Population dynamics and technological variability during the Late Pleistocene of the circum-Persian Gulf region

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While most researchers would agree that modern humans originated in Africa and spread over the entire world, the timing and geographic patterns of human expansions out of Africa remain intensively debated topics. One potential pathway out of Africa is the so called Southern Dispersal Route. This route necessitates crossing three major geographic obstacles: the Red Sea, hostile environments in southern Arabia and the Persian Gulf. This project focuses on the latter and will study the role of the Persian Gulf for shaping human settlement dynamics in the circum-Persian Gulf region during the Late Pleistocene. Starting point for this project is the Oasis Model, which proposes that the Gulf Basin was a refugium hosting a stable human population during periods of low sea level and desiccation in Arabia between 74 ka and 8 ka ago. We will test predictions deduced from this model, including the prediction that a stable human population in the Gulf area would lead to cultural continuity and comparable lithic assemblages from neighboring regions around the Gulf. To test these predictions we will study technological variability in lithic assemblages from Fars Province and Hormozgan Province in Iran and the Jebel Faya region in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE. We will use quantitative and qualitative approaches to contextualize knapping behavior and tool use as indicators of cultural and technological relationships between assemblages from these regions. Results of this project will add critical information about lithic variability and the potential for settlement in the circum-Persian Gulf region during the Late Pleistocene. These results will serve to test models for the expansion of modern humans out of Africa from an archaeological perspective and will represent an important contribution to the debate on these issues, which has often been dominated by studies from biological anthropology and paleogenetics.