The Upper Paleolithic in Southeast Arabia – A case study from Buhais Rockshelter, United Arab Emirates

• Applicant: Dr. Knut Bretzke
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 496983116

The Upper Paleolithic between about 45,000 and 12,000 years ago, is a key period in human evolution. Important developments such as global dispersals of modern human groups and the replacement of Neanderthals and other human species as well as the occurrence of evidence for example for new hunting technologies, symbolic behavior, figurative art and music instruments characterizes this period in many parts of the world. Given Africa being the geographic origin of modern humans and Arabia geographically connecting Africa and Eurasia, the Pleistocene archaeological record of Arabia should provide important evidence for human evolution during the Upper Paleolithic period. However, surprisingly little archaeological evidence is found in Arabia securely dating to that time period. Hence our knowledge about behavioral and cultural evolution during this important period is highly fragmentary in Arabia. This interdisciplinary project will contribute to the filling of this gap by providing new stratified and dated evidence from the Upper Paleolithic period in Southeast Arabia. The Middle to Upper Paleolithic sequence from Buhais Rockshelter, located in the central region of the Emirate of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), will be examined in this project as a case study. This project aims at providing solid chronological, taphonomic and paleoenvironmental contexts for the archaeological assemblages and their fundamental typo-technological as well as raw material economic characteristics. Results from Buhais will be contrasted with results from the Middle Paleolithic records from Jebel Faya, the key site of the region, to gain first insight into potential differences between the local Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants