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

虽然大多数研究人员会同意现代人起源于非洲，并蔓延到整个世界，但人类走出非洲的时间和地理模式仍然是激烈辩论的话题。走出非洲的一条潜在途径是所谓的南方扩散路线。这条路线需要跨越三个主要的地理障碍：红海、阿拉伯南部的敌对环境和波斯湾。该项目侧重于后者，并将研究波斯湾在塑造波斯湾周边地区晚更新世人类住区动态方面的作用。该项目的起点是绿洲模型，该模型提出，在74年至8ka前的低海平面和阿拉伯干旱时期，海湾盆地是一个收容所，容纳了稳定的人口。我们将测试从这个模型得出的预测，包括海湾地区稳定的人口将导致文化连续性和海湾周围邻近地区可比的岩屑组合的预测。为了验证这些预测，我们将研究伊朗法尔斯省和霍尔莫兹甘省以及阿联酋沙迦酋长国杰贝勒法亚地区的岩屑组合的技术变异性。我们将使用定量和定性的方法来确定打结行为和工具使用的背景，以此作为这些地区集合体之间文化和技术关系的指标。该项目的结果将增加关于晚更新世期间环波斯湾地区岩屑可变性和定居潜力的关键信息。这些结果将从考古学的角度检验现代人离开非洲的模型，并将对有关这些问题的辩论做出重要贡献，这些辩论通常由生物人类学和古遗传学的研究主导。

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.