Human Development in Landscapes | People | Doctoral research student Jana Pokrandt, M.A.

The Palaeoecology of Oasis Origin on the Arabian Peninsula (Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age).

The research project “The Paleoecology of Oasis Origin on the Arabian Peninsula” deals with the understanding of a possible causality between aridizations and the introduction of a new economy with a very specific socioeconomic organization which finally brought sedentary life to arid environments. The project tests the hypothesis that first oasis cultures resulted from the onset of cooler and more arid conditions after the Mid-Holocene climatic optimum, and not as found in literature that oases are the direct result of a Mid-Holocene climatic optimum.

On the basis of the approach that changing conditions towards a colder and drier climate triggered the adaptation to the oasis economy, the research hypotheses were defined in the following way:

1.) Prior to 4000 cal BC large parts of the Arabian Peninsula –such as the Sahara- were savanna type landscapes with lakes, high water tables and presumably natural oases. The environments of the Mid-Holocene climatic optimum established the basis for mobile shepherd cultures. It became an ideal region for transhumant shepherd cultures with a kind of ancestor worship. Thus, these cultures were highly adaptive in light of their well technology and by using the Mid-Holocene high aquifers, which provided flexible access to water influencing the shepherd lifestyle.
2.) During migration the pastoral nomads came into contact with sedentary societies, e.g. in the Transjordan Mountains and the Rift Valley (4500- 4000 cal BC). An exchange of meat, cereals, flint artefacts like fan scrapers and beads was established and extended by trade routes. These trade routes were supported by pastoral networks based on the socio-territorial and climatic conditions prior to 4000 cal BC.

3.) The role of “green desert” pastoral chiefdoms in long distance exchange between Egypt and Mesopotamia, across the Arabian Peninsula, should not be overseen. The pastoral, partly megalithic occupation of Eastern Jordan (Maitland's Mesa (Wadi Qattafi), Qulban Beni Murra) and the Arabian Desert became the progenitors of early oases after 4000 cal BC when climate became drier and colder (sites near Aqaba, Saudi Arabia, Oman).

4.) During this aridification (Rapid Climate Change 6.0- 5.2ka BP), the mobile well-cultures (e.g. pastoral occupation of Qulban Beni Murra) transferred into first sedentary oasis cultures wherever hydrological conditions were suitable (Thesis: Dr. H.G.K. Gebel). During this process, their well/trough technology became the basis of oasis water management and economy.

Present investigations in the Yemeni Highlands and the Omani Peninsula are in agreement that the cultural connection between the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age Yemeni Highlands and the earliest oases of Oman is beyond any dispute. My research project also agrees with these results and conclusions, but it probably locates the linkage between the Early Bronze Age Yemeni and Omani agricultural occupations and the Late Chalcolithic/ Early Bronze Age in the Jordanian and Arabian Deserts. I expect that the progenitor of the terrace-like agriculture in the Yemeni Highlands can be found in the domestic structures with platforms and terrace-walls of sites in Jordan and Saudi Arabia e.g. Wadi Sahab al-Asmar in Jordan and Dumat al-Jandal and Qurayyah in Saudi Arabia. In this way, the development of early oasis cultures could be retraced till the beginning of mobile shepherd cultures with well-technology and their flexible access to water. Therefore, the endeavour of my PhD-project has been hitherto totally untouched in existing research.