Archæological Investigations in the Hadramaut

Abstract

FURTHER details of archæological investigations in the Hadramaut of southern Arabia were given by Miss G. Caton-Thompson in a lecture before the Royal Geographical Society on November 7, in which she described the results of the expedition undertaken by Miss Elinor W. Gardner, Miss Freya Stark and herself in the winter of 1937-38. The uniform, but crude character of the palæolithic industry of the region, to which she referred in her preliminary report (see NATURE, 142, 139, July 23, 1938) was again emphasized. This industry falls well within the limits of the Levallois flake industry ; but its crudity is strikingly apparent on comparison with the corresponding industries of Africa, North Arabia and Palestine. It represents a low ebb in contemporary standards, which Miss Caton-Thompson is inclined to attribute either to the influence of a harsh and impoverished environment, or possibly to the absence of technical stimulus from contact with more progressive groups, such as, for example, might have been supplied from East Africa. The latter alternative postulates the separation at an early date in the Pleistocene or before of south-west Arabia from East Africa. The conception of an early marine separation of the two regions is reinforced by the fact that of the three culture groups classified morphologically by the hand-axe, the flake, and the blade industries, the hand-axe culture group, which covers practically the whole of Africa, failed, so far as the evidence goes, to reach south-west Arabia. The huge numbers of flint implements of Levallois type argues a status quo so far back as the middle or later Pleistocene. Of the evidence of plant life found in the tufa in the Wadi Luqrun, absence of structure makes identification impossible ; but one is a species of Celtis, another type, the commonest, resembles the fig in leaf ; and some kind of palm is certainly present.