Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Settlements and Sands: Ancient Human Ecodynamics in the Rub' al-Khali Desert, Dubai, UAE

人们普遍认为，阿拉伯沙漠的古代定居与降水增加的时期相对应。然而，最近的考古发现与这一假设相矛盾。迪拜考古部门的工作表明，全新世气候最佳时期（公元前6000 - 4200年）之后，在Rub？阿拉伯联合酋长国（UAE）的阿勒哈利沙漠。这表明，无论是定居的历史，还是阿拉伯沙漠环境变化的重建序列，都没有被完全理解。在Jesse Casana博士的指导下，Jason Herrmann将寻求通过考古和古环境调查来解决这些问题，目的是建立人类定居和景观变化的单独年表，用于评估阿拉伯东南部可用降水与沙漠定居之间的关系。调查将集中在阿联酋迪拜的三个考古遗址：一个大型的阿拉伯新石器时代遗址（DDS-4/8），第三个公元前千年的遗址，具有大量的中间和暴露的壁炉（Al-Ashoosh），以及公元前一千年的一个非常大的金属加工遗址（Saruq al-Hadid）。考古调查将包括在三个考古地点进行地面调查、地球物理绘图、试验挖掘和各种测年方法，目的是编制每个地点的占领年表，并确定该地区沙漠定居的连续性或非连续性。平行的古环境调查将包括近地表地球物理和周围沙丘的风吹沉积物的直接测年，作为干旱的代表，从而提供景观变化的历史。然后将这两个独立的年表进行比较，以评估气候变化和定居模式之间是否存在线性相关性。干旱的同步循环和遗弃期支持了沙漠只在相对湿润的时期才有人居住的假设。除了住区和环境变化的协调周期之外，任何其他因素都表明，住区模式和环境变化之间存在着更复杂的关系。这一研究结果可以促进我们对这一文献记载较少的地区的定居和环境历史的理解，并将为全球干旱环境下的古代定居和土地利用提供有价值的见解。更广泛地说，该项目将促进创造教育机会，向公众传播信息，并保护阿联酋的考古遗址。作为美国研究人员和迪拜考古部门合作开展的迪拜沙漠调查项目的一部分，该项目将为阿肯色大学和阿联酋的本科生和研究生提供实地考察的机会。该项目的成果将在迪拜朱美拉考古博物馆的展览和教育文献中展出，并将影响政府资助的研究地点的公共解释和管理工作。最后，该项目将有助于保护迪拜受到威胁的考古遗址。随着迪拜城市继续以前所未有的速度发展，建筑正在扩展到以前无人居住的沙漠地区，威胁到这个国家未被发现的考古遗迹，因为这个国家对文化资源的保护程序很少。

It has been widely assumed that ancient settlement in the Arabian Desert corresponds with periods of increased precipitation. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, contradict this assumption. Work by the Dubai Department of Archeology has revealed that significant human settlement took place after the Holocene Climatic Optimum (6000 - 4200 BC) in the Rub? al-Khali desert in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This suggests that either the history of settlement or the reconstructed sequence of environmental change in the Arabian Desert is not entirely understood. Under the supervision of Dr. Jesse Casana, Jason Herrmann will seek to address these issues through coordinated archaeological and paleoenvironmental investigations with the objective of establishing separate chronologies of human settlement and of landscape change that can be used to assess the relationship between available precipitation and desert settlement in southeast Arabia. Investigations will focus on three archaeological sites in Dubai, UAE: a large Arabian Neolithic site (DDS-4/8), a third millennium BC site featuring a substantial midden and exposed hearths (Al-Ashoosh), and a very large metal processing site from the first millennium BC (Saruq al-Hadid). Archaeological investigations will consist of surface survey, geophysical mapping, test excavations, and various dating methods at the three archaeological sites, with the goal of developing chronologies of occupation at each site and determining the continuity or discontinuity of desert settlement in the region. Parallel paleoenvironmental investigations will include near-surface geophysics and direct dating of wind-blown sediments in surrounding dunes to serve as a proxy for aridity, thereby providing a history of landscape change. These two independent chronologies will then be compared to assess whether there is a linear correlation between climate change and settlement patterns. Synchronized cycles of aridity and periods of abandonment would support the assumption that the desert was only occupied during relatively moist periods. Anything other than coordinated cycles of settlement and environmental change would suggest that more complex relationships between settlement patterns and environmental change are at work. The results of this research could advance our understanding of the settlement and environmental histories in this poorly documented region and will offer valuable insight into ancient settlement and land use in arid environments worldwide.More broadly, this project will promote the creation of educational opportunities, the dissemination of information to the public, and the preservation of archaeological sites in the UAE. As part of the Dubai Desert Survey, a collaborative effort by American researchers and the Dubai Department of Archaeology, this project will provide fieldwork opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Arkansas and the UAE. Results of this project will be featured in exhibits and educational literature at the Jumeirah Archaeological Museum in Dubai and will influence government-sponsored public interpretation and management efforts at the study sites. Finally, the project will help protect threatened archaeological sites in Dubai. As the city of Dubai continues to grow at an unprecedented pace, construction is expanding into previously uninhabited desert regions, threatening undiscovered archaeological remains in a country where there are few procedures for protection of cultural resources.