Filling in the gap – The Acheulean site Suhailah 1 from the central region of the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE

• Published in: Quaternary international 2018-02, Vol.466, p.23-32
• Main Authors: Bretzke, Knut, Yousif, Eisa, Jasim, Sabah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arabian peninsula; Handaxe; Late pleistocene; Lower paleolithic; Middle pleistocene
• ISSN: 1040-6182; 1873-4553
• DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2016.09.053

There is abundant evidence for an Acheulean occupation from many parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The archaeological record, however, features a significant gap in SE Arabia. Here we report new evidence for an Acheulean occupation from site Suhailah 1 (SHL 1) located in the interior of the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE. We present the lithic assemblage recovered during systematic field work in 2014. Results of our study include the documentation of the co-existence of bifacial and core technologies as well as a dominance of scrapers and bifaces in the tool assemblage. Based on comparisons with stratified and well dated assemblages from Jebel Faya about 50 km south of Suhailah we argue that the occupation of the site likely dates to the late Middle Pleistocene. One important implication of the discovery of Acheulean artifacts in SE Arabia is related to the question of the origin of the bifacial technology seen in the MIS 5e assemblages at Jebel Faya, which are thought to represent an early expansion of modern humans out of Africa. Our analysis shows that the Acheulean bifacial technologies from SHL 1 and from Jebel Faya cannot easily be linked developmentally, given typological differences and at least one additional occupation phase separating SHL 1 from the early Late Pleistocene occupation at Faya. We also observe typological differences among the SHL 1 tool assemblage and Acheulean assemblages from western and central Saudi Arabia. Given the scattered record of Acheulean sites in Arabia in addition to very little chronometric data, causes for these differences are difficult to assess and chronological as well as socioeconomic and environmental reasons have to be considered. We are still at the beginning of systematic research about the Paleolithic of Arabia. The intensification of research in the region over the past decade, however, provides promising possibilities for future research.