Posted on 12/08/2010 12:58:03 PM PST by decimon
A once fertile landmass now submerged beneath the Persian Gulf may have been home to some of the earliest human populations outside Africa, according to an article published today in Current Anthropology.
Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist and researcher with the University of Birmingham in the U.K., says that the area in and around this "Persian Gulf Oasis" may have been host to humans for over 100,000 years before it was swallowed up by the Indian Ocean around 8,000 years ago. Rose's hypothesis introduces a "new and substantial cast of characters" to the human history of the Near East, and suggests that humans may have established permanent settlements in the region thousands of years before current migration models suppose.
In recent years, archaeologists have turned up evidence of a wave of human settlements along the shores of the Gulf dating to about 7,500 years ago. "Where before there had been but a handful of scattered hunting camps, suddenly, over 60 new archaeological sites appear virtually overnight," Rose said. "These settlements boast well-built, permanent stone houses, long-distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world."
But how could such highly developed settlements pop up so quickly, with no precursor populations to be found in the archaeological record? Rose believes that evidence of those preceding populations is missing because it's under the Gulf.
"Perhaps it is no coincidence that the founding of such remarkably well developed communities along the shoreline corresponds with the flooding of the Persian Gulf basin around 8,000 years ago," Rose said. "These new colonists may have come from the heart of the Gulf, displaced by rising water levels that plunged the once fertile landscape beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean."
Historical sea level data show that, prior to the flood, the Gulf basin would have been above water beginning about 75,000 years ago. And it would have been an ideal refuge from the harsh deserts surrounding it, with fresh water supplied by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and Wadi Baton Rivers, as well as by underground springs. When conditions were at their driest in the surrounding hinterlands, the Gulf Oasis would have been at its largest in terms of exposed land area. At its peak, the exposed basin would have been about the size of Great Britain, Rose says.
Evidence is also emerging that modern humans could have been in the region even before the oasis was above water. Recently discovered archaeological sites in Yemen and Oman have yielded a stone tool style that is distinct from the East African tradition. That raises the possibility that humans were established on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula beginning as far back as 100,000 years ago or more, Rose says. That is far earlier than the estimates generated by several recent migration models, which place the first successful migration into Arabia between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago.
The Gulf Oasis would have been available to these early migrants, and would have provided "a sanctuary throughout the Ice Ages when much of the region was rendered uninhabitable due to hyperaridity," Rose said. "The presence of human groups in the oasis fundamentally alters our understanding of human emergence and cultural evolution in the ancient Near East."
It also hints that vital pieces of the human evolutionary puzzle may be hidden in the depths of the Persian Gulf.
###
Jeffrey I. Rose, "New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis." Current Anthropology 51:6 (December 2010).
Current Anthropology is a transnational journal devoted to research on humankind, encompassing the full range of anthropological scholarship on human cultures and on the human and other primate species. The journal is published by The University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Midnight at the oasis ping.
I’ve read that this area could fit the description of the location of Garden of Eden very well.
I suspect the bulk of human prehistory has been lost to the seas.
*But how could such highly developed settlements pop up so quickly, with no precursor populations to be found in the archaeological record? Rose believes that evidence of those preceding populations is missing because it’s under the Gulf.*
Not popped up. Buried under Noah’s Flood.
Kind of in synch with some ancient beliefs about the region in fact.
More modern research has the world ocean rising in distinct stages as various large chunks of ice melt away with the rises taking place over a period of time that should have been sensible to the people "in the way".
Every time the ocean rises or drops the adjacent estuaries get flooded or wash out. That destroys mankind's primary "range" which consists of fertile flat plains filled with plants that feed herbivores. It takes quite some time for the flood plains and fertile plains to get re-established once the ocean level is stabilized. Until then it is inevitable that there will be serious population drops as well as a scattering of the remaining people into newer, but upland, districts.
This report brings the most ancient period of Middle Eastern "Gulf" settlement into contact with the "historic" period which begins with Sumer ~ on an "island" between the Tigris and Euphrates where game animals were abundant, and accessible ~ they could not run away so easily.
The writers suggest these now hidden islands as a sort of Ice Age refuge ~ and no doubt they were. At the same time they weren't the only place people could live ~ the whole region from the Gulf around to Sri Lanka and from there to the furthest parts of Indonesia ~ was above water, highly fertile, and long suspected of having accommodated the first stages of civilized life ~ it even has a name "Sundaland".
Ma-Nu’s beer barge ran aground on Dilmun (that’s a Gulf Island right there in the vicinity BTW).
Sounds like a good suspicion. Next ice age I intend to do some exploring. ;-)
Globull Warming, Climate change, caused by American greed.
Just thinking about it, it seems to me that Great Britain would take up roughly half of the Gulf (perhaps a bit less), in terms of square miles. I hadn't realized it was that young. Although, I do know from serving aboard ship there, it is a pretty shallow body of what, perhaps more shallow than any of the Great Lakes, other than Erie.
Assuming anybody survives the onset of the next period of serious glaciation their archaeologists are definitely going to think we were stupid tp have missed all that good stuff just offshore.
Of course, that should have been "water" not "what" - predictive typing on the smartphone strikes again.
Eden? ??????????
Nah, this is east of Eden.
Only the immature, self centered practitioners of this soft science can be arrogant enough to repeatedly claim that they have the final word on the prehistory of man.
By definition, prehistory is the total lack of certainty, subject to inference by often not-so-smart wannabes.
Subject to constant revision and updates forever.
Not sure there will be much left offshore. Wave action can be a mother.
Pre-history is also that period BEFORE WRITING.
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