Acheulean Landscapes and Large Cutting Tools Assemblages in the Arabian peninsula

Abstract

The expansion of Acheulean populations into the Arabian peninsula is a topic of some importance in human evolutionary studies as it provides information about dispersal routes and the adaptive capabilities of early humans. The presence of Acheulean sites in Arabia provides definitive evidence for the dispersal of populations from their African source. And, indeed, the recovery of characteristic tool types such as handaxes, cleavers and picks, provides solid evidence for Acheulean expansion in new territories. Moreover, the identification of spatially dispersed and sometimes dense concentrations of Acheulean sites provides information concerning hominin landscape behaviors and activities. The aim of this chapter is to review two key Acheulean site complexes in Saudi Arabia, those identified along the Wadi Fatimah near the Red Sea, and those found along hillslopes near the modern town of Dawādmi in the center of the peninsula. The results of the archaeological investigations conducted along the Wadi Fatimah and at Dawādmi are of importance to modern investigations as these site complexes currently represent the most convincing evidence for an Acheulean presence in Arabia. In these areas, surveys identified a large number of Acheulean sites across land surfaces and certain sites produced dense artifact accumulations with a range of tool types. At Dawādmi, Whalen and colleagues (1981, 1988) conducted the first systematic surface collections and test excavations of Acheulean sites in Arabia. These investigations were a significant achievement as lithic assemblages were sytematically collected and described and inferences about paleoecological settings were made. Though this work was sometimes mentioned in the broader literature on the Acheulean (e.g., Bar-Yosef, 1998), few Paleolithic archaeologists working outside of Arabia have paid serious attention to this research despite the potential importance of these Acheulean sites. The lack of international interest is probably the result of a combination of factors, including the absence of multidisciplinary studies to determine the age and formation of the sites and publication in regional journals, which were difficult to access for many researchers. The investigators also worked in relative isolation, without placing these rather spectacular occurrences in behavioral context, as Isaac (1984) and others were doing in Africa. Indeed, virtually no interdisciplinary work was conducted on these sites, thus the findings were not properly placed in temporal and paleoenvironmental context, a problem still plaguing knowledge about the Arabian Acheulean.