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The Middle Paleolithic of Arabia: The View from the Hadramawt Region, Yemen

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The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

While prehistoric research in the Arabian peninsula is still in its primary stages of development, the very existence of this book is proof of a recent growing interest in the region. Yet, the interest in the prehistory of the region is outshined by the dearth and frailty of the available data. We must then ask ourselves, why such interest and enthusiasm? And is it really justified to theorize about the contribution of Arabia for human prehistory if the data remain scant? It can certainly be explained, as Petraglia (2007: 383) correctly states, by the progressive reorientation of research towards areas of the world where it is more “logical” to look in order to understand “the evolutionary history of geographically widespread populations”. Consequently, this phenomenon is akin to a revolution in the small world of Arabian prehistoric research; a revolution that carries great aspirations for crucial questions such as the origin of the dispersion of anatomically modern humans out of Africa. While the data are scarce, the passion which one can have for the prehistory of a region such as Arabia is fully justified by the simple recognition of its being an area laden with enormous possibility.

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Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by Dr Abdullah Bawazir, President of the General Organization for Antiquities and Museums of the Republic of Yemen and his able staff, particularly Abdul Rahman Assaqaf, Hussein Alaydarus and Khairan Alzubaidi. I thank the RASA Projects directors: Joy McCorriston, Erich Oches and Abdulaziz bin Aqil, and the French Archaeological Mission in Jawf-Hadramawt directors: Michel Mouton, Frank Braemer, and Anne Benoist. For their comments on previous drafts and general discussion about South Arabian Prehistory, I gratefully acknowledge the help of Hizri Amirkhanov, Pierre Bodu, Anne Delagnes, Marie-Louise Inizan, Jacques Jaubert, Roberto Macchiarelli, Liliane Meignen, Jeffrey Rose and especially Michael Petraglia. I owe special thanks to Lamya Khalidi and Michael Haslam for comments on a draft of this chapter. I thank the Fondation Fyssenfor providing financial support for my stay in Cambridge, and I thank the LCHES staff for their warm hospitality.

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  1. Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, The Henry Wellcome Building, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, UK

    Rémy Crassard

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  1. Leverhulme Centre for Human, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street 13A, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, United Kingdom

    Michael D. Petraglia

  2. Dept. Anthropology & Geography, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, United Kingdom

    Jeffrey I. Rose

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Crassard, R. (2010). The Middle Paleolithic of Arabia: The View from the Hadramawt Region, Yemen. In: Petraglia, M., Rose, J. (eds) The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2719-1_12

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