Abstract
The fluctuating climatic conditions of the Saharo-Arabian deserts are increasingly linked to human evolutionary events and societal developments. On orbital timescales, the African and Indian Summer Monsoons were displaced northward and increased precipitation to the Arabian Peninsula which led to favorable periods for human occupation in the now arid interior. At least four periods of climatic optima occurred within the last 130,000 years, related to Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5e (128–121 ka BP), 5c (104–97 ka BP), 5a (81–74 ka BP) and 1 (10.5–6.2 ka BP), and potentially early MIS 3 (60–50 ka BP). Stalagmites from Southern Arabia have been key to understanding climatic fluctuations and human-environmental interactions; their precise and high-resolution chronologies can be linked to evidence for changes in human distribution and climate/environment induced societal developments. Here, we review the most recent advances in the Southern Arabian Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene stalagmite records. We compare and contrast MIS 5e and Early Holocene climates to understand how these differed, benchmark the extremes of climatic variability and summarize the impacts on human societal development. We suggest that, while the extreme of MIS 5e was important for H. sapeins dispersal, subsequent, less intense, wet phases mitigate against a simplistic narrative. We highlight that while climate can be a limiting and important factor, there is also the potential of human adaptability and resilience. Further studies will be needed to understand spatio-temporal difference in human-environment interactions in a climatically variable region.
Highlights
The fluctuating palaeoclimate conditions of Southern Arabia are frequently related to broad changes in hominin distribution as well as regional societal developments
Determination of stalagmite fluid inclusion water δ18O and δD values from Mukallah and Hoti caves have shown that increased precipitation during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5e and the Early-Mid Holocene were delivered by the African Summer Monsoon (ASM) and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) (Fleitmann et al, 2003b; Nicholson et al, 2020)
It is likely that the carrying capacity of the Arabian Peninsula was greater during SAHP 4 compared to subsequent SAHPs, meaning population expansions and/or dispersals could have been rapid (Nicholson et al, 2021b)
Summary
The fluctuating palaeoclimate conditions of Southern Arabia are frequently related to broad changes in hominin distribution as well as regional societal developments. Determination of stalagmite fluid inclusion water δ18O and δD values from Mukallah and Hoti caves have shown that increased precipitation during MIS 5e and the Early-Mid Holocene were delivered by the African Summer Monsoon (ASM) and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) (Fleitmann et al, 2003b; Nicholson et al, 2020) This is in good coherence with other records of ASM and ISM intensity, sapropel layers S5 (128.3–121.5 ka), S4 (107.8–101.8 ka), S3 (85.8–80.8 ka) and S1 (10.5–6.1 ka) from Mediterranean Sea core ODP 967 (Rohling et al, 2015; Grant et al, 2017). As Hoti Cave provides solid timing on the shifting dominance of winter vs summer precipitation, the H5 record has been used to define the duration of SAHP 1 and is consistent with the 230Th ages of Holocene stalagmites from Mukallah Cave (Fleitmann et al, 2011; Nicholson et al, 2020). Across Arabia, these changes are asynchronous (Preston and Parker, 2013; Preston et al, 2015), with northern Arabia experiencing a truncated period of increased rainfall compared to the south
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