Huw S. Groucutt
Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years
Groucutt, Huw S.; White, Tom S.; Scerri, Eleanor M.L.; Andrieux, Eric; Clark-Wilson, Richard; Breeze, Paul S.; Armitage, Simon J.; Stewart, Mathew; Drake, Nick; Louys, Julien; Price, Gilbert J.; Duval, Mathieu; Parton, Ash; Candy, Ian; Carleton, W. Christopher; Shipton, Ceri; Jennings, Richard P.; Zahir, Muhammad; Blinkhorn, James; Blockley, Simon; Al-Omari, Abdulaziz; Alsharekh, Abdullah M.; Petraglia, Michael D.
Authors
Tom S. White
Eleanor M.L. Scerri
Dr Eric Andrieux eric.j.andrieux@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Richard Clark-Wilson
Paul S. Breeze
Simon J. Armitage
Mathew Stewart
Nick Drake
Julien Louys
Gilbert J. Price
Mathieu Duval
Ash Parton
Ian Candy
W. Christopher Carleton
Ceri Shipton
Richard P. Jennings
Muhammad Zahir
James Blinkhorn
Simon Blockley
Abdulaziz Al-Omari
Abdullah M. Alsharekh
Michael D. Petraglia
Abstract
Pleistocene hominin dispersals out of, and back into, Africa necessarily involved traversing the diverse and often challenging environments of Southwest Asia1,2,3,4. Archaeological and palaeontological records from the Levantine woodland zone document major biological and cultural shifts, such as alternating occupations by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. However, Late Quaternary cultural, biological and environmental records from the vast arid zone that constitutes most of Southwest Asia remain scarce, limiting regional-scale insights into changes in hominin demography and behaviour1,2,5. Here we report a series of dated palaeolake sequences, associated with stone tool assemblages and vertebrate fossils, from the Khall Amayshan 4 and Jubbah basins in the Nefud Desert. These findings, including the oldest dated hominin occupations in Arabia, reveal at least five hominin expansions into the Arabian interior, coinciding with brief ‘green’ windows of reduced aridity approximately 400, 300, 200, 130–75 and 55 thousand years ago. Each occupation phase is characterized by a distinct form of material culture, indicating colonization by diverse hominin groups, and a lack of long-term Southwest Asian population continuity. Within a general pattern of African and Eurasian hominin groups being separated by Pleistocene Saharo-Arabian aridity, our findings reveal the tempo and character of climatically modulated windows for dispersal and admixture.
Citation
Groucutt, H. S., White, T. S., Scerri, E. M., Andrieux, E., Clark-Wilson, R., Breeze, P. S., Armitage, S. J., Stewart, M., Drake, N., Louys, J., Price, G. J., Duval, M., Parton, A., Candy, I., Carleton, W. C., Shipton, C., Jennings, R. P., Zahir, M., Blinkhorn, J., Blockley, S., …Petraglia, M. D. (2021). Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years. Nature, 597(7876), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03863-y
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jul 29, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 1, 2021 |
Publication Date | 2021 |
Deposit Date | Nov 16, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 16, 2021 |
Journal | Nature |
Print ISSN | 0028-0836 |
Electronic ISSN | 1476-4687 |
Publisher | Nature Research |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 597 |
Issue | 7876 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03863-y |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1224450 |
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