I plan to attend and present a paper co-authored with Kevin Lidour at the World Neolithic Congress, due to be held in Sanliurfa, Turkey, from 4-8 November 2024.
General Programme – click here
General Programme with Rooms – click here
Detailed Programme by Sessions – click here
Detailed Programme by Date-Class – click here
Detailed Programme by Class-Date – click here
To Register Attendance – click here
Title:
Submission 3285 – Insights into a Neolithic maritime economy: Recent archaeological research from Abu Dhabi’s islands, United Arab Emirates
Authors:
Kevin Lidour, Historic Environment Department, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 94000, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – email: klidour@dctabudhabi.ae
Mark Jonathan Beech, Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 94000, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – email: mark.beech@dctabudhabi.ae
Abstract:
In this paper we explore the implications of new discoveries from recent archaeological excavations carried out along the coast of Abu Dhabi emirate in the southern Arabian Gulf. Investigations on Delma Island, Marawah Island and Ghagha Island have provided a new insight into Neolithic coastal life in the southern Gulf. Radiocarbon dates indicate that these coastal settlements were occupied by 6500 cal BC (on Ghagha Island), between 5800-4500 cal BC (on Marawah Island) and between 5400-4500 cal BC (on Delma Island). Remarkable settlements with stone architecture with clusters of stone-built rooms preserved to nearly one metre in height have been discovered on both Ghagha and Marawah Islands. Finds include interesting lithics assemblages, plaster vessel fragments, shell and stone beads and other artefacts. Here we will describe some of the key bioarchaeological remains discovered at these sites. These include relatively scarce evidence for the exploitation of terrestrial mammals, but abundant fish bones and marine shells, as well as evidence for the consumption of marine mammals, turtles and other marine organisms. Early evidence for the exploitation of what are presumed to be wild date palms has been identified from both Marawah Island and Delma Island, raising the possibility of them being harvested in Eastern Arabia prior to their subsequent regional domestication. Evidence of this highly specialised maritime economy demonstrates an alternative pathway and strategy utilised in this region of South-West Asia during the Neolithic period. It shows a complex interdependent economy that leveraged the region’s rich marine resources on the Fertile Coast.
This paper will be presented in the following session:
R29 – Breaking the Neolithic in Asia: Questioning Tropes, Recentering Boundaries and Nuancing Lifeways
Jennifer Bates / Seoul National University, South Korea
Matthew L. Conte / Seoul National University, South Korea
Yeji Lee / Seoul National University, South Korea
JungWoo Choi / Seoul National University, South Korea
Kim Pangyu / Seoul National University, South Korea
Abstract
That the Three Age system and the subdivisions of the lithic ages do not work outside Europe and Near East has been debated in many forums. However, beyond this easily cited trope, the age-old idea of a “Neolithic” continually raises its head within literature. We see the presence of agriculture as a way to ‘mark’ the Neolithic, the absence of microliths as a marker of change, and ceramics used to debate the validity of chronological boundaries. Nuances underlying what this meant for the lives lived by people and the diversity underlying this in different regions are often overlooked in the eagerness to ‘find’ the Neolithic. The Neolithic has in essence become an ‘archaeo-geological age’ – so stratigraphically bounded and ubiquitous we find it hard to break from its presence. Local narratives are peripheralized in favour of an all encompassing, un-nuanced and imported age. In this session we invite papers that explore diversity and break the homogeneity of ‘Neolithic’ life in Asia, moving away from mere tropes to how new lifeways were adopted, assimilated, rejected or replaced in different parts of Asia. Debates in the Neolithic of Asia (e.g.: use of aquatic resources, the adoption of pastoral and agricultural systems, domestication, changes in technology) are sought to explore the diversity of what it was ‘to have been Neolithic’. Through this session we ask: is there something about the ‘Neolithic’ as a concept and term that helps people to understand the diversity of lifeways and societies associated with it across regions within Asia?
About the 2024 World Neolithic Congress
The 2024 World Neolithic Congress aims to bring together discussion of diverse Neolithic formations that took place across different geographical locations in different time-frames following diverse cultural and socio-economic trajectories. The Congress will provide a platform for comparing increasing Neolithic social complexity in different parts of the world.
The emergence of Neolithic cultures has been one of the most critical turning points in human history laying the foundations for our present global impact and population size, and playing a significant role in the evolution of human society over the past 12,000 years.
The Congress intends to challenge conventional theories and terminologies on the emergence and the development of productive and newly adapted ways of living.
Focus will be on sedentary lifeways, impacts on nature, the built environment , social hierarchies, the cognitive frameworks for ever-shifting norms, ontological approaches, symbols, identities, beliefs, cult practices, sanctuaries, artworks, cognition, innovation , technologies, languages, craft specialization, resilience, demographic pressure, climatic fluctuations, defining the impact of environmental settings; the use and implications of natural and bioscience research, particularly genetic, isotopic, residues, radiocarbon dating, physical anthropology, geoarchaeology, and also the most recent archaeological results from primary and secondary core areas of Neolithic formations.
The Congress aims to foster new ways of looking and thinking about Neolithic phenomena on both local and global scales.
