Route planning in the Palaeolithic? (poster)

Abstract

A systematic survey of the western fringes of the al-Hajar mountains to the south of Sharjah Emirate, by the PADMAC Unit during 2011, led to the discovery often Palaeolithic surface-sites/scatters in an area crossed at several points by the United Arab Emirates/Oman borders. In addition, the central area of the mountains adjacent to this region was surveyed but no stone tools of any description were found. The ten newly discovered Palaeolithic assemblages exhibit affinities to the fourteen Middle Palaeolithic assemblages we had previously found (2006-2008) in a similar context along the western fringes of the mountains, but further north in the Emirates of Sharjah and Ra's al-Khaymah. This interim report examines the implications of these findings as they relate to the understanding of hominin dispersals and use of the landscape in this region, as all twenty-four Palaeolithic surface-sites/scatters occur on a clearly defined north-south line of foothills, with readily available resources of outcropping seams of knappable chert, wadi systems, small caves/rock-shelters, and long views to the west, over what are now alluvial fan gravel plains but areas of which may have been lakes at various times during the Palaeolithic period. The conspicuous distribution pattern of these Palaeolithic surface-site/scatters suggests, perhaps, hominin expansion along the western fringes of the al-Hajar mountains - a cognitive process of prediction, in which Palaeolithic people envisaged a suitable future location from a current preferred real location, in essence a 'Palaeolithic highway'.

Full text

Route planning in the Palaeolithic?
Julie Scott-JackSon & William Scott-JackSon
Summary
A systematic survey of the western fringes of the al-Дajar mountains to the south of Sharjah Emirate, by the PADMAC Unit
during 2011, led to the discovery of ten Palaeolithic surface-sites/scatters in an area crossed at several points by the United Arab
Emirates/Oman borders. In addition, the central area of the mountains adjacent to this region was surveyed but no stone tools of any
description were found. The ten newly discovered Palaeolithic assemblages exhibit afnities to the fourteen Middle Palaeolithic
assemblages we had previously found (2006–2008) in a similar context along the western fringes of the mountains, but further
north in the Emirates of Sharjah and RaΜs al-Khaymah. This interim report examines the implications of these ndings as they
relate to the understanding of hominin dispersals and use of the landscape in this region, as all twenty-four Palaeolithic surface-
sites/scatters occur on a clearly dened north–south line of foothills, with readily available resources of outcropping seams of
knappable chert, wadi systems, small caves/rock-shelters, and long views to the west, over what are now alluvial fan gravel plains
but areas of which may have been lakes at various times during the Palaeolithic period. The conspicuous distribution pattern of
these Palaeolithic surface-site/scatters suggests, perhaps, hominin expansion along the western fringes of the al-Дajar mountains
— a cognitive process of prediction, in which Palaeolithic people envisaged a suitable future location from a current preferred real
location, in essence a ‘Palaeolithic highway’.
Keywords: Middle Palaeolithic, hominin dispersal, United Arab Emirates, Oman, surface-sites/scatters.
Background
The spatial distribution of Palaeolithic surface-sites/
scatters (Ps-s/s) and excavated sites across the Arabian
Peninsula and around the Arabian Gulf provides the
means to formulate and analyse models of Palaeolithic
hominin occupations and dispersals, including the
hypothesis proposed by several authors (i.e. Lahr & Foley
1994; 1998; Stringer 2000; Petraglia & Alsharekh 2003),
with supporting genetic evidence (Forster & Matsumura
2005; Oppenheimer 2011), of a ‘southern dispersal’ of
anatomically modern humans (AMH) from the Horn of
Africa across the southern end of the Red Sea at the Bab
al-Mandab straits, the Arabian Peninsula, and onwards
into Eurasia. AMH are generally considered to have been
present in East Africa by c.200 kya (e.g. McDougall,
Brown & Fleagle 2005; Stewart & Stringer 2012), with
the initial crossing of the Red Sea by AMH thought to
have occurred during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5
(130–71 kya). The suggested optimum date is at the onset
of MIS 5e (c.130 kya), as at this time the climate had
ameliorated but the sea level was relatively low (Rohling
et al. 2009; Blome et al. 2012). Low sea levels in the
Arabian Gulf during MIS 5d and 5b and between 74
kya and 14 kya would have provided a land connection
between south-eastern Arabia and Iran (Serreze &
Francis 2006) and also, genetic evidence (Macaulay et
al. 2005) suggests that AMH migrations along the rim of
the Indian Ocean occurred rapidly at c.65 kya following
a coastal route to avoid the hyper-arid deserts of Arabia.
The evolutionary history of hominins outside Africa
is fragmentary (Reich et al. 2010) and many questions
relating to Pleistocene hominin dispersal, particularly in
Arabia, remain unanswered. The focus of this interim
report is a consideration of Palaeolithic hominin use
of the landscape in the al-Дajar mountain region of the
UAE/Oman (Fig. 1).
Regional setting
The al-Дajar mountains, to the east of the UAE, rise
to c.2000 m before falling away to the Gulf of Oman.
On the western side of these mountains are alluvial fan
gravels and desert (the northern part of the RubΜ al-
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 43 (2013): 1–16

Khālī). Further to the west is the Arabian Gulf and to the
north the narrow Strait of Hormuz separating northern
UAE from southern Iran. The geology of this region is
complex. Large areas of the country are covered with
Quaternary sediments, whereas the bedrock geology is
well exposed in the al-Дajar mountains. On the western
fringes of the al-Дajar mountains, where the UAE/Oman
ophiolite outcrops, there are also isolated bedrock inliers
of Cretaceous to Tertiary age and outcrops of highly
variable deposits, which occur along the mountain front
and as isolated inliers within alluvial fans and the dune
elds. Characteristic of these inliers on the western
fringes of the mountains are outcropping seams of red/
brown chert as inclusions in the silicied rocks and
deposits (Farrant et al. 2006a; 2006b).
Rationale and methods
Well-dated excavated Palaeolithic sites produce site-
specic data of international importance but such sites are
rare in Arabia. Moreover, data derived from individual
excavated sites do not necessarily provide information
on Palaeolithic peoples’ use of landscape as a whole, as
often the only evidence of their presence in a locale or
region is Ps-s/s. In order that this evidence can be fully
utilized, the PADMAC Unit (Palaeolithic Artefacts
Figure 1. A Digital Terrain Map showing Palaeolithic surface-sites/scatters discovered by the PADMAC Unit.
2

and associated Deposits in a Middle Eastern [Arabian]
Context) has developed a varied and evolving suite of
techniques and analytical procedures for the investigation
of Ps-s/s (Scott-Jackson & Scott-Jackson 2012). The use
of these techniques and methodologies produces valuable
data and results, especially considering the scarcity of
alternative comprehensive approaches.
Research questions
The PADMAC Unit’s ongoing research (from 2006 to
date) has been aimed at identifying areas with Palaeolithic
potential (PP) and locating Ps-s/s (predominately in
the UAE) with the challenge of rendering repeatable,
testable datasets which can address questions particularly
associated with Palaeolithic hominin habitat range and
location. For example: ‘Where did these hunter-gatherers
go and why did they choose specic areas?’ Other
questions relating to the provision of resources across the
whole landscape are: ‘What resource (or resources) in any
one place was the focus of their choice? Also, what were
their concerns in making those choices?’ For example:
‘What type of raw material did they generally use, in that
area, to make stone tools?’
As previously noted, the effect of eustatic lowering
of sea levels facilitated the dispersal of Palaeolithic
hominins out of Africa and into southern Arabia. A low
sea level (at any one place and time) does not necessarily
equate to an unobstructed/unimpeded coastal route, for
example, where mountains rise directly from the sea,
a situation that exists in the northernmost region of
Oman (the Musandam peninsula). Here, the rugged al-
Дajar mountains, which jut out into the Gulf of Oman
and the steep continental margin, may well have proved
an obstacle to hominin coastal dispersal, even when
sea levels were relatively low. Although subsequent
rising sea levels are thought to have destroyed/buried
much Palaeolithic coastal archaeology in both Yemen
and Oman, within these countries there is abundant
Palaeolithic archaeology (Rose et al. 2011).
UAE eldwork projects 2006–2011
From 2006 to 2009, we reported (Scott-Jackson, Scott-
Jackson & Jasim 2007; Scott-Jackson JE et al. 2008;
Scott-Jackson, Scott-Jackson & Rose 2009) the discovery
of fourteen clearly delineated Middle Palaeolithic
surface-sites/scatters (MPs-s/s) on inliers of karst-like
silicied deposits (with outcropping seams of knappable
red/brown chert) along the western fringes of the al-
Дajar mountains in the Emirates of Sharjah and RaΜs al-
Khaymah (Fig. 1). The ve in situ Middle Palaeolithic sites
found on high ridges or hilltops were ideally placed for
the manufacturing of stone tools (from locally available
chert) and for observing the movements of animals and/
or perhaps other hunters across the plains and/or wadis
below. The other nine MPs-s/s were found as discrete
scatters on low hills or wadi terraces associated with the
outcrops of chert, from which the artefacts were made.
The linear distribution pattern of these fourteen MPs-s/s
alludes to a conjecture that if Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers
were facing increasing difculties and obstructions as
their occupation expanded northwards through Oman,
they may well have avoided the coast and moved inland
into/through the mountains.
Our 2011 research/eldwork project was therefore
aimed at identifying evidence of PP in the central/eastern
region of the al-Дajar mountains and of a possible route
through the mountains that may have relevance to the
fourteen MPs-s/s in Sharjah and RaΜs al-Khaymah. The
most appropriate area to begin the search was the central
southern region (CSR) of RaΜs al-Khaymah (Fig. 2),
particularly as this area had not previously been surveyed
for Palaeolithic archaeology (Christian Velde, personal
communication 2011). In this region there is an ancient
route through the mountains known as the Hatta Gap (Wādī
Дattā) that links the coast of Oman to the western side of
al-Дajar. Prior to eldwork, we conducted a detailed desk-
based assessment of the al-Дajar mountains in the CSR of
RaΜs al-Khaymah. This included a virtual (3D-projected)
walk through the mountains, with particular reference to
the recorded geology, sedimentology, and geomorphology
and the targeting of specic areas with a known PP (i.e.
ridges, high and low foothills, and wadi terraces). Similar
locations are recorded for Palaeolithic archaeology in
other areas of the Arabian Peninsula (e.g. Smith 1997;
Rose & Petraglia 2009).
In December 2011 (following the desk-based
assessment), we undertook an extensive survey in
the mountainous CSR of RaΜs al-Khaymah, radiating
out from Дattā and taking transects across different
landscape regimes: ridges; high and low foothills (of
various geology); wadi terraces; chert outcrops; areas
with knappable stone; and wadi bottoms and gullies were
all investigated but we failed to nd stone tools of any
description.
Using the same methods and techniques (Scott-Jackson
& Scott-Jackson 2012), we next explored the western
fringes of al-Дajar, but this time in the most southerly
part of Sharjah Emirate and south of the earlier PADMAC
Route planning in the Palaeolithic? 3

Unit investigations (Scott-Jackson, Scott-Jackson & Jasim
2007; Scott-Jackson JE et al. 2008; Scott-Jackson, Scott-
Jackson & Rose 2009) in an area crossed at several points
by the UAE/Oman borders (Fig. 1).
Within just two days of surveying this area we
discovered four in situ Palaeolithic assemblages on high-
level ridges (two ridges were heavily eroded); three
discrete Ps-s/s on lower hills; and three Ps-s/s on wadi
terraces (Fig. 1). These ten newly identied Ps-s/s (full
techno-typological analysis is ongoing) exhibit notable
afnities (including Levallois unipolar points, Levallois
centripetal reduction, blade proportioned blanks) to the
fourteen MPs-s/s we had discovered previously (i.e. ve in
situ Middle Palaeolithic assemblages on high-level ridges
[one ridge was heavily eroded]; eight discrete MPs-s/s on
lower hills; and one MPs-s/s on a wadi terrace [Scott-
Jackson, Scott-Jackson & Rose 2009]). All twenty-four
assemblages were found on inliers of silicied karst-like
deposits with locally outcropping seams of knappable
red/brown chert and all the artefacts were made from this
locally available material. Furthermore, these twenty-
four Ps-s/s (and the stratied dated Palaeolithic site at
Jabal Fāyah [Armitage et al. 2011], which is less than 18
km to the west of the PADMAC Unit sites) occur on a
clearly dened north–south line along the western fringes
of the al-Дajar mountains (Fig. 1) where there are wadi
systems, small caves/rock shelters, and long views to the
west over alluvial fan gravel plains, areas of which may
well have been lakes during the Palaeolithic period (Ash
Parton, personal communication 2012).
Discussion
Although no evidence of a Palaeolithic route through the
al-Дajar mountains in the CSR of RaΜs al-Khaymah was
found during our 2011 survey, we are mindful that the
absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.
In contrast, however, the accumulated evidence derived
from our systematic surveys indicates that Palaeolithic
hunter-gatherers’ essential resources (i.e. knappable stone
from the chert outcrops on inliers of karst-like silicied
deposits, fresh water from the wadis, and game in the
foothills and wadis) could easily be obtained along the
western fringes of the al-Дajar mountains. The previous
comparative techno-typological analysis of the UAE
Middle Palaeolithic assemblages identied technological
Figure 2. A Digital Terrain Map showing the PADMAC Unit area of investigation in the al-Дajar mountains
(the central southern region of RaΜs al-Khaymah).
4

and typological afnities and differences (Scott-Jackson,
Scott-Jackson & Rose 2009; Armitage et al. 2011) but,
in the absence of fossil evidence, it could not provide
denitive information as to which particular species of
hominin manufactured the stone tools. The question then
is, do the Palaeolithic assemblages in this region of the
UAE represent an isolated AMH presence within which
technological development occurred in a self-contained
and independent social and spatial world? Or are they
indicative of something more complex? Was this region
of the Arabian Peninsula a refugium for various stone-
tool culture groups of AMH and/or Neanderthals or
conversely, a gateway into, and out of, Eurasia for both
AMH and Neanderthals?
Low sea levels (Serreze & Francis 2006) provided
an opportunity for AMH to cross the Arabian Gulf at
the Straits of Hormuz from the UAE to the southern
coast of Iran and into the Zagros Mountains. Equally,
Neanderthals could have arrived in the UAE by the same
route or perhaps along the southern coast of the Arabian
Gulf. Dashtizadeh (2009) reports nding Late Lower/
Middle Palaeolithic stone tools on the Iranian island of
Qeshm in the Straits of Hormuz (Fig. 1) and MPs-s/s have
also been found in the southern Zagros region of Iran
(Rose 2010). The possibility that AMH and Neanderthals
coexisted in the UAE region has been considered by
Oppenheimer (2011). Based on the genetic evidence, he
subscribes to the view that the Jābāl Fāyah Palaeolithic
toolmakers (Armitage et al. 2011) could very well be
Neanderthal, and also to the proposal by Green et al.
(2010) that a Neanderthal admixture into the population
ancestral to both West and East Eurasians (although not
denitive) was most likely to have occurred in southern
Arabia.
Certainly, the clearly dened north–south linear
distribution pattern of the twenty-four Ps-s/s, together
with the Jabal Fāyah site, perhaps suggest hominin
expansion along the western fringes of the al-Дajar
mountains — a cognitive process of prediction, in which
Palaeolithic people envisaged a suitable future location
from a current preferred real location, in essence a
‘Palaeolithic highway’.
The PADMAC Unit will undertake further research to
substantiate this ‘Palaeolithic highway’ hypothesis.
Acknowledgements
The PADMAC Unit would especially like to thank Dr
Christian Velde of the RaΜs al-Khaymah Department of
Antiquities and Museums and Dr Sabah Jasim, Director
of Antiquities in Sharjah, for their advice on, and support
of, these projects.
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Authors’ addresses
Julie Scott-Jackson, Director of the PADMAC Unit, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont
Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK.
e-mail julie.scott-jackson@arch.ox.ac.uk
William Scott-Jackson, Landscape Archaeologist, the PADMAC Unit, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford,
36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK.
e-mail william.scott-jackson@arch.ox.ac.uk
Route planning in the Palaeolithic? 7