Subsistence Change Research Articles

Meta-analysis of Queensland’s coastal Indigenous fisheries: Examining the archaeological evidence for geographic and temporal patterning

Marine fisheries have been a critical part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s connection to land and sea country in Queensland, Australia for millennia. However, no archaeological studies have examined regional variability in the role of fish within subsistence regimes or the distribution of targeted fish species throughout the Holocene. We utilised a meta-analysis approach to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of Indigenous fisheries along the eastern Queensland coast. Data from 44 archaeological sites were grouped according to marine bioregion to facilitate broad comparison between sites across the study area. These sites were predominantly associated with mid-to-late Holocene occupation, and provided an assemblage of 45,052 recovered fish bones, of which 6606 were identified most commonly to family-level. Results indicate clear geographic patterning in the ubiquity of fish species captured, and for some marine bioregions an increase through time in the range of species targeted. Archaeological data indicate mixed species fisheries, with a complex range of habitats and diverse fish species harvested by people in relative proximity to the sites. These harvesting decisions were mediated by local ecological knowledge, awareness of fish behaviour, and cultural preference for certain species. These outcomes support existing models for the region, which document a shift in subsistence regimes during the mid-to-late Holocene, particularly an increased reliance on marine resources and expansion in diet breadth. Future research needs to address geographic gaps in data availability and implement globally recognised ichthyoarchaeological quantification and identification protocols to comprehensively examine geographic and temporal variability in Queensland’s Holocene Indigenous fisheries, and contribute to regional models of long-term subsistence change.

Resource intensification and zooarchaeological record in the southern margins of pre-Hispanic Andean agriculture

Central Western Argentina is an area archeologically defined as one of the southernmost limits of farming in the pre-Hispanic Americas. Optimal foraging models help to predict important changes in faunal use prior to the adoption of agriculture related to resource depression and environmental changes. This paper evaluates changes in pre-Hispanic human subsistence from a zooarchaeological perspective and explores archeological record trends from the northern area of Central Western Argentina. Using zooarchaeological information in Northern Mendoza (Central Western Argentina), trends related to the human exploitation of faunal resources were explored in connection with time and space. Two high-ranked resource indexes were calculated: the artiodactyl index and a high-ranked resources index. The results show a decrease in the dependence on high-ranked resources by human groups after ca. 2000 bp and an increase in richness, indicating a diet breath expansion. Long-term trends in the density of radiocarbon dates suggest a considerable population growth after ca. 2000 bp. These trends are consistent with the contemporary changes reported by other archaeological proxies in Northern Mendoza. The results of the zooarchaeological analysis confirm changes in human organization around 2000 years bp that reflect an intensification process.

Sampling Bias in the Trend of Post‐Pleistocene Gracilization: How Terrain Affects Lower Limb Robusticity

Many studies have documented a decrease in modern human lower limb measures of cross‐sectional geometry (CSG) throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. These decreases are often associated with subsistence changes and technology that allowed for a more sedentary lifestyle (e.g., rise of agriculture). Italian Neolithic samples (19‐4 ka) deviate from this trend, with measures similar to earlier, highly mobile populations (Marchi, 2008; Marchi et al., 2011) despite an overall trend for reduced robusticity through Holocene Europe as a whole (Holt et al., 2018). Active populations with a lifetime of mobility on rough terrain have been shown to have higher cortical thickness and CSG properties that resist bending and torsion in the anterior‐posterior plane – which would not fit within the traditional paradigm. Here, we evaluate changes in femoral and tibial midshaft CSG measures of robusticity. These include maximum and minimum second moments of area (Imax/Imin), second moments of area in the x and y plane (Ix/Iy), polar moment of area (J), and cortical area (CA) for populations in Europe, Africa, and Asia (N = 440) throughout the past 40,000 years (Early Upper Paleolithic, Late Upper Paleolithic, Holocene) using ANOVA and linear interaction models. Generally, Early and Late Upper Paleolithic groups show no significant differences, but Early Upper Paleolithic and Holocene groups were significantly different in all femoral measures, and Late Upper Paleolithic and Holocene groups were significantly different in all measures except Ix/Iy. Linear models showed no significant effect of elevation on CSP or any interaction effects except in femoral CA (Early Upper Paleolithic, p = 0.02; Late Upper Paleolithic, p = 0.03; Holocene, p = 0.01). A paradigm of gracilization throughout time is not supported in Asian populations when they are compared within regions. Reduced robusticity in Holocene Andaman Islanders as compared to Japanese/Vietnamese samples suggest that lower limb robusticity can increase because of activities on mountainous terrain, subverting the traditional paradigm. This suggests that we cannot assume that all populations experienced a reduction in robusticity into the Holocene and we must be aware of the danger of a sampling bias in our work.Support or Funding InformationThis research was supported by Sigma Xi, NSF BCS‐0314002, and the American Museum of Natural HistoryThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Regional stratigraphy and human occupation of the upper Susitna River basin, central Alaska Range

AbstractThis study presents geomorphological, paleoenvironmental, and archaeological data from the upland upper Susitna River basin in the central Alaska Range. The goal of this study is to establish the landscape history and record of human use of the study area and test regional land‐use models. The results indicate that the upper Susitna was first occupied in the early Holocene at least 2,000 years after the end of full‐glacial conditions and 1,000 years after evidence of landscape recovery. Early Holocene land‐use consisted of short‐term task‐specific camps occupied by highly mobile groups on logistical forays. Upland land use intensified in the middle and late Holocene after modern vegetation patterns were established; during this time hunter‐gatherers occupied both residential and task‐specific camps in the study area in a logistical land‐use system. These results support a shift in land use in the early Holocene to include upland landscapes and intensification of upland landscape use in the late–middle Holocene. A shift in residential base camp location in the late Holocene may be tied to changing subsistence activities. There is evidence for a hiatus in human occupation following Holocene tephra fall, but it is unclear whether this was related to tephra deposition or broader climate instability.

Ecological dimensions of population dynamics and subsistence in Neo-Eneolithic Eastern Europe

During the fourth millennium BCE socioeconomic change from a regime of Neo-Eneolithic village-based sedentary agriculture to more itinerant pastoralism dramatically changed European society. Continental-scale archaeological and genetic studies generally attribute this change to the movement of Early Bronze Age (EBA) populations into Eastern Europe ca. 3000 BCE. However, archaeological assemblages in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania suggest that migrations and changes in subsistence regime started earlier, coinciding with climatic change during the 5.9 ka event (Bond Event 4) and continuing into the Atlantic/Subboreal transition. We apply the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) to a settlement record spanning over 3000 years (ca. 6100–3000 BCE) in 14 sub-regions of Eastern Europe to establish a quantitative indicator of changing subsistence strategies throughout the fourth millennium BCE. This provides corroboration for arguments made on the basis of careful study of material culture, which suggest that economic changes were gradual, regionally diverse in their manifestation and pre-date the arrival of EBA populations in Eastern Europe. Our implementation of the IFD shows it to be a useful tool for highlighting changes in regional subsistence regimes, but further analysis is required to address issues of habitat ranking, migratory vectors, and settlement dating on smaller scales.

Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

ABSTRACTEpipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.

The prevalence and importance of niche construction in agricultural development in Polynesia

The practice of cultivation has an immediate and long-lasting effect on the environment. Often, we tend to think of these effects in terms of immediate production outcomes, notably increased plant production. However, such modification of the environment has the potential to directly influence of rate and trajectory of agricultural development more generally. Using niche construction, a concept that has proven effective to understand subsistence change elsewhere, we examine pathways of agricultural change in Polynesia. We highlight the prevalence of niche construction in agricultural trajectories in the region, using both a summary of evidence through Polynesia as well as a targeted case study, and illustrate a framework for organizing those trajectories. In doing so, we build on previous attempts at examining the relationship between cultivation and adaptation in the region, which, given that Polynesia is thought of as a model system for investigating human-environmental relationships, can be used as a more general model of agricultural change globally.

Coles Creek fauna procurement strategies: subsistence diversity among late prehistoric hunter-gatherer-horticulturalists in the Lower Mississippi Valley

ABSTRACTIn the late 1980s, a collaborative effort between Harvard University’s Lower Mississippi Survey and Tulane University’s Center for Archaeology launched a study examining the causes and consequences of subsistence change in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The Osceola Project contributed the first formal study of late prehistoric faunal remains within the Alluvial Plain, becoming the standard against which all subsequent Coles Creek faunal assemblages have been measured. Recent evidence recovered from three sites located in the Eastern Uplands presented the opportunity to compare and contrast vertebrate subsistence in these two distinct physiographic regions. We hypothesize that a clear distinction exists between lowland and upland Coles Creek procurement strategies. This article evaluates this claim by examining species diversity, spatial patterns, and temporal trends evident within an eight-site sample. The results suggest that the primary factor influencing Coles Creek fauna procurement was the immediate environment, and that the composition of Late Woodland period diets may be a reflection of efficiency of effort rather than food access or scarcity.

From Oysters to Cockles at Hjarnø Sund: Environmental and Subsistence Changes at a Danish Mesolithic Site

ABSTRACTArchaeological fieldwork at Hjarnø Sund in Horsens Fjord (eastern Jutland, Denmark) has explored an eroding Mesolithic shell midden. Its stratigraphy is characterized by two layers, containing marine mollusk taxa typically collected by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers for food. In the field, the lower layer appeared to be dominated by oysters (Ostrea edulis), while the upper one by cockles (Cerastoderma edule), which was confirmed by our zooarchaeological study. Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating on shells and paired charcoal samples from the two layers indicate that these are chronologically consecutive (separated by as little as 0–163 yr [95.4%]) and that the oyster-to-cockle shift dated between ~5500–5300 and ~5300–5200 cal BC (around or just after the Kongemose/Ertebølle transition). The shell midden at Hjarnø Sund is, thus, one of the oldest-known in Denmark, demonstrating that intensive shellfish exploitation was a hallmark of the Ertebølle culture from its inception. Oyster-to-cockle shifts, thus, also occurred at times other than the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition and may have been ultimately caused by local shoreline displacements, resulting from changes in sedimentation, possibly induced by drops in relative sea level.

Subsistence strategy, pottery use, and the role of animal hunting during the Neolithic and Bronze Age Korean peninsula.

선사시대 생계경제는 현대 고고학에서 가장 활발하게 다루어지고 있는 연구 분야 중의 하나이다. 신석기·청동기시대는 한반도의 선사시대 생계경제 논의에서 가장 빈번하게 거론되는 고고학적 시간대일 것이다. 일반적으로 신석기시대와 청동기시대는 생계경제에서 큰 차이를 보인다는 시각이 지배적인데, 전자는 수렵채집 사회로, 후자는 도작농경 사회로 인식되는 경향이 강하다. 한반도의 선사시대 생계경제연구는 탄화된 식물유체나 해안지역 패총에서 출토된 동물유체와 패각 등에 주로 의존해 왔다. 본고에서는 한반도의 주요 신석기·청동기시대 유적에서 수습한 토기편과 토양시료에 대한 안정동위원소 분석결과를 바탕으로 선사시대 한반도의 생계경제에 관한 종합적인 이해를 도모하였다. 분석 결과, 신석기시대에서 청동기시대로 이행하며 수산/육상자원과 조, 기장 등의 잡곡에 주로 의존하던 식단이 야생 육상동물과 쌀, 두류를 중심으로 하는 식단으로 변화하였다는 증거를 확보할 수 있었다. 뿐만 아니라, 신석기시대 해안과 청동기시대 내륙에서 수산자원, 재배작물과 함께 야생 육상동물들을 섭취하였음 역시 확인되었다. 구석기시대 이래로 수렵활동은 선사시대 한반도의 주민들에게 중요한 생계수단이었을 것이다. 신석기시대에 접어들어 활발하게 어로활동이 전개되고 조, 기장을 포함한 작물의 재배가 시작된 이후에도 수렵활동은 지역을 막론하고 지속되었으며, 청동기시대에 이르러 본격적인 농경이 정착된 이후에도 야생 육상동물들은 당시 사람들의 주요 먹거리였다. 선사시대 한반도의 주민들은 먹거리를 조달함에 있어 보다 다양한 전략을 취했던 것으로 생각되며, 이를 바탕으로 효과적으로 생계를 이어나갈 수 있었던 것으로 보인다.The authors attempt to understand prehistoric subsistence economy and pottery use in the Korean peninsula during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages through the compound specific isotope analysis (hereafter, CSIA) of potsherds / sediments from five major prehistoric sites. One of the main topics of Korean archaeology is understanding of prehistoric subsistence change throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age. However, due to the high acidity of sediments that does not allow long-term preservation of organic remains, we still lack critical information related to the subsistence of the prehistoric population of the peninsula. Cooking pots contain well-preserved organic compounds originated from culinary practices. Reconstructing food processing episodes through CSIA of prehistoric fatty acid extracted from pottery / sediment matrix can contribute to understand the true nature of the subsistence of prehistoric Korean peninsula. The samples for the analyses in this paper were collected from the five major prehistoric (c.a. 7000-2300 BP) settlement sites located in the midwest and southern parts of the Korean peninsula: Tongsam-Dong, Kimpo-shingok, Kimpo-Yangchon, Sosa-Dong, and Songguk-ri sites. The result shows that terrestrial animals are presented in the organic residues, suggesting that there was utilization of a wider range of animal resources along with marine resources and harvested crops among prehistoric dwellers in the midwest and southern parts of the Korean peninsula.

Increased climate seasonality during the late glacial in the Gebel Akhdar, Libya

Oxygen isotope analysis (δ18O) of caprine and bovine tooth enamel carbonates from the Haua Fteah cave (Gebel Akhdar massif, northeast Libya) reveals significant differences in palaeoseasonality during the last c. 70 ka. Data indicate different phases of human occupation of the region occurred under notably different climatic conditions. During the last glacial period, prior to the Last Glacial Maximum, a gradual increase in climate aridity occurred. This was followed in the late glacial (c. 16.6–14.7 ka) by considerably more arid conditions and much greater climate seasonality, which was likely produced by changing winter precipitation amounts and a strengthening of arid summer air masses. The high seasonality in the late glacial coincides with a period when human activity at the Haua Fteah greatly intensified. Significant changes in subsistence strategies and the seasonal exploitation of food resources also occurred at this time. The results presented here suggest that changes in the seasonal climate may have affected the seasonal supply of floral and faunal resources available to local human populations at the time, which resulted in changing subsistence practices.

Relationships between terrestrial animal exploitation, marine hunter-gatherers and palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle-Late Holocene in the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego)

Palaeoenvironmental information collected from zooarchaeological (guanaco exploitation) and palynological (pollen and fungal remains) records from Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados allowed us to reconstruct the natural scenarios during the Holocene to better understand the human behavioral patterns and cultural changes. We have seen that changes in subsistence and guanaco exploitation would not have necessarily been synchronous with climatic variations. However, there is evidence of great climatic and environmental variability in the Fuegian Archipelago during the last 6000 years that would have influenced the distribution of the hunter-gatherer societies. In particular, the Little Ice Age (LIA) event could have caused a reorganization of subsistence activities of the hunter-gatherer societies. The stress caused by this severe climatic episode might have changed the availability of the guanaco population over the inland and coastal areas along the Beagle Channel. Indeed, the colder conditions would have significantly impacted on both the animal population and the availability of their food sources. In summary, the guanaco availability decreased under those colder and intense winters, which is clearly reflected in the substantial drop in the zooarchaeological record.

Making different things, but eating the same food? Correlation between cultural and subsistence changes during the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula

The end of the Pleistocene is characterized by a succession of climatic oscillations from the onset of MIS 2. These oscillations were associated with important environmental transformations that culminated in the Pleistocene to the Holocene transition, with latter climate amelioration. However, the changes during this period are not only restricted to the environment, as important cultural transformations took place. The cultural traditions characteristics from the end of the Upper Paleolithic disappear with the emergence of the traits characteristic of the Mesolithic culture. This is clearly attested in the well-known lithic record, but also in other domains of material culture, like bone industry and art. Nevertheless, the extent to which these cultural and environmental transformations were associated with changes in subsistence strategies remains unclear, at least at the Mediterranean basin of the Iberian Peninsula. Apparently, the exploitation of faunal resources during the Mesolithic does not seem to change so much with respect to the end of the Upper Paleolithic, especially concerning the consumption of small prey.The main goal of this paper is (1) to analyze how environmental transformations could or could not intervene on the modes of life of Prehistoric populations during these transitional periods, and (2) to discuss the apparent dichotomy between cultural changes and subsistence strategies at the end of the Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic in northeastern Iberia. In that sense, we will include the case of the Molí del Salt site (Catalonia, Spain) as an example to explain these trends. This site has an archaeological sequence from the Upper Magdalenian to the Mesolithic, which makes it a reference place to comprehend the dynamics of human populations during this period.

Holocene fluctuations in human population demonstrate repeated links to food production and climate

We consider the long-term relationship between human demography, food production, and Holocene climate via an archaeological radiocarbon date series of unprecedented sampling density and detail. There is striking consistency in the inferred human population dynamics across different regions of Britain and Ireland during the middle and later Holocene. Major cross-regional population downturns in population coincide with episodes of more abrupt change in North Atlantic climate and witness societal responses in food procurement as visible in directly dated plants and animals, often with moves toward hardier cereals, increased pastoralism, and/or gathered resources. For the Neolithic, this evidence questions existing models of wholly endogenous demographic boom-bust. For the wider Holocene, it demonstrates that climate-related disruptions have been quasi-periodic drivers of societal and subsistence change.

Naukan ethnobotany in post-Soviet times: lost edibles and new medicinals

BackgroundThis study focuses on health-related plant use among speakers of the critically endangered Naukan language (Inuit-Yupik-Unangan family) in the Russian Far East. The Naukan people were forced, in 1958, under Soviet consolidation, to move from their original settlement on Cape Dezhnev, leading to significant changes in spiritual worldview, subsistence, social structure, and language proficiency in the years that followed. Here, we focus on changes that elders report in their edible, medicinal, and spiritual uses of local plant species since their childhood.MethodsThe authors worked from 2014 to 2016 in the villages of Lavrentiya, Lorino, and Uelen, in the Chukotskiy district of the Chukotka autonomous region, directly adjacent to the Bering Strait. We conducted structured interviews, using an oral history approach, along with participant observation and collection of voucher specimens from the local arctic tundra. Those with Naukan names and uses represent 42 species in 25 families.ResultsParticipants reported a decrease of 13% in the number of edible species that people currently harvest, from what they recall harvesting in their youth. On the other hand, the number of local species considered to be medicinal has actually increased by 225%. Current and past Naukan medicinal practices diverge in some notable ways from those of neighboring societies on the Alaskan side of the Bering Strait. Most of the spiritual significance of local plants species is remembered by only a few elders.ConclusionsNaukan elders explained the large increase in use of medicinal plants by noting that their original concept of medicine emphasized prevention and that illnesses were often assigned a spiritual rather than physical cause. Increased integration with ethnic Russians after moving from Naukan led to the adoption not only of new plant uses, but also of an entirely different, more naturalistic way of viewing illness and treatment.

Recent Archaeological Investigations near the Native Village of Shaktoolik, Norton Sound, Alaska + Supplementary Appendix 1 (See Article Tools)

Since the early 1950s, when J.L. Giddings completed his work at Cape Denbigh, archaeological investigations in the area of Shaktoolik, Alaska, have been limited. Here we report on renewed investigations in the region that have led to the identification of 134 house features, dating from AD 1100 to the early 1900s, at a site next to the village’s airport. This period spans one of continuity from the Nukleet archaeological culture to the ethnographic Yupiit, followed by a period of upheaval related to Russian trade and a smallpox epidemic that devastated the Indigenous population of the area. Inupiat from the north migrated to Shaktoolik and have occupied the area since the mid-1800s. Sixteen test units were excavated to understand the density of site occupation, extent of organic preservation, age of the deposits, and changes in subsistence over this 800-year period. The most recent Inupiat inhabitants built houses typical of mid 19th- to early 20th-century structures described for the northern Seward Peninsula, which were square, one-room structures with a single, long entrance tunnel. This house style replaced the previous Yup’ik-style multi-roomed structures replete with a labyrinth of tunnels used for defense and escape during inter-village conflict.

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION: NEW APPROACHES TO AGE-OLD QUESTIONS

Biological anthropological research, the study of both modern and past humans, is a burgeoning field in the Indo-Pacific region. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the unique environments of the Indo-Pacific have resulted in an archaeological record that does not necessarily align with those in the northern hemisphere. New, regionally-specific archaeological models are being developed, and biological anthropological research has an important role to play in establishing past human experience within these models. In the Indo-Pacific, research using ancient and modern human tissues is adding insight into global processes of prehistoric settlement and migrations, subsistence change and human biosocial adaptation. This review synthesises current themes in biological anthropology in this region. It highlights the diverse methods and approaches used by biological anthropologists to address globally-relevant archaeological questions. In recent decades a collaborative approach between archaeologists, biological anthropologists and local communities has become the norm in the region. The many positive outcomes of this multi-disciplinary approach are highlighted here through the use of regionally-specific case studies. This review ultimately aims to stimulate further collaborations between archaeologists, biological anthropologists and the communities in the region, and demonstrate how the evidence from Indo-Pacific research may be relevant to global archaeological models.

‘Where goats connect people’: Cultural diffusion of livestock not food production amongst southern African hunter-gatherers during the Later Stone Age

The frequently stated yet unexamined assumption in the debate surrounding the acquisition of livestock by hunter-gatherers in southern Africa is that this transition was about a subsistence change to food production. This interpretation ignores the archaeological evidence that hunter-gatherers remained hunter-gatherers on acquisition of stock. It also overlooks the ethnographic and historical evidence surrounding the relationships between humans and animals in Africa (and beyond), both today and in the past. Amongst the majority of the continent’s people, the primary value of domestic animals is their social and ritual value. Across all subsistence categories in eastern and southern Africa – hunter-gatherer, agro-pastoralist and pastoralist – there is a strong and well-documented shared resistance to slaughtering livestock. This has implications for our understanding of the uptake of stock by hunter-gatherers in southern African 2000 years ago and its comparison to Neolithic transitions in other parts of the world.

Introduction: North American East Coast Shell Middens

Abstract Archaeological shell bearing deposits, or shell middens, are ubiquitous along the Atlantic Seaboard, and have been the focus of archaeological interest for more than a century. This volume presents recent research on shell-bearing deposits from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Chesapeake Bay. The papers cover topics ranging from fundamental subsistence changes as reflected in archaeofaunas, to the role of select species in hunting practices and diets, to methodological issues of shell midden excavation and interpretation, to aspects of ideation and ontology as reflected in features and assemblages. A consistent theme among the papers is the issue of coastal erosion caused by sea-level rise and climate change. This looming crisis has made the comprehensive investigation of these deposits more important than ever before.

The Neolithic site of Jebel Oraf 2, northern Saudi Arabia: First report of a directly dated site with faunal remains

The archaeological record of the Arabian Neolithic remains extremely fragmentary. Archaeological sites containing faunal remains of early domesticates are extremely rare and only a few sites yielding these have been excavated in Yemen and along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Neolithisation models have therefore had to infer population dynamics and subsistence changes across vast distances. Here we present the first report of a newly discovered Neolithic site in the Jubbah oasis, on the southern edge of the Nefud desert. The site is located on the margin of palaeolake deposits and consists of a large cluster of at least 170 visible hearths. Test excavation of two hearth features yielded radiocarbon ages between 5200 and 5070BCE. Abundant lithics consisted of both ground and chipped stone artefacts, some of which recall the Pottery Neolithic in the Levant. Some 15 fragments of Bos dentition were also recovered. The age of the site raises the distinct possibility that the faunal remains represent domestic cattle. The nature of the site, with evidence for repeated occupation, may therefore indicate seasonal use by pastoralists. The site of Jebel Oraf 2 promises to fill a major geographic gap in our understanding of the Neolithisation process in Arabia.