The Bab al-Mandab Paleoanthropology Project in Yemen

Journal Article

Chauhan, P.R. . 2008

• نوع عمل المنشور: بحث
• رابط المنشور على الويب: Antiquity Journal
• الوسوم: قراءة
• المجلة \ الصحيفة: Antiquity
• رقم العدد: 318
• رقم الإصدار السنوي: 82
• الصفحات: 318

مستخلص المنشور

Given its geographic location, the Arabian Peninsula has often been highlighted as a major hominin dispersal corridor from East Africa to Asia during the Plio-Pleistocene. However, this region (particularly southern Arabia) has not been tested adequately in order to confirm that inference. Our current knowledge regarding a land-bridge at the Strait of Bab al-Mandab remains equally unclear. The known Early Palaeolithic evidence in the Arabian Peninsula records both Oldowan and Early Acheulian occupation, indicative of multiple early dispersal events (Petraglia 2003). Palaeolithic sites here are known to occur in a variety of ecological and topographic settings, often on the surface of terraces and volcanic landscapes, but occasionally in stratified contexts. Yemen represents the eastern terrestrial boundary of this zone and is thus the closest to East Africa. Unfortunately, very few Palaeolithic sites have been systematically excavated and most have yet to be accurately dated, thus remaining ambiguous for overall dispersal paradigms. As a result, such information as hominin subsistence, technological abilities, raw material exploitation, climatic adaptations, and the rate and success of dispersals into these areas is also poorly-understood. That being said, there is ample scientific potential for inter-disciplinary palaeoanthropological investigations in this region for direct correlations with the East African record (Chauhan, in press).