Thoughts on Neolithic fishing-based economies in coastal Eastern Arabia

Abstract

In Eastern Arabia, the Neolithic period (c. 6500–3300 BCE) corresponds to a cultural phase principally characterized by the development of mixed economies based on fishing, pastoralism, and hunting. Since the 1970s, a great number of Neolithic sites have been discovered and excavated along the coastline and on the coastal islands of both the Arabian Gulf and the Sultanate of Oman while only a few examples of inland sites are known to date. It evidences an original case of 'coastal adaptation' of the human populations of the Saharo-Arabian arid belt during the Holocene. In fact, Neolithic sites are mostly concentrated close to high biodiversity and biomass 'hot spots' such as estuaries, mangroves, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs where marine life abounds in the form of shellfish, crustaceans, marine mammals, and fish.The scope of the present paper is to gather the data and discuss the results of the zooarchaeological studies conducted since the late 1980s on marine fish remains retrieved from Neolithic sites of Eastern Arabia (from Kuwait to the Sultanate of Oman) in terms of main catches, fishing grounds, techniques, and equipment as well as seasonality and consumption modes. Furthermore, subsistence strategies and mobility patterns during the Neolithic are discussed taking into account data from palaeo-climatic studies.