| Popis: |
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 “evidence for human presence between 38 and 11ka” (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 landscape. |
