its geographical position, the Arabian Peninsula, areas. Areas of comfortable living environment would just as the Levantine corridor, was an extremely shrink, and human communities would concentrate important transition region for animals and humans, around paleolakes, in refugia where there were available migrating between Africa and Eurasia. The possibility water sources. The prolonged habitation of human groups for migration through Arabia was determined by climatic in isolation triggered the appearance of new techniques conditions. Over 3 million square kilometers of the of primary and secondary lithic reduction. During the Peninsula are covered with deserts. During periods of pluvials, the areas of human and animal habitation would cooling, an arid climate would emerge in Arabia, when expand, and migrations within the Arabian Peninsula the sea level would decrease and the Bab-el-Mandeb would become more intense. Moving between Africa would dry out, or large areas of ground with small and Eurasia would become hampered owing to the rise channels, passable for human and animal migrations, of the sea level, when the Bab-el-Mandeb would become a serious obstacle. *Supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project According to its natural environment, Arabia belongs No. 14-50-00036). to the Saharo-Arabian phytogeographic region. From Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 44/4 (2016) 3–25 Email: [email protected] © 2016 Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences © 2016 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences © A.P. Derevianko 2016 3 4 A.P. Derevianko / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 44/4 (2016) 3–25 this point of view, the most favorable periods for the would move to the areas with a more favorable climate, settlement of humans in the Peninsula in the Middle and migrations from north to south and back would Paleolithic were MIS 5e and 5a*, and the fi rst half of MIS 3 become more active. (Sanlaville, 1992; Rose, 2004; Rosenberg et al., 2012; The dynamics of migration fl ows between Africa and Drake, Breeze, Parker, 2013; and others). After 115 ka Arabia largely depended on sea level changes. When BP, when Arabia and the Levant had the most favorable the sea level was lower, significant areas of coastal environmental conditions for vegetation, the Sahara plains would emerge in Arabia and become inhabited and all of North Africa experienced a period of strong by humans. A reverse process would occur when the aridization (Drake, Breeze, Parker, 2013). In MIS 5.2 sea level would rise: the sea would swallow the coastal (100–90 ka BP), Arabia also underwent considerable areas, including those where Paleolithic sites used to aridization (Preusser, 2009). In the fi rst half of MIS 3 be located. Therefore, the sites that emerged during (55–50 ka BP), conditions for human habitation in the regression of the sea are presently not available Arabia slightly improved, as is evidenced by the sites in for archaeological study. As it was mentioned above, the area of Wadi Surdud in the western part (Delagnes the periods of warming and increased humidity were et al., 2012) and Jebel Faya 1 (the upper cultural layers) favorable for the movement of people from Africa to in the eastern part of the Peninsula (Armitage et al., Arabia and within Arabia, but at the same time, the 2011). Both sites were located in a kind of refugium with strait separating the south of Arabia from Africa also reliable sources of water. expanded. This mismatch of various parts of the region The periods when pluvial and arid conditions in their climatic conditions determined the specific did not coincide in various parts of the region, were nature of human settlement in Arabia in the Pleistocene. most favorable for migration processes. The specifi c In Arabia, no paleoanthropological fi nds of the Early environmental situation in the Arabian Peninsula and Middle Pleistocene have been discovered. The determined the character of human settlement in the most numerous Lower Paleolithic sites in this region region and the techno-typological features of the belong to the Acheulean tradition (Petraglia, 2003). industry in the Middle Paleolithic. We should mention A number of Lower Paleolithic localities with pebble- the possibility of multiple human migrations from Africa and-fl ake and Acheulean industries were discovered in into Arabia at the end of the Middle/Late Pleistocene, Arabia by the Soviet-Yemen expedition, which worked and a wide variety of industries, which resulted from for 20 years starting in 1992. The expedition results the prolonged isolated habitation of human populations have been summarized by K.A. Amirkhanov (1991, around paleolakes in extremely arid periods. When the 2006) in numerous articles and two monographs. The climate would become warmer and more humid, arid earliest Paleolithic localities with the pebble-and- steppes and deserts would turn into semi-arid savannah, fl ake industry, found by the expedition members, date the territories of comfortable human habitation would between 1.65–1.35 Ma BP (Amirkhanov, 2006). During greatly expand, and the humans could have migrated the fi eld work, 21 sites with the Acheulean industry not only all over the Peninsula, but also from Africa to were found in addition to the sites with the pebble-and- Arabia and back (Rosenberg et al., 2011, 2012), as well fl ake industry. Four sites with the Acheulean industry, as to the neighboring regions. Mashhad I, III, IV, and V, have been identified as Thus, there were several periods of warming stratifi ed sites. accompanied by increased humidity in the Late Sites in various geomorphological positions containing Pleistocene. Humans inhabited not only oases but also the Acheulean industry were studied by Amirkhanov in desert areas of Arabia. Particularly favorable was the several provinces of South Yemen. They form several initial period of the last interglacial stage, when a warm groups oriented in a west-east direction. The easternmost and humid climate was established in the Peninsula, group comprised localities of Wadi Dawan, the western and an arid climate was established over a signifi cant group—localities in the Jebel Tala area. They are part of Northeast Africa. The population in Arabia separated by approximately 700 km. decreased during cooling and aridization. The prolonged A total of 342 artifacts were discovered at the sites, habitation of hunter-gatherer groups in isolated natural including 52 artifacts identifi ed as bifaces or partially and climatic niches led to technological divergence and prepared biface-like tools. The majority of the finds the emergence of local Middle Paleolithic industries. represented waste products or the results of raw material At the time when climate conditions in the Levant and testing. The tool set was dominated by a variety of side- Arabia signifi cantly differed, hunter-gatherer groups scrapers. Products of primary reduction at the Acheulean *The designation of intervals according to oxygen isotope localities of South Arabia were mostly represented by stages (numeric and alphabetic) in this article corresponds to that single-platform cores. Double-platform cores were very of the studies listed in the references. scarce. A small number of cores did not have specially- A.P. Derevianko / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 44/4 (2016) 3–25 5 prepared striking platforms, and hammerstone strikes The Soviet-Yemen Expedition of K.A. Amirkhanov were applied against the natural surface. The majority discovered Middle Paleolithic sites mainly in Western of cores showed striking platforms shaped by one or Hadhramaut (Wadi Dawan and Wadi Al-Gabr). In two transverse spalls. Quite often, striking surfaces total, 11 sites with shallow cultural layers were found. constituted a sharp angle with the flaking surface. Amirkhanov (2006) united them into a single cultural and Additional rejuvenation of the striking platform was not chronological group on the basis of the unity of the sites performed. Cores were reduced by removing parallel according to their geomorphological position, techno- and sub-parallel massive blades and blade-fl akes. As typological features, similarity of raw materials, and the Amirkhanov observed, “Firstly, we cannot speak about degree of patina formation and weathering of the objects’ the borrowing of this technique, since it emerged very surfaces.