OSL chronology of socio-ecological systems during the mid-Holocene in the eastern coast of the Sultanate of Oman (Arabian Peninsula)
Résumé
The eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula is a key region to explore past climatic and environmental changes and their impact on the coastal ecosystems and Neolithic communities during the mid-Holocene (~8000–5000 years ago). Indeed, it is located at the frontier zone between dry and wet tropical systems, where the monsoon has reduced its activity and gradually shifted southward from the sixth millennium BC. Past human adaptation to new ecological conditions (more arid) and resources is reflected in the archaeological record, as a response to important climatic and eustatic fluctuations. In order to correlate human occupation during the Neolithic with the local climatic and palaeoenvironmental records, sediments were sampled at two archaeological sites and surrounding sabkhas, located in the Ja’alan region, on the eastern coast of the Sultanate of Oman. Optically and infrared stimulated luminescence dating were applied to quartz and feldspar grains extracted from sediments coming from both archaeological (Ruways 1 and Suwayh 1 shell middens) and palaeoenvironmental (current sabkhas) contexts in order to provide, together with radiocarbon dating, a chronology for this area. The results obtained allowed constraining human occupation during the Neolithic between 8340 ± 480 and 5390 ± 290 years (~6800–3100 years BC) at Ruways 1, and between 6180 ± 310 and 5480 ± 270 years BP (~4500–3200 years BC) at Suwayh 1. These occupations coincide with the development of a lagoon/mangrove, recorded in sediments from cores drilled under the current sabkha, whose last stage of development is dated to 5320 ± 590 (C2) and 5220 ± 570 (C1) years (3900–2600 years BC) at Khor al Jaramah.
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