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，阿拉伯沙漠中的古代定居点与降水量增加的时期相对应。然而，最近的考古发现与这一假设相矛盾。 迪拜考古部的工作表明，在全新世气候最佳期（公元前6000 - 4200年）之后，在鲁布？位于阿拉伯联合酋长国（UAE）的al-Khali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完全理解。在Jesse Casana博士的监督下，Jason Herrmann将寻求通过协调的考古和古环境调查来解决这些问题，目的是建立人类住区和景观变化的独立年表，以评估阿拉伯东南部可用降水和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），一个公元前第三个千年的遗址，具有大量的垃圾堆和暴露的壁炉（Al-Ashoosh），以及一个公元前第一个千年的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表面调查、地球物理绘图、试掘和各种测年方法，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不连续性。平行的古环境调查将包括近地表土壤物理学和周围沙丘中风吹沉积物的直接年代测定，以作为干旱的替代物，从而提供景观变化的历史。然后将对这两个独立的年表进行比较，以评估气候变化与定居模式之间是否存在线性相关。同步的干旱周期和废弃期将支持这样的假设，即沙漠只在相对潮湿的时期被占领。除了定居和环境变化的协调周期之外，任何其他因素都表明定居模式和环境变化之间存在着更复杂的关系。这项研究的结果可以促进我们对这一缺乏记录的地区的定居和环境历史的理解，并将为世界各地干旱环境中的古代定居和土地利用提供有价值的见解。更广泛地说，该项目将促进教育机会的创造，向公众传播信息，并保护阿联酋的考古遗址。作为迪拜沙漠调查的一部分，美国研究人员和迪拜考古部的合作努力，该项目将为来自阿肯色州和阿联酋大学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，并将影响政府赞助的研究地点的公众解释和管理工作。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，威胁到一个几乎没有文化资源保护程序的国家未被发现的考古遗迹。

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.