Discoveries of Neolithic prehistoric sites at Pleistocene carbonate rock shelters on the east coast of the UAE

Abstract

Three newly discovered prehistoric sites on the east coast of the United Emirates (UAE) are described. All are located on surfaces of Pleistocene carbonates or rock shelters that are generally rare along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Oman. Aqqah 1 (Le Meridien al Aqqah Beach Resort), the most important and best preserved of these sites, is a partially collapsed rock shelter with an exposed section, lithic finds and marine molluscs. Deriving an exact date from the material present is difficult because of a lack of comparanda. A bifacial fletched arrowhead made of yellow jasper and the lithic debris of five different raw materials as well as an undecorated ceramic fragment might suggest a date in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. The presence of many marine bivalves and snails with operculae, which differ from recent coastal species, indicates the collection and consumption of living molluscs by the prehistoric population of Aqqah. Nearby burials may be related to the rock shelters.

New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis

“…There is a noticeable spike in settlement activity around the shoreline of the Gulf between 8,500 and 6,000 years ago, depicted in Stage IV of figure 5. In particular, the millennium lasting from 7500 to 6500 cal BP witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of archaeological sites around the basin from approximately 10 to more than 60 (Beech and Shepherd 2001;Beech et al 2005;Biagi 2006;Carter 2006;Diedrich 2006;Haerinck 2007;Howard Carter 1972;Inizan 1978Inizan , 1980Masry 1997;McClure and Al-Shaikh 1993;Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1996). Although part of that jump in settlement may be a shift from ephemeral hunting camps to more sedentary occupations with permanent architectural structures, thus, greater archaeological visibility, other indications in the material record suggest that the inhabitants of the region underwent a fundamental demographic transformation.…”

High abundance of introduced plants on ancient Native American middens

“…Shell middens created by humans are widespread on the world's coasts and provide an important source of information about past cultures, as for example in Africa (e.g., Tonner 2005), the Middle East (Diedrich 2006), South America (Stattegger et al 2006), Australia (Rosendahl et al 2007), andEurope (Van der Schriek et al 2007). Many coastal shell middens in California consist largely of the remains of mollusks harvested from rocky, intertidal habitats and can yield evidence about human impacts on marine fauna over hundreds to thousands of years (Erlandson et al 2005;Whitaker 2008;Braje et al 2009).…”

Spatial-Temporal Evolution of the Distribution Pattern of Neolithic Sites in Han River Basin, China

“…Many archaeological studies have focused on the spatial and temporal distribution of Neolithic sites and its interactive relationship with environmental changes and social development around the world. Tools produced in the Neolithic Age include bone tools (Olson and Walther 2007) and stone tools (Vaughan and Bocquet 1987), pottery (Willcox 1996); vegetation, such as Camelina sativa (Bouby 1998), abutilon (Medovic and Horváth 2012), and birch (Lucquin, March, and Cassen 2007); chemicals, such as nitrogen (Robson et al 2015), and carbonate (Diedrich 2006); and biological materials, such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA, Haak et al 2005) was the main materials that are studied. Radiocarbon (Wendrich, Taylor, and Southon 2010), isotopic (Choy, An, and Richards 2012), demographic (Roberts et al 2016), Geographic Information System (GIS), and remote sensing (RS) techniques are the main research methods for assessing the spatial-temporal distribution and driving factors of Neolithic sites.…”