About this book
The contemporary deserts of Arabia form some of the most dramatic arid landscapes in the world; yet, during many times in the past, the region was well-watered, containing evidence for rivers and lakes. Climatic fluctuations through time must have had a profound effect on human population that lived and passed through the region. In this book, paleoenvironmental specialists, archaeologists and geneticists are brought together to provide a comprehensive account of the evolution of human populations in Arabia. A wide range of topics is explored in this book, including environmental change and its impact on human populations, the movement and dispersal of populations through the region, and the origin and spread of food-producing economies. New theories and interpretations are presented that provide new insights into the evolution of human populations in a key region of the world.
Contents
1. Tracking the Origin and Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia / Jeffrey I. Rose and Michael D. Petraglia
Part I. Quaternary Environments and Demographic Response
2. The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin dispersals / Geoff Bailey
3. Pleistocene Climate Change in Arabia: Developing a Framework for Hominin Dispersal over the Last 350 ka / Adrian G. Parker
4. Environment and Long-term Population Trends in Southwest Arabia / Tony J. Wilkinson
Part II. Genetics and Migration
5. Mitochondrial DNA Structure of Yemeni Population: Regional Differences and the Implications for Different Migratory Contributions / Jakub Rídl, Christopher M. Edens, Viktor Černý
6. The Arabian Peninsula: Gate for Human Migrations Out of Africa or Cul-de-sac? A Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeographic Perspective / Vicente M. Cabrera, Khaled K. Abu-Amero, José M. Larruga, and Ana M. González
7. Bayesian coalescent inference from mitochondrial DNA variation of the colonization time of Arabia by the hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas hamadryas) / Carlos A. Fernandes
Part III. Pleistocene Archaeology
8. Acheulean Landscapes and Large Cutting Tool Assemblages in the Arabian Peninsula / Michael D. Petraglia, Nick Drake and Abdullah Alsharekh
9. A Middle Paleolithic Assemblage from Jebel Barakah, Coastal Abu Dhabi Emirate, Ghanim Wahida, Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti / Mark J. Beech, and Ali Al Meqbali
10. Paleolithic stone tool assemblages from Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates / Julie Scott-Jackson, William Scott-Jackson, and Jeffrey I. Rose
11. The Central Oman Palaeolithic Survey: Recent research in Southern Arabia and reflection on the prehistoric evidence / Reto Jagher
12. The Middle Paleolithic of Arabia: The View from the Hadramawt Region, Yemen / Rémy Crassard
13. The "Upper Paleolithic" of South Arabia / Jeffrey I. Rose and Vitaly I. Usik
14. The Late Pleistocene of Arabia in Relation to the Levant / Lisa A. Maher
Part IV. The Early Holocene
15. The Holocene (Re-)Occupation of Eastern Arabia / Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Daniel T. Potts, and Margarethe Uerpmann
16. Early Holocene in the highlands: data on the peopling of the eastern Yemen Plateau, with a note on the Pleistocene evidence / Francesco G. Fedele
17. Southern Arabia's Early Pastoral Population History: Some Recent Evidence / Joy McCorriston and Louise Martin
18. Archaeological, Linguistic and Historical Sources on Ancient Seafaring: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Early Maritime Contact and Exchange in the Arabian Peninsula / Nicole Boivin, Roger Blench, and Dorian Q. Fuller
19. Holocene Obsidian Exchange in the Red Sea Region / Lamya Khalidi
Part V. Synthesis and Discussion
20. The Paleolithic of Arabia in an Inter-Regional Context / Anthony E. Marks
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Biography
Michael D. Petraglia was born in New York in 1960. He is currently a senior lecturer at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge. Over the past 25 years, he has conducted archaeological research in India, Arabia, Europe and North America. He is co-editor of the book, The Evolution and History of Human Populations in South Asia (Springer).
Jeffrey Ian Rose was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1975. Over the past 20 years, he has conducted fieldwork in prehistoric archaeology throughout North America, Europe, and Arabia. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Oxford Brookes University and runs an ongoing archaeological research project in the Sultanate of Oman.
