Main description:

The romantic landscapes and exotic cultures of Arabia have long captured the int- ests of both academics and the general public alike. The wide array and incredible variety of environments found across the Arabian peninsula are truly dramatic; tro- cal coastal plains are found bordering up against barren sandy deserts, high mountain plateaus are deeply incised by ancient river courses. As the birthplace of Islam, the recent history of the region is well documented and thoroughly studied. However, legendary explorers such as T.E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger, and St. John Philby discovered hints of a much deeper past during their travels across the subcontinent. Drawn to Arabia by the magnifcent solitude of its vast sand seas, these intrepid adventurers learned from the Bedouin how to penetrate its deserts and returned with stirring accounts of lost civilizations among the wind-swept dunes. We now know that, prior to recorded history, Arabia housed countless peoples living a variety of lifestyles, including some of the world's earliest pastoralists, c- munities of incipient farmers, fshermen dubbed the "Ichthyophagi" by ancient Greek geographers, and Paleolithic big-game hunters who were among the frst humans to depart their ancestral homeland in Africa. In fact, some archaeological investigations indicate that Arabia was inhabited by early hominins extending far back into the Early Pleistocene, perhaps even into the Late Pliocene.

Contents:

1. Tracking the Origin and Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia, Jeffrey I. Rose and Michael D. Petraglia

Part I. Quaternary Environments and Demographic Response
2. The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin dispersals, Geoff Bailey
3. Pleistocene Climate Change in Arabia: Developing a Framework for Hominin Dispersal over the Last 350 ka, Adrian G. Parker
4. Environment and Long-term Population Trends in Southwest Arabia, Tony J. Wilkinson

Part II. Genetics and Migration
5. Mitochondrial DNA Structure of Yemeni Population: Regional Differences and the Implications for Different Migratory Contributions, Jakub Ridl, Christopher M. Edens, Viktor Cerny
6. The Arabian Peninsula: Gate for Human Migrations Out of Africa or Cul-de-sac? A Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeographic Perspective, Vicente M. Cabrera, Khaled K. Abu-Amero, Jose M. Larruga, and Ana M. Gonzalez
7. Bayesian coalescent inference from mitochondrial DNA variation of the colonization time of Arabia by the hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas hamadryas), Carlos A. Fernandes

Part III. Pleistocene Archaeology
8. Acheulean Landscapes and Large Cutting Tool Assemblages in the Arabian Peninsula, Michael D. Petraglia, Nick Drake and Abdullah Alsharekh
9. A Middle Paleolithic Assemblage from Jebel Barakah, Coastal Abu Dhabi Emirate, Ghanim Wahida, Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti, Mark J. Beech, and Ali Al Meqbali
10. Paleolithic stone tool assemblages from Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, Julie Scott-Jackson, William Scott-Jackson, and Jeffrey I. Rose
11. The Central Oman Palaeolithic Survey: Recent research in Southern Arabia and reflection on the prehistoric evidence, Reto Jagher
12. The Middle Paleolithic of Arabia: The View from the Hadramawt Region, Yemen, Remy Crassard
13. The 'Upper Paleolithic' of South Arabia,Jeffrey I. Rose and Vitaly I. Usik
14. The Late Pleistocene of Arabia in Relation to the Levant, Lisa A. Maher

Part IV. The Early Holocene
15. The Holocene (Re-)Occupation of Eastern Arabia, Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Daniel T. Potts, and Margarethe Uerpmann
16. Early Holocene in the highlands: data on the peopling of the eastern Yemen Plateau, with a note on the Pleistocene evidence, Francesco G. Fedele
17. Southern Arabia's Early Pastoral Population History: Some Recent Evidence, Joy McCorriston and Louise Martin
18. Archaeological, Linguistic and Historical Sources on Ancient Seafaring: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Early Maritime Contact and Exchange in the Arabian Peninsula, Nicole Boivin, Roger Blench, and Dorian Q. Fuller
19. Holocene Obsidian Exchange in the Red Sea Region, Lamya Khalidi

Part V. Synthesis and Discussion
20. The Paleolithic of Arabia in an Inter-Regional Context, Anthony E. Marks