Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years

Huw S. Groucutt (), Tom S. White, Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Eric Andrieux, 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 and Michael D. Petraglia ()
Additional contact information
Huw S. Groucutt: Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology, the Science of Human History, and Biogeochemistry
Tom S. White: Natural History Museum
Eleanor M. L. Scerri: University of Cologne
Eric Andrieux: Durham University
Richard Clark-Wilson: Royal Holloway University of London
Paul S. Breeze: King’s College London
Simon J. Armitage: Royal Holloway University of London
Mathew Stewart: Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology, the Science of Human History, and Biogeochemistry
Nick Drake: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Julien Louys: Griffith University
Gilbert J. Price: University of Queensland
Mathieu Duval: Griffith University
Ash Parton: Oxford Brookes University
Ian Candy: Royal Holloway University of London
W. Christopher Carleton: Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology, the Science of Human History, and Biogeochemistry
Ceri Shipton: University College London
Richard P. Jennings: Liverpool John Moores University
Muhammad Zahir: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
James Blinkhorn: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Simon Blockley: Royal Holloway University of London
Abdulaziz Al-Omari: Heritage Commission, Ministry of Culture
Abdullah M. Alsharekh: College of Tourism and Archaeology, King Saud University
Michael D. Petraglia: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

Nature, 2021, vol. 597, issue 7876, 376-380

Abstract: Abstract Pleistocene hominin dispersals out of, and back into, Africa necessarily involved traversing the diverse and often challenging environments of Southwest Asia1–4. 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.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03863-y

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