Beginning to a greater extent than than 1.5 1000000 years ago, early on humans made rock handaxes inwards a mode known every bit the Acheulean -- the longest lasting tool-making tradition inwards prehistory. New inquiry led past times the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History as well as the Saudi Commission for Tourism as well as National Heritage has documented an Acheulean presence inwards the Arabian Peninsula dating to less than 190,000 years ago, revealing that the Arabian Acheulean ended merely earlier or at the same fourth dimension every bit the earliest Homo sapiens dispersals into the region.
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| Handaxes from the site of Saffaqah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Credit: Palaeodeserts/Ian R. Cartwright] |
The youngest Acheulean site inwards Southwest Asia
In a newspaper published inwards Scientific Reports, an international squad of researchers led past times the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History as well as the Saudi Commission for Tourism as well as National Heritage reports the showtime always dates obtained from an Acheulean site inwards Arabia, the site of Saffaqah, situated inwards Central Saudi Arabia. Saffaqah is the showtime stratified Acheulean site to live reported inwards the Arabian Peninsula as well as the dates unwrap that early on humans occupied the site until at to the lowest degree 190,000 years ago. These dates are surprisingly recent for a percentage known to characteristic amid the oldest examples of such technology scientific discipline exterior Africa. For example, dates from the Levant document an ancient Acheulean presence from 1.5 1000000 years ago. Conversely the site of Saffaqah features the youngest Acheulean tools yet institute inwards southwest Asia.
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| Researcher Eleanor Scerri amongst giant Acheulean heart from which flakes were struck to exercise the handaxes [Credit: Palaeodeserts] |
"It is non surprising that early on humans came hither to brand rock tools," says Dr. Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Pb writer of the study. "The site is located on a prominent andesite dyke that rises inwards a higher house the surrounding plain. The location was both a source of raw cloth every bit good every bit a prime number location to survey a landscape that, dorsum then, sat betwixt 2 major river systems." This pick location also seems to postulate maintain continued to live attractive to early on humans at an fifty-fifty afterwards appointment than those recorded past times the researchers inwards this study. Layers containing identical rock handaxes are also institute inwards a higher house the dense draw of piece of job layers that were dated, raising the possibility that Saffaqah is amid the youngest Acheulean sites documented anywhere.
Hominins living at the edge
The novel dating results both tape the belatedly persistence of the Acheulean inwards the Peninsula as well as also present that every bit yet unidentified hominin populations were using networks of at nowadays extinct rivers to disperse into the pump of Arabia during a fourth dimension of increased rainfall inwards the region. This suggests that these hominins were able to alive on the margins of habitable zones as well as accept payoff of relatively brief "greening" episodes inwards a by as well as large arid area. The dispersal of these hominins into the pump of Arabia may also aid to explicate the surprisingly belatedly persistence of the Acheulean, every bit it suggests a score of isolation.
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| Archaeologists excavating the site of Saffaqah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [Credit: Palaeodeserts] |
Cutting border science
To appointment the sediments from the site of Saffaqah, the researchers used a combination of dating techniques known every bit luminescence methods, including a newly developed infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating protocol for potassium rich feldspars. The method relies on the mightiness of such minerals to shop release energy induced past times natural radioactive decay as well as to release this release energy inwards the shape of light. "The application of IR-RF dating allowed us to obtain historic menses estimates from sediments that were previously hard to reliably date," explains Marine Frouin of the University of Oxford, 1 of the researchers involved inwards the dating program.
These discoveries as well as methods are already leading to novel research. "One of the biggest questions nosotros postulate maintain is whether whatever of our evolutionary ancestors as well as closed cousins met upwards amongst Homo sapiens, as well as if this could postulate maintain happened somewhere inwards Saudi Arabia. Future patch run volition live dedicated to agreement possible cultural as well as biological exchanges at this critical fourth dimension period," says Professor Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the managing director of the projection which led to the discoveries at Saffaqah.
Source: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [November 29, 2018]
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