title: The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: an African middle stone age industry in Southern Arabia.
abstract: Despite the numerous studies proposing early human population expansions from Africa into Arabia during the Late Pleistocene, no archaeological sites have yet been discovered in Arabia that resemble a specific African industry, which would indicate demographic exchange across the Red Sea. Here we report the discovery of a buried site and more than 100 new surface scatters in the Dhofar region of Oman belonging to a regionally-specific African lithic industry--the late Nubian Complex--known previously only from the northeast and Horn of Africa during Marine Isotope Stage 5, ∼128,000 to 74,000 years ago. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates from the open-air site of Aybut Al Auwal in Oman place the Arabian Nubian Complex at ∼106,000 years ago, providing archaeological evidence for the presence of a distinct northeast African Middle Stone Age technocomplex in southern Arabia sometime in the first half of Marine Isotope Stage 5.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. jeffrey.i.rose@gmail.com
authors.forename: Jeffrey I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Vitaly I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Usik
authors.forename: Anthony E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: Yamandu H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Hilbert
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Galletti
authors.forename: Ash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parton
authors.forename: Jean Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Geiling
authors.forename: Viktor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cerný
authors.forename: Mike W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Morley
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D001083:Arabia; D001106:Archaeology; D005843:Geography; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000266:history*; D009850:Oman; D013997:Time Factors