Holocene fluvial archives and contributions for the study of prehistoric and protohistoric periods, southern piedmont the Hajar Mountains (Oman)

Abstract

<p>In Oman, quaternary climatic fluctuations alternated between humid and arid periods. As humid periods triggered increasing rainfall and fluvio-lacustrine activity, allowing for less restrictive arid conditions, they are a key component in the landscape evolution and in the early human-environment history. Fluvial archives are of great interest for understanding the hydrosystems’ local responses to Holocene regional climatic fluctuations and water ressources availability and reachability. For the Holocene, little data are available in Northern Oman to examine the impact of the Holocene Pluvial Phase on hydrosystems and the timescale of the onset of arid conditions around 5.500 BP. Here, we will present fluvial records from southern part of the Hajar Mountains’ piedmont. Geomorphological mapping, morphostratigraphic analyses of natural and excavated sections, malacological analyses and age-dating supported by OSL and radiocarbon methods provided us a better understanding of aggradations phases in link with fluvial activity and increasing rainfall. Phases of aggradation has been identified between around 11,500 cal. BP, between 6,610 cal. BP and 5,400 cal. BP and around 2,700 cal. BP. We will compare and discuss the hydro-climatic data obtained with fluvial archives to archaeological sites distribution and development of hydraulic system during the Bronze age and the Iron age in several archaeological areas of the southern piedmont of the Hajar mountains (Bisyah, Adam, Al Khashbah)</p>