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"Excavations (Archaeology) Arabian Peninsula."
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The archaeology of prehistoric Arabia : adaptation and social formation from the neolithic to the iron age
\"Encompassing a landmass greater than the rest of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean combined, the Arabian peninsula remains one of the last great unexplored regions of the ancient world. This book provides the first extensive coverage of the archaeology of this region from c. 9000 to 800 BC. Peter Magee argues that a unique social system, which relied on social cohesion and actively resisted the hierarchical structures of adjacent states, emerged during the Neolithic and continued to contour society for millennia later. The book also focuses on how the historical context in which Near Eastern archaeology was codified has led to a skewed understanding of the multiplicity of lifeways pursued by ancient peoples living throughout the Middle East\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The mustatils: cult and monumentality in Neolithic north-western Arabia
North-western Arabia is marked by thousands of prehistoric stone structures. Of these, the monumental, rectilinear type known as mustatils has received only limited attention. Recent fieldwork in AlUla and Khaybar Counties, Saudi Arabia, demonstrates that these monuments are architecturally more complex than previously supposed, featuring chambers, entranceways and orthostats. These structures can now be interpreted as ritual installations dating back to the late sixth millennium BC, with recent excavations revealing the earliest evidence for a cattle cult in the Arabian Peninsula. As such, mustatils are amongst the earliest stone monuments in Arabia and globally one of the oldest monumental building traditions yet identified.
Journal Article
The archaeology of prehistoric Arabia : adaptation and social formation from the neolithic to the iron age
\"Encompassing a landmass greater than the rest of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean combined, the Arabian peninsula remains one of the last great unexplored regions of the ancient world. This book provides the first extensive coverage of the archaeology of this region from c. 9000 to 800 BC. Peter Magee argues that a unique social system, which relied on social cohesion and actively resisted the hierarchical structures of adjacent states, emerged during the Neolithic and continued to contour society for millennia later. The book also focuses on how the historical context in which Near Eastern archaeology was codified has led to a skewed understanding of the multiplicity of lifeways pursued by ancient peoples living throughout the Middle East\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
The Southern Route \Out of Africa\: Evidence for an Early Expansion of Modern Humans into Arabia
The timing of the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa is a fundamental question in human evolutionary studies. Existing data suggest a rapid coastal exodus via the Indian Ocean rim around 60,000 years ago. We present evidence from Jebel Faya, United Arab Emirates, demonstrating human presence in eastern Arabia during the last interglacial. The tool kit found at Jebel Faya has affinities to the late Middle Stone Age in northeast Africa, indicating that technological innovation was not necessary to facilitate migration into Arabia. Instead, we propose that low eustatic sea level and increased rainfall during the transition between marine isotope stages 6 and 5 allowed humans to populate Arabia. This evidence implies that AMH may have been present in South Asia before the Toba eruption (1).
Journal Article
Mortuary and bioarchaeological perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia
This volume brings together an international consortium of archaeologists and bioarchaeologists at the forefront of mortuary archaeology work across Arabia to examine continuity/change in death and remembrance. While mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology contribute important perspectives to the interpretation of life/death in ancient Arabia, these subdisciplines are rarely brought together in this region, and only recently have skeletal remains been recognized as a rich source of scientific data complementing burial context. Such joint collaboration highlights the novel, interdisciplinary perspective proposed in this volume, resulting in a synthesis of new ideas and interpretations that will undoubtedly guide future archaeological endeavors in Arabia and beyond.
Book
Marking the sacral landscape of a north Arabian oasis: a sixth-millennium BC monumental stone platform and surrounding burials
Prehistoric stone structures are prominent and well-studied in the Levantine desert margins. In northern Arabia, however, such structures have received less attention. This article presents the results of investigations of a 35m-long stone platform, first constructed in the mid sixth millennium BC, overlooking the oasis of Dûmat al-Jandal in northern Saudi Arabia. Excavation of the platform has yielded bioarchaeological and cultural remains, along with evidence for several phases of construction and intermittent use down to the first millennium BC. Analysis of the platform and nearby tombs highlights the persistent funerary and ritual use of this area over millennia, illuminating nomadic pastoralist lifeways in prehistoric Arabia.
Journal Article
Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory
Studies of modern carnivore accumulations of bone (i.e., neo-taphonomy) are crucial for interpreting fossil accumulations in the archaeological and paleontological records. Yet, studies in arid regions have been limited in both number and detailed taphonomic data, prohibiting our understanding of carnivore bone-accumulating and -modifying behavior in dry regions. Here, we present a taphonomic analysis of an impressive carnivore-accumulated bone assemblage from the Umm Jirsan lava tube in the Harrat Khaybar region, Saudi Arabia. The size and composition of the bone accumulation, as well as the presence of hyena skeletal remains and coprolites, suggest that the assemblage was primarily accumulated by striped hyena (
Hyaena hyaena
). Our findings (1) identify potentially useful criteria for distinguishing between accumulations generated by different species of hyenas; (2) emphasize the need for neo-taphonomic studies for capturing the full variation in carnivore bone-accumulating and modifying behavior; (3) suggest that under the right settings, striped hyena accumulations can serve as good proxies for (paleo)ecology and livestock practices; and (4) highlight the potential for future research at Umm Jirsan, as well as at the numerous nearby lava tube systems. We encourage continued neo-taphonomic efforts in regions important in human prehistory, particularly in arid zones, which have received little research attention.
Journal Article
Neolithic pastoralism in marginal environments during the Holocene Humid Period, northern Saudi Arabia
The origins of agriculture in South-west Asia is a topic of continued archaeological debate. Of particular interest is how agricultural populations and practices spread inter-regionally. Was the Arabian Neolithic, for example, spread through the movement of pastoral groups, or did ideas perhaps develop independently? Here, the authors report on recent excavations at Alshabah, one of the first Neolithic sites discovered in Northern Arabia. The site’s material culture, environmental context and chronology provide evidence suggesting that well-adapted, seasonally mobile, pastoralist groups played a key role in the Neolithisation of the Arabian Peninsula.
Journal Article
Changing the prehistory of Sindh and Las Bela coast: twenty-five years of Italian contribution
This paper discusses the prehistory of Sindh and Las Bela coast (Balochistan) before and after partition, and the role played by the Italian archaeologists since the 1980s. Until a few years ago the prehistory of Sindh was known mainly from the impressive urban remains of the Indus civilization and the discovery of Palaeolithic assemblages in the desert landscapes close to India, while very little was known of the remains of other periods, their radiocarbon dating and the importance of the coastal zone. Our knowledge of the prehistory of the country has improved greatly during the last twenty-five years, thanks to systematic surveys and excavations in unexplored landscapes, which radically transformed our knowledge of the prehistoric archaeology of this important region of the Indian subcontinent.
Journal Article
Midian, Moab, and Edom : the history and archaeology of late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and north-west Arabia
Specialists from different fields converge on one relatively circumscribed and, until recently, largely neglected area of biblical archaeology. The eleven papers comprise archaeological reports from Buseira (Biblical Bozrah) and Wadi el Hasa in Moab, technical studies of Midianite and Edomite pottery, Iron Age burial practices and copper smelting in the Arabah, a semantic study of barzel ('iron') in Biblical Hebrew, and three essays of more general interest, on the history of the Ishmaelites and the Midianites.
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