Publication details
The Al-Hajar Mts as a prehistoric refugium? On the significance of karst for the habitability of mountain places in the Central Al-Hajar Mts (Oman)
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Since 2018 the Czech project SIPO (Oman) has located prehistoric lithics of at least two occupation phases at several sediment-filled depressions at ca. 1000 m a.s.l. in the Jebel Kawr (Sint). With the monsoon influence shifting south by about 6000 BCA, the Al-Hajar Mountains of Northern Oman have traditionally not been considered as an area of prehistoric retreat, viz. “refugium”. We argue that the specific drainage behavior of fractured karstic rock in the Central Al-Hajar Mts was able to counteract temporal/spatial randomness of rainfall and to support life forms in the mountains across arid phases. Likewise, we consider the countless, small karst depressions in the area “plugged” with aeolian silt (?uyul, sg. hayl) as strategic footholds for foraging-pastoral groups en route to places with dependable water features higher up in the mountains. To prove the assertion and to allow a discussion of the emerging mountain archaeology in Oman, observations from the prehistoric site Hayl Aja (1012 m a.s.l.) will be presented, together the most important facts of hydrogeology, botany and zoology concerning the Central Al-Hajar Mts. |
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