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Persian Gulf sites hint at possible habitation 120,000 years ago

Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 17 December 2010  Page Views: 6759

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Emerging archeological evidence points to early human habitation 120,000 years ago in a Persian "Gulf Oasis" now underwater, suggests one archaeologist. In the upcoming Current Anthropology journal study, Jeffrey Rose of the University of Birmingham, points to stone tools from 40 archaeological sites throughout the Middle East to suggest that modern humans left Africa earlier than many model suggest (typically around 60,000 years ago), and populated Arabian coastal areas now underwater.

"The emerging picture of prehistoric Arabia suggests that early modern humans were able to survive periodic hyperarid oscillations by contracting into environmental refugia around the coastal margins of the peninsula," begins the study. The end of an Ice Age flooded today's Persian Gulf around 8,000 years ago, Rose notes, as sea levels rose. "There is a noticeable spike in settlement activity around the shoreline of the Gulf between 8,500 and 6,000 years ago," Rose says.

Archeologist Geoffrey Bailey of the United Kingdom's University of York, says the study's suggestion that Arabian continental shelves served as good environments for human during Ice Ages, "and served as a source of population expansion in the early Holocene (last 10,000 years), is an attractive one."

However, Robert Carter of the UK's Oxford Brookes University, questions the links that Rose sees between ancient stone age tools and the later Sumerian civilization, in a commentary accompanying the report.

"Unless one completely dismisses the notion that lithic technology is passed down the generations, there are problems with assigning both the populations of southern Mesopotamia and eastern Arabia to the same demographic origin in the Gulf basin. The leptolithic (blade-based) industry of early southern Mesopotamia has little in common with the Arabian bifacial tradition(s) that prevailed in the Arabian Peninsula between 8 and 6 (thousand years ago)," Carter writes.

Rose alludes to suggestions that the Biblical "Garden of Eden" and Noah's Ark stories may have a basis in the pre-flood Persian Gulf, to conclude his study. "Albeit epiphenomenal, it is interesting to note that the oldest known version of the ubiquitous Near Eastern flood myth, the "Eridu genesis", was written by the inhabitants of this region. The link between flood mythology and marine incursion into the Arabo-Persian Gulf basin has already been thoroughly explored by a number of authors and does not require any further elucidation"

More, with a photo at USA Today
Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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"Persian Gulf sites hint at possible habitation 120,000 years ago" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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5,000-year-old burial sites discovered in Sohar by Andy B on Monday, 19 December 2011
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An area of 600sqkm has been covered and many new sites have been found, expert says.

At least 5,000 year old burial sites have been discovered by archaeologists during the two-year-long Sohar Heritage Project, according to a press release from the Ministry of Heritage and Culture on Sunday.

The ministry-run project, which has carried out major survey within Sohar town and surrounding areas, is mainly funded by the industrial sector in the this port town.

"An area of 600sqkm has been covered and many new sites have been found that will shed light on Oman and its glorious past," informs to Biubwa Ali Al Sabri, Director of Excavation and Archaeological Sites at the Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

She added that many of the sites found in Sohar are burial sites belonging to the Wadi Souq period (1900- 1100 BC). "Also older sites that are as old as 5000 years have been found and a distinctive pattern can be seen within the area that stretches from Liwa to Gyal as Shabol," pointed out the Omani archaeology expert.

"Many Islamic sites have also been found that have the potential to shed light of how Sohar has come to develop. Also other surveys have been conducted over the years in the area but not in this scale," Al Sabri added.

"This will also be something that can be used in other projects within and outside the Ministry of Heritage and Culture as a base for future development of Omani heritage," said Swedish Project manager Gunnar Ohrnell.
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"We have now covered a large area where we have found such a large number of sites that cover different time periods. This will throw light on the heritage in the area, and also form a base for future research on the many aspects of the cultures in the past."

Sohar Heritage Project, in its final year of work, is now involved in a survey of the mining sites in the Sohar town.

"Mining played an important role during the prehistory of Oman in general and especially to Sohar where the copper trade was flourishing," pointed out the Omani archaeologist.

She also pointed out that earlier excavations in Sohar had unearthed proofs of Oman's connections both with India, China and the city states of Mesopotamia.

"We also know through text from the old archives in Mesopotamia that Oman, or Magan as it was referred to in ancient times, played an important role as an exporter," Al Sabri added.

"With this, more facts can be retrieved from the excavated material," believes Ohrenell.

"By examining the bones we are not only able to determine health issues, but also sex and age of an individual," added the Swedish archaeologist, who also trained Omani archaeologist during the project.

"This is very valuable when within a larger sample from a burial site pattern can be seen. This new knowledge can also be studied in combined with other studies of for example artefact studies to retrieve new knowledge. This type of osteological analysis is the only one to unveil the medical and social aspects and this also have the potential to examine older material with new questions in mind," added Ohrnell.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/oman/5-000-year-old-burial-sites-discovered-in-sohar-1.948807

with thanks to coldrum for the link
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Iron Age settlements unearthed in Oman by coldrum on Sunday, 23 October 2011
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Iron Age settlements unearthed in Oman

The findings include remains of human bones, beads and other archaeological objects'

Archaeologists with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture have unearthed evidence of Iron Age (2000-3000 BC) settlements in Oman during excavation in the Sohar Port area, according to Biubwa Ali Al Sabri, Director of Excavation and Archaeological Studies at the Ministry.

"The findings include remains of human bones, beads and other archaeological objects,” she said in a statement emailed to Gulf News.

She reckons that the findings would help archaeologist in understanding more about the cultural history.

According to the senior archaeologist excavations were carried out in as many as 57 burial sites. "These sites dated back to the intervening period of the second millennium BC and the first millennium BC, also known as Wadi Suq era between 2000BC and 300BC,” she further said.

"As the site of those cemeteries spread over the hills and the valleys, the Ministry divided the site into five sections," she informed.

Biubwa further said that keeping in view the importance of maintaining the cultural heritage, the Ministry paid special attention to preserving archaeological sites, albeit without hampering the ongoing development projects.

"We've had several meetings between the Heritage Sector in the Ministry and the management of Sohar Port and decided to have rescue excavations in some sections of those 57 graves,” she said, adding that this excavation was funded by the management of Sohar Port, she said.

The excavation work was conducted by five specialists from the national team at the Ministry of Heritage and Culture with the help from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) technicians, specialised in lifting and drawing archaeological evidence.

“A specialist in the study of bones was flown from Sweden by the management of Sohar Port,” said Biubwa.

The graves discovered at the site were built above the surface having an exterior wall built by two-row of stones with an additional internal wall for the burial chamber.

Among the discoveries found in these cemeteries are human bones and skulls. The archaeologist also found bones and teeth of horse in a grave, which was characterized by the existence of two rooms, one for the man's burial and other for the horse.

She said that this particular grave was named as the grave of the Knight and the horse.

In addition, glass vessels fragments, beads made from gold, silver, carnelian stone and shells, earrings, rings made of bronze, iron, and, other materials were also found.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/oman/iron-age-settlements-unearthed-in-oman-1.729771
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First Australians did not boost fire activity 50,000 years ago by Andy B on Friday, 17 December 2010
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The arrival of the first people in Australia about 50,000 years ago did not result in significantly greater fire activity, according to a landmark new research report on the continent's fire history going back 70,000 years.

Despite a widely held belief that the frequent use of fire by Aboriginal people resulted in vegetation change and other environmental impacts in prehistoric times, the most comprehensive study of Australian charcoal records has found they had no major impact on fire regimes.

The arrival of European colonists after 1788, however, resulted in a substantial increase in fire activity, according to the report by an international team of 19 scientists led by palaeoecologist Dr Scott Mooney, of the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

On large time scales, overall fire activity in Australia predominantly reflects prevailing climate, with less activity in colder glacial periods and more in the warmer interglacials, the study found.

"Ideas about prehistoric fire continue to influence debates concerning natural resource management, with suggestions that Aboriginal-like fire management – that is, frequent and low- intensity fires - could prevent some of the massive bushfires we have seen in modern times in Australia," says Dr Mooney.

"Yet when we correlate the archeological evidence of increased human activity over the past 40,000 years with the composite charcoal record, we find no fundamental shift that could be associated with the colonization of Australia by Aboriginal people. While this may seem contrary to prior studies, it should be remembered that it is only very recently that enough charcoal records have become available at a continental scale to analyse them with robust statistical techniques.

"Australia includes some of the most fire-prone landscapes on Earth and fire has major impacts on the native flora and fauna, on landscape stability and on the cycling of nutrients through soil and water.

"Rather than prehistoric people, we found that the major driver of fire activity in Australasia has been shifts between warm and cool climatic periods."

Australian plants have developed a variety of responses and morphological and reproductive adaptations to fire, including the widespread use of re-sprouting, suggesting that fire has played an important role over evolutionary time scales, the report notes. Many species require regular fire in order to persist, particularly evident in humid but intermittently drought-prone environments where eucalypt trees dominate the vegetation.

The study was based on an analysis of charcoal records at 223 sites from Australasia, including New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Despite some gaps in place and time, the researchers say these data provide a comprehensive coverage of climate and vegetation types found in the region.

The team notes that the number and geographic distribution of charcoal records for the period between about 60,000 and 28,000 years ago makes Australasia one of the best-documented regions of the world during that time.

The records show that bushfire activity was high from about 70,000 to about 28,000 years ago. It then decreased until about 18,000 years ago, then increased again – a pattern consistent with fire and climate trends globally.

Source:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-australians-boost.html
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