We sequenced Early Neolithic genomes from the Zagros region of Iran (eastern Fertile Crescent), where some of the earliest evidence for farming is found, and identify a previously uncharacterized population that is neither ancestral to the first European farmers nor has contributed substantially to the ancestry of modern Europeans. These people are estimated to have separated from Early Neolithic farmers in Anatolia some 46,000 to 77,000 years ago and show affinities to modern-day Pakistani and Afghan populations, but particularly to Iranian Zoroastrians. We conclude that multiple, genetically differentiated hunter-gatherer populations adopted farming in southwestern Asia, that components of pre-Neolithic population structure were preserved as farming spread into neighboring regions, and that the Zagros region was the cradle of eastward expansion

In Oman, the presence of highly productive marine environments, coupled with relatively limited land resources, have led to intense exploitation of coastal resources, but the question of the seasonality of occupation of coastal sites remains open. Our aim is to evaluate the contribution of marine resources to the diet of the Neolithic population of Ra's al-Hamra 5 (RH-5) to shed new light on its mobility, using stable isotopes and radiocarbon ((14)C) dating as dietary tracers. Charcoal, shell, human bone and enamel apatite from eight contemporary graves were sampled. Graves are thought to provide the best chance to obtain marine and terrestrial remains that were contemporary with the human remains in order to calculate the marine reservoir effect (MRE) for this period. Inter-individual variation in human bone apatite δ(13)C value is small, suggesting a homogenous diet. Bone apatite (14)C ages are very close to the shell ages while enamel is significantly younger and plots near the charcoal ages. Older enamel ages were obtained when a stronger acetic treatment was used, demonstrating that the young ages are due to diagenetic alteration rather than a diachronic change in diet and that only bone apatite retained in vivo dietary signals. Bone ages indicate a heavy reliance on marine resources and it is therefore unlikely that the individuals analyzed here were leaving the coast seasonally, although mobility along the coast cannot be excluded.

This article describes the potential interest in forensic anthropology of the microscopic analysis of dental calculus deposits (DCD), a calcified residue frequently found on the surface of teeth. Its sampling and analysis seem straightforward and relatively reproducible. Samples came from archaeological material (KHB-1 Ra's al-Khabbah and RH-5 Ra's al-Hamra, two Prehistoric graveyards located in the Sultanate of Oman, dated between the 5th and 4th millennium B.C.; Montenzio Vecchia, an Etruscan-Celtic necropolis from the north of Italy, dated between the 5th and 3rd century B.C.; body rests of Agnès Sorel, French royal mistress died in 1450 A.D.; skeleton of Pierre Hazard, French royal notary from the 15th century A.D.). Samples were studies by direct optical microscope (OM) or scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Many cytological, histological and elemental analyses were possible, producing precious data for the identification of these remains, the reconstitution of their alimentation and occupational habits, and propositions for manner of death.

Ra’s al-Hamra 6 (RH-6) is one of the earliest stratified archaeological sites along the eastern littoral of the Arabian Peninsula. This shell midden was radiocarbon dated to the 6th–5th millennium cal BC, but the majority of the dates were obtained before the advent of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating and suffer from large uncertainties. In addition, most of these dates were obtained on marine and mangrove shells and required correction for local variations from the global average marine 14C reservoir age (MRA). This proved difficult because no consensus value exists for this period in the area. Recent excavations at RH-6 offered the opportunity to redate this important site in order to precisely determine its occupation history and later use as a graveyard, and establish the marine reservoir effect for this time period. Thirty-eight samples of charcoal, shells, and human bone apatite were selected for 14C dating. Bayesian modeling of the 14C dates suggests that the formation of the shell midden spanned ~1 millennium, between the mid-6th and the mid-5th millennium cal BC. Positive and consistent ΔR values were calculated throughout the entire sequence, ranging from 99±27 to 207±43 14C yr. At the beginning of the 4th millennium cal BC, RH-6 was used as a graveyard, as suggested by the 14C dating of a shell in strict association with an individual buried at the surface of the site. 14C dating of human bone apatite allowed us to calculate that 89% of this individual’s diet derived from marine resources. This finding confirms previous observations showing the overwhelming presence of marine and mangrove-dwelling species in the faunal and charcoal assemblage, and implies a low mobility, or mobility restricted to the coast for this population during the 4th millennium cal BC.

Oral conditions from the Neolithic coastal populations denote a diet mainly composed of unprocessed and abrasive food, with high protein and low carbohydrate intakes, and frequent stress episodes. Although Hafit populations display some changes in oral pathologies, which indicate modifications in their lifestyle and a diversification of the diet, no markers of high carbohydrate intakes were observed in our samples. The impact of agriculture on oral health appears clearly only from the Umm an-Nar period, and is more intense inland than on the coast, where marine resources are still a main component of the diet.

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The NeoArabia project tries to understand how environmental, social, economic and technological factors work in concert to influence settlement and abandonment along a latitudinal transect of 1200 km from UAE to southern Oman. This region was affected by wide north-south variations in the Indo-Arabian monsoon, marine upwelling activity and eustatic variations in the Mid-Holocene. On the local settlement scale, this transect is based on fine stratigraphic excavations and permits the reconstruction of the site formation processes and site catchment analysis. A large number of studies have been conducted on the Ruways-1 site, focusing on a deep stratified sequence corresponding to three millennia of occupation. These studies include on-site climate-environmental signal analysis, local palaeogeography and environmental reconstruction, reservoir effect studies, typo-technological studies, palaeoeconomic strategies, anthropological studies, sclerochronological studies and, finally, site formation processes, the understanding of which makes it possible to explain the potential and limits of the archaeological excavation. The first results confirm the richness of these archaeological archives for documenting the socio-environmental dynamics, but also the richness of its complex sedimentary structure and the importance of conducting fine and multidisciplinary excavations to answer questions about the rhythms and functions of occupations and the causalities of socioenvironmental changes. K E Y W O R D S Coastal Neolithic, geoarcheology, shell midden, site catchment, site formation processes, Sultanate of Oman F I G U R E 8 (a) Map of the Ruways micro-region with the proposed Neolithic extension of a wide open lagoon with mangrove ecosystems (in purple) and the two khors situated on each side of the current village of Ruways, with the position of the four geological cores (yellow stars) and the RWY-1 site (orange area). (b) Electrical resistivity tomography section of the current sabkha located in the western part of the RWY-1 site, with the main superficial sedimentary formations and the location of core 4. (c) Lithological sequence of core 4 with the radiocarbon dating series on shells in BP and in cal. yr BC age [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Abstract