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Abstract
The Arabian Peninsula is a critical geographic landmass situated between Africa and the rest of Eurasia. Climatic shifts across the Pleistocene periodically produced wetter conditions in Arabia, dramatically altering the spatial distribution of hominins both within and between continents. This is particularly true of Acheulean hominins, who appear to have been more tethered to water sources than Middle Palaeolithic hominins. However, until recently, chrono-cultural knowledge of the Acheulean of Arabia has been limited to one dated site, which indicated a hominin presence in Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 7–6. Here, we report the first dated Acheulean site from the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia, together with palaeoecological evidence for an associated deep, probably fresh-water, lake. The site of An Nasim features varied and often finely flaked façonnage handaxes. Luminescence ages together with geomorphological and palaeoecological evidence indicates that the associated artefacts date to MIS 9. At present, An Nasim represents the oldest yet documented Acheulean sites in Arabia, and adds to a growing picture of regionally diverse stone tool assemblages used by Middle Pleistocene hominins, and likely indicative of repeated population re-entry into the peninsula in wet ‘Green Arabia’ phases.
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1 Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Jena, Germany (GRID:grid.469873.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 4914 1197); University of Malta, Department of Classics and Archaeology, Msida, Malta (GRID:grid.4462.4) (ISNI:0000 0001 2176 9482); University of Cologne, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Cologne, Germany (GRID:grid.6190.e) (ISNI:0000 0000 8580 3777)
2 Stony Brook University, Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681); Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, USA (GRID:grid.36425.36) (ISNI:0000 0001 2216 9681); University of Oxford, Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, School of Archaeology, Oxford, UK (GRID:grid.4991.5) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8948)
3 King’s College London, Department of Geography, London, UK (GRID:grid.13097.3c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2322 6764)
4 Royal Holloway University of London, Centre for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, Egham, UK (GRID:grid.4970.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 2188 881X); University of Bergen, SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), Bergen, Norway (GRID:grid.7914.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7443)
5 Royal Holloway University of London, Centre for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, Egham, UK (GRID:grid.4970.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 2188 881X)
6 University of Cologne, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Cologne, Germany (GRID:grid.6190.e) (ISNI:0000 0000 8580 3777); The Science of Human History, and Biogeochemistry, Extreme Events Research Group, Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany (GRID:grid.4372.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 2105 1091); Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeology, Jena, Germany (GRID:grid.469873.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 4914 1197)
7 King’s College London, Department of Geography, London, UK (GRID:grid.13097.3c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2322 6764); Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeology, Jena, Germany (GRID:grid.469873.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 4914 1197)
8 Oxford Brookes University, Human Origins and PalaeoEnvironments Research Group, Oxford, UK (GRID:grid.7628.b) (ISNI:0000 0001 0726 8331); University of Oxford, Mansfield College, Oxford, UK (GRID:grid.4991.5) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8948)
9 The Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, London, UK (GRID:grid.35937.3b) (ISNI:0000 0001 2270 9879)
10 King Saud University, Department of Archaeology, College of Tourism and Archaeology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (GRID:grid.56302.32) (ISNI:0000 0004 1773 5396)
11 Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeology, Jena, Germany (GRID:grid.469873.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 4914 1197); University of Queensland, School of Social Science, Brisbane, Australia (GRID:grid.1003.2) (ISNI:0000 0000 9320 7537); National Musuem of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Human Origins Program, Washington, USA (GRID:grid.1214.6) (ISNI:0000 0000 8716 3312); Griffith University, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), Brisbane, Australia (GRID:grid.1022.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 0437 5432)