Human populations and former sub-aerial landscapes of the Arabian Gulf : research and conservation
Between 30 and 14ka the Arabian Gulf was a river valley possibly comprising large freshwater lakes, marshland and estuaries. As a possible environmental refugia this landscape is important, particularly as prehistoric research in Arabia has yet to find any âevidence for human presence between 38 and 11kaâ (Bretzke et al. 2013), poignantly at the same time as the Gulf became free of marine influence. This might suggest that attempting to piece together the jigsaw of regional prehistory without reference to the former sub-aerial Arabian Gulf landscape is to ignore a significant part of the puzzle. This research combines the results of excavations on Neolithic Littoral Gulf Ubaid sites with marine fieldwork in order to investigate late Palaeolithic/early Neolithic dispersals. This is contextualised through geomorphology, hydrology, geophysics and environmental analysis. This research has highlighted thousands of new sites in Qatar of all periods, and put in place effective methodologies for conservation and management of both the terrestrial environment and the Arabian Gulf submerged landscape. Importantly, terrestrial research has identified landscape signatures that informs research into the submerged Gulf
Cuttler, Richard Thorburn Howard
CC Archaeology ; DS Asia
Human populations and former sub-aerial landscapes of the Arabian Gulf : research and conservation. Between 30 and 14ka the Arabian Gulf was a river valley possibly comprising large freshwater lakes, marshland and estuaries. As a possible environmental refugia this landscape is important, particularly as prehistoric research in Arabia has yet to find any âevidence for human presence between 38 and 11kaâ (Bretzke et al. 2013), poignantly at the same time as the Gulf became free of marine influence. This might suggest that attempting to piece together the jigsaw of regional prehistory without reference to the former sub-aerial Arabian Gulf landscape is to ignore a significant part of the puzzle. This research combines the results of excavations on Neolithic Littoral Gulf Ubaid sites with marine fieldwork in order to investigate late Palaeolithic/early Neolithic dispersals. This is contextualised through geomorphology, hydrology, geophysics and environmental analysis. This research has highlighted thousands of new sites in Qatar of all periods, and put in place effective methodologies for conservation and management of both the terrestrial environment and the Arabian Gulf submerged landscape. Importantly, terrestrial research has identified landscape signatures that informs research into the submerged Gulf
human_population former sub aerial landscape arabian_gulf conservation arabian_gulf river_valley possibly comprise large freshwater lake estuary possible environmental landscape important particularly prehistoric arabia yet evidence human presence time gulf become free marine influence might suggest attempt piece together regional prehistory without reference former sub aerial arabian_gulf landscape ignore significant_part puzzle combine excavation neolithic littoral gulf sit marine fieldwork order_investigate neolithic dispersal contextualised geomorphology hydrology geophysics environmental analysis highlight thousand new site qatar period put place effective methodology conservation_management terrestrial environment arabian_gulf submerge landscape importantly terrestrial identify landscape signature informs submerge gulf