Lost civilization may have existed beneath the Persian Gulf. Full text of Jeffrey Rose's article.
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
Lost civilization may have existed beneath the Persian Gulf. Full
text of Jeffrey Rose's article.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Further to this, the full text of Jeffrey Rose's article is available
(URL below).
- S. Kalyanaraman
Current Anthropology Volume 51, Number 6, December 2010
Pages: 849-883
New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis by
Jeffrey I. Rose
Jeffrey I. Rose is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Archaeology
and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham (Birmingham B15 2TT,
United Kingdom [jeffrey...@gmail.com]).The emerging picture of
prehistoric Arabia suggests that early modern humans were able to
survive periodic hyperarid oscillations by contracting into
environmental refugia around the coastal margins of the peninsula.
This paper reviews new paleoenvironmental, archaeological, and
genetic evidence from the Arabian Peninsula and southern Iran to
explore the possibility of a demographic refugium dubbed the "Gulf
Oasis," which is posited to have been a vitally significant zone for
populations residing in southwest Asia during the Late Pleistocene
and Early Holocene. These data are used to assess the role of this
large oasis, which, before being submerged beneath the waters of the
Indian Ocean, was well watered by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and
Wadi Batin rivers as well as subterranean aquifers flowing beneath
the Arabian subcontinent. Inverse to the amount of annual
precipitation falling across the interior, reduced sea levels
periodically exposed large portions of the Arabo-Persian Gulf, equal
at times to the size of Great Britain. Therefore, when the
hinterlands were desiccated, populations could have contracted into
the Gulf Oasis to exploit its freshwater springs and rivers. This
dynamic relationship between environmental amelioration/desiccation
and marine transgression/regression is thought to have driven
demographic exchange into and out of this zone over the course of the
Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, as well as having played an
important role in shaping the cultural evolution of local human
populations during that interval....Social Evolution in the Gulf
Oasis
The model presented in this paper proposes that the basin served as a
demographic refugium, facilitating the autochthonous development of a
distinctly Arabian culture group. This is supported by the unique
characteristics of lithic industries from both eastern Arabia and
southern Zagros. Assemblages A and B at the Jebel Faya 1 rockshelter
have no known correlates from any surrounding region. Many of the
recently discovered "Middle," "Upper" and "Epipaleolithic"
assemblages in southern Iran are clearly distinguished from lithic
industries in central and northern Zagros.
Undoubtedly, the landscape desiccation and low sea levels of MIS 4
(74,000-60,000 BP) and MIS 2 (24,000-12,000 BP) would have affected
hunter-gatherer ranges and mobility patterns. At that time, the
interior savannas of Arabia became desiccated while tens of thousands
of square kilometers of fertile land in the Gulf basin were exposed.
It is possible these shifting environmental dynamics forced hunter-
gatherers to increasingly rely on coastal resources rather than big-
and medium-game hunting in the interior. The transition to aquatic
subsistence and "beachcombing" is often invoked to explain the rapid
modern human expansion across the Indian Ocean rim (e.g., Field and
Lahr 2006; Field, Petraglia, and Lahr 2007; Mellars 2006; Stringer
2000). In this case, the Gulf Oasis model provides an environmentally
driven mechanism that removed savannah hunting as a viable
subsistence strategy during MIS 4, forcing the adoption of aquatic
subsistence as biomass and freshwater resources became concentrated
on the exposed continental shelf.
Fluctuating environmental conditions are likely to have caused
populations tethered to the Gulf refugium to expand into adjacent
areas during periods of amelioration and, subsequently, constrict
back into the core zone during climatic downturns. Inevitably, this
continuous flirtation with landscape carrying capacity must have
impacted social evolution, as groups within the basin living under
perpetually oscillating climatic conditions were persistently and
consistently thrust into a recurring series of negative feedback
loops (cf. Flannery 1968).
One example of such a dynamic process in the Gulf basin is described
by Kennett and Kennett (2006), who argue that the formation of
aquatic habitats along the northern shorelines of the Gulf in the
Middle Holocene played a critical role in the process of state
formation in southern Mesopotamia.
They present a model in which marine transgression into the Gulf
basin and increased precipitation during the climatic optimum created
rich coastal zones that promoted the development of 繕baid
communities. The onset of aridity beginning around 6000 BP, along
with a large population density, forced inhabitants to make use of
the high groundwater table to experiment with irrigation farming. In
turn, the innovation of large-scale agriculture hearkens back to the
"hydraulic civilizations" of Wittfogel (1956), who proposed that
irrigation had a cascading effect on social evolution and led to
annual scheduling (calendars), labor coordination (differentiated
leadership), and increased productivity (amassed wealth).
Emerging clues from the "Epipaleolithic" of Iran (e.g., Conard et al.
2005, 2006, 2007) and southern Oman (e.g., Rose and Usik 2009)
suggest that human groups were present in these refugia immediately
after the LGM. In the case of Sarab Syah spring, Epipaleolithic
artifacts were discovered in conjunction with plant processing
equipment, hinting at intensive plant exploitation in the southern
Zagros during the Terminal Pleistocene. The lithic assemblage from
the Al Hatab rockshelter, with OSL dates between 13,000 and 11,000
BP, suggests that subsequent Early Holocene hunter-gatherer range
expansions emanated from within Arabia itself.
However, until prehistoric research commences within the depths of
the Gulf, most archaeological evidence from the Terminal Pleistocene
and Early Holocene will remain hidden.
There was a virtual explosion of settlement around the shoreline of
the Gulf in the Middle Holocene, coinciding with the final phase of
marine incursion into the basin. More than just the sheer number of
sites that were established within a single millennium (), the
characteristics of these sites have profound implications for social
evolution in the Gulf Oasis. By the time that indigenous groups
became archaeologically visible during the 繕baid 3 phase around 7500
cal BP, these communities had already undergone a complete Neolithic
demographic transition and were, in fact, on the cusp of the Urban
Revolution. This is exemplified in the suite of features found at
繕baid-related sites, including permanent stone structures, pottery,
date palm cultivation, animal husbandry, fishing, extensive trade
networks, and advanced boat-building.
Three millennia after the proposed (re)settlement of indigenous
繕baid 3 groups along the northern shoreline of the Gulf, the region
became known as Sumeria and was populated by the world's earliest
literate civilization.
Albeit epiphenomenal, it is interesting to note that the oldest known
version of the ubiquitous Near Eastern flood myth, the "Eridu
genesis" (Jacobsen 1981), was written by the inhabitants of this
region. The link between flood mythology and marine incursion into
the Arabo-Persian Gulf basin has already been thoroughly explored by
a number of authors (see Cooke 1987; Hamblin 1987; Kennett and
Kennett 2006; Lambeck 1996; Sanford 2006; Teller et al. 2000) and
does not require any further elucidation.
This climatologically deterministic model of social evolution in a
fertile yet conscripted oasis is the reiteration of a very old idea.
The oasis hypothesis, first envisioned by Pumpelly (1908) and later
developed by Childe (1928, 1936, 1952), was speculated to have
occurred within the ancient oases of southwest Asia, around which
dense human populations huddled for survival during the LGM, "united
in an effort to circumvent the terrible power of drought" (Childe
1936:77). The Gulf may very well house Childe's lost oasis, perhaps
the most fertile part of the crescent until it was plunged beneath
the waters of the Indian Ocean some 8,000 years ago.
Mirror:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/66120901/currentanthropologydec2010article657397
End of forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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and/or www.mantra.com/jai
Forwarded message from S. B.
I would refer to my recent notes on Hiranya Kashipu. Hindu mythology
may not all be fiction.
Evidence in this article is definite.
End of forwarded message from S. B.
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The holocene glaciation discussed about Persian Gulf has also to be
read with the following interpretation of the coastline of Gujarat
during the same period and coastline archaeological sites like
Lothal, Padri, Dholaviar... The key lies in further researches to
delineate the Rann of Kutch as an oasis
- S. Kalyanaraman
Archaeological sites provide evidences on shoreline fluctuation along
the Gujarat coast at about 5000-4000 years BP. If a possible
shoreline (Figure 4
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul10/july10images/184.gif
) of Harappan period is drawn touching the Harappan ports, the
following conclusions can be arrived at:
(i) The evidences indicate that in the Gulf of Khambhat, a distinct
shifting of shoreline offshoreward is observed. On the other hand,
south and western Saurashtra coasts appear to be stable, at least for
the last 4000 years.
(ii) If Dholavira is established as a port by more convincing
findings than what is presented here, it will have significant
importance in the palaeoclimatic study as well as archaeology and
anthropology of the region.
It would then mean that the Great Rann was navigable during the
Harappan period (4500 years BP) and its subsequent siltation may have
even triggered the decline of Harap-pan civilization in the area.
(iii) The study clearly demonstrates the use of archaeology in
establishing palaeo-shoreline. While the tectono-eustacy can only
indicate the possibility of occurring of an event, evidences like
this clearly support it.
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jul10/articles29.htm
A. S. Gaur and K. H. Vora, 1999, Ancient shorelines of Gujarat,
India, during the Indus civilization (Late Mid-Holocene): A study
based on archaeological evidences
Further to this, the full text of Jeffrey Rose's article is available
(URL below). If you have problem accessing the URL, please email me.
- S. Kalyanaraman
Mirror:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/66120901/currentanthropologydec2010article657397
End of forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi