The Upper Paleolithic in Southeast Arabia – A case study from Buhais Rockshelter, United Arab Emirates

旧石器时代晚期大约在45，000年到12，000年前之间，是人类进化的关键时期。重要的发展，如现代人类群体的全球分散和尼安德特人和其他人类物种的取代，以及新的狩猎技术，象征性行为，具象艺术和乐器等证据的出现，在世界许多地方都是这一时期的特征。鉴于非洲是现代人类的地理起源地，阿拉伯在地理上连接着非洲和欧亚大陆，阿拉伯半岛的更新世考古记录应该为旧石器时代晚期人类进化提供重要证据。然而，令人惊讶的是，在阿拉伯半岛发现的考古证据很少可以安全地追溯到那个时期。因此，我们对这一重要时期的行为和文化演变的了解在阿拉伯是非常零碎的。这个跨学科的项目将有助于填补这一空白，提供新的分层和旧石器时代晚期在阿拉伯东南部的证据。本项目将对位于沙迦酋长国（阿拉伯联合酋长国）中部地区的Buhais Rockshelter的旧石器时代中晚期序列进行案例研究。该项目旨在为考古组合及其基本类型技术和原材料经济特征提供坚实的年代学，埋藏学和古环境背景。来自Buhais的结果将与来自该地区关键遗址Jebel Faya的旧石器时代中期记录的结果进行对比，以首次了解当地旧石器时代中期和晚期之间的潜在差异。

The Upper Paleolithic between about 45,000 and 12,000 years ago, is a key period in human evolution. Important developments such as global dispersals of modern human groups and the replacement of Neanderthals and other human species as well as the occurrence of evidence for example for new hunting technologies, symbolic behavior, figurative art and music instruments characterizes this period in many parts of the world. Given Africa being the geographic origin of modern humans and Arabia geographically connecting Africa and Eurasia, the Pleistocene archaeological record of Arabia should provide important evidence for human evolution during the Upper Paleolithic period. However, surprisingly little archaeological evidence is found in Arabia securely dating to that time period. Hence our knowledge about behavioral and cultural evolution during this important period is highly fragmentary in Arabia. This interdisciplinary project will contribute to the filling of this gap by providing new stratified and dated evidence from the Upper Paleolithic period in Southeast Arabia. The Middle to Upper Paleolithic sequence from Buhais Rockshelter, located in the central region of the Emirate of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), will be examined in this project as a case study. This project aims at providing solid chronological, taphonomic and paleoenvironmental contexts for the archaeological assemblages and their fundamental typo-technological as well as raw material economic characteristics. Results from Buhais will be contrasted with results from the Middle Paleolithic records from Jebel Faya, the key site of the region, to gain first insight into potential differences between the local Middle and Upper Paleolithic.