Lithic

Numerous palaeoenvironmental and archaeological studies from southern Arabia (Yemen and Oman) have revealed strong relations between phases of human settlements and climate change linked to the Indian monsoon system. Analyses on speleothems, cave fills, lacustrine deposits and palaeo-mangroves have shown that during the Early to Mid-Holocene, a humid Optimum culminated around 9000-8000 cal BP. New results on inland speleothems and cave sediments fromthe Jebel Qara (southern Oman) are crucial in our depiction of Early and Mid-Holocene climatic evolution and cultural dynamics of the region. These aspects are discussed here, based on new archaeological surveys, excavations, geoarchaeological and micromorphological studies, aiming to better understand connections with Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene autochthonous cultures of southern Arabia. Our results suggest that the final Pleistocene was marked by strong aridity, which promoted a widespread thermoclastism within rock shelter and deposition of aeolian sand; in contrast, the transition towards the Holocene is marked (since c.12,000 cal BP) by a progressive increasing in environmental humidity, which permitted the formation of thick strata of peridesert loess. After this phase, the environmental humidity of the Jebel increased and permitted the existence of a large community of land snails; the latter were exploited by Early Holocene hunter-gatherers who lived in the rock shelters between c. 10,500e9500 cal BP and left consistent accumulations of land shells (escargotières). The maximum of Holocene humidity was reached between 9000 and 8000 cal BP; regional aquifer were recharged and the deposition of calcareous tufa at the entrance of caves started, lasting up to c. 4500 cal BP. C and O stable isotopes from calcareous tufa highlights, in accordance with several regional records, the progressive decline of the intensity of the Indian Ocean monsoon and the transition towards arid conditions. In this phase, the area was abandoned and archaeological communities possibly relocated along the coast of central and southern Oman, where they exploited the mangrove environment.

A methodology for identifying prehistoric local learning communities is proposed.
We wish to test possible relationships among communities based on continuity and
variability in lithic reduction sequence technological traits with different visibility and
malleability. Quantitative features reflecting different technological traits are measured
on 3-D models of flint cores in different scales: the ratio between core thickness and
reduction surface width, the angle between subsequent bands of production blank
scars to the relative striking platform, and the average curvature of the ridge between
each blank scar striking platform pair. Continuity and variability in these features are
used to establish the relations among lithic assemblages on different hierarchical
levels: local learning communities and geographically widespread cultural lineages.
The Late Upper Palaeolithic and the Epipalaeolithic of the Southern Levant (ca. 27,000–
15,000 cal BP) provide an opportunity to test our method. A progressive increase in
territoriality is hypothesized throughout this timespan, yet the precise timing and
modes of this phenomenon need to be defined. The present study analyzes six core
assemblages attributed to different cultural entities, representing chronologically
separated occupations of the Ein Gev area and the coastal Sharon Plain. Continuity in
technological traits between the Atlitian (ca. 27,000–26,000 cal BP) and Nizzanan (ca.
20,000–18,500 cal BP) occupations of the Ein Gev area suggests that the same learning
community repeatedly settled there during a long time span. Two geographically
separate learning communities were defined in the study areas within the Kebaran
cultural entity (ca. 24,000–18,000 cal BP); the group occupying the Ein Gev area
possibly continued to settle there during the Geometric Kebaran (ca. 18,000–15,000
cal BP). Continuity in more conservative traits of the reduction sequence allows to tie
these two communities to the same cultural lineage. The ability to track prehistoric
learning communities based on quantitative features helps increase the objectivity
and the resolution in the reconstruction of past cultural dynamics.