Stone Age Sites and their Natural Environment

This volume presents the data and interpretations which served as a basis for part 4 (Stone Age Settlements on the Coast of Ra’s al-Hamra. Masqat, Oman) of TAVO Map B I 8 dealing with site ecologies of late foragers in the Middle East. It contains the first comprehensive presentation of findings and oberservations made at Late Stone Age sites in the Capital Area of Northern Oman. The beginnings of an intensive exploitation of marine resources, characterising this area till today, are observed during that period. The earliest evidence for the presence of modern humans is radiocarbon-dated to about 9000 BC. Neolithic settlements on the coast flourish from the 5th millennium BC onward and continue into the 3rd millennium BC in the form of an „aceramic Bronze Age“. Artefacts made of stone and shell, including tools and adornments, are presented and interpreted as well as the remains of subsistence activities, which comprise bones of mammals, birds, sea turtles and fish plus shells of marine molluscs. The volume concludes with a chapter on human and environmental history during the first 6 millennia of the Holocene. Der vorliegende Band ist die erste umfassende Vorlage und Interpretation von archäologischen Funden und Befunden aus Siedlungsplätzen der späten Steinzeit im Küstengebiet des Nördlichen Oman. Die für dieses Gebiet bis heute charakteristische intensive Nutzung des Meeres hat sich bereits damals herausgebildet. Erst Spuren menschlicher Anwesenheit sind um 9000 BC zu erkennen. Im 5. Jahrtausend entstehen jungsteinzeitliche Küstensiedlungen, die in Form einer „akeramischen Bronzezeit“ bis ins 3. Jahrtausend überdauern. Der Band leuchtet die archäologischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Aspekte dieser Entwicklung aus.