Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia

Abstract

This paper treats the classification of a number of facies in the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia. The basis for this classification is a selection of substantial find complexes of chipped stone artifacts from sites located along the coast of Oman. Human occupation in the region dates to the beginning of the Holocene, but insufficient material is available for the first quarter of the post‐Pleistocene era. At the beginning of the second quarter of the Holocene, we find a relatively undifferentiated stone tool‐using facies (Wadi‐Wutayya‐Facies) which was appar‐ ently contemporary with the Qatar B blade‐arrowhead horizon in the interior of the Oman peninsula. Early in the 5th millennium BC, the Wadi‐Wutayya‐Facies was superseded by the Saruq‐Facies which can be seen as a local variant of the “Arabian bifacial tradition”. The high point in the Late Stone Age occupation of the coast was reached early in the 4th millennium BC when various local facies can be distinguished. These include the Ra's‐al‐Hamra‐Facies in the central coastal zone around Muscat and the Bir‐Bira‐Facies in the area around Sur. This phase, which was characterized particularly by the formation of shell middens, seems to have lasted only about 500 years. An essentially aceramic occupation on the coast of the Gulf of Oman, called the Bandar‐Jissa‐Facies, represents the final phase in the classification of Late Stone Age occupation outlined here. This facies was characterized by the use of a simple stone tool industry alongside of metal artifacts, and was contemporary with the Early Bronze age occupation of the southern and southwestern flanks of the Oman mountains. Information on categories of finds other than chipped stone, particularly those made of groundstone and shell, as well as observations on the economic and environmental history of the periods discussed, complement the study of the stone tool industries and form the basis for an outline of the history of Southeastern Arabia in the second quarter of the post‐glacial era.

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