The Middle Paleolithic of Arabia: The View from the Hadramawt Region, Yemen
Résumé
While prehistoric research in the Arabian peninsula is still in its primary stages of development, the very existence of this book is proof of a recent growing interest in the region. Yet, the interest in the prehistory of the region is outshined by the dearth and frailty of the available data. We must then ask ourselves, why such interest and enthusiasm? And is it really justified to theorize about the contribution of Arabia for human prehistory if the data remain scant? It can certainly be explained, as Petraglia (2007: 383) correctly states, by the progressive reorientation of research towards areas of the world where it is more “logical” to look in order to understand “the evolutionary history of geographically widespread populations”. Consequently, this phenomenon is akin to a revolution in the small world of Arabian prehistoric research; a revolution that carries great aspirations for crucial questions such as the origin of the dispersion of anatomically modern humans out of Africa. While the data are scarce, the passion which one can have for the prehistory of a region such as Arabia is fully justified by the simple recognition of its being an area laden with enormous possibility.
Domaines
Archéologie et PréhistoireOrigine | Accord explicite pour ce dépôt |
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