The Prehistoric Fishers and Gatherers of the Northern and Western Coasts of the Arabian Sea

This chapter is a review of the prehistory of the fisher-gatherers who settled along the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Previous research and studies have been centred mainly on the western coasts of the Indian Ocean. They have presented and discussed the general patterns and chronological frame of the coastal human adaptation since the early Holocene, and the recurrent presence of shell middens located close to mangrove environments. More recent research has been focussed on the northern shores of the Arabian Sea. From this region we have new evidence of the presence of fisher-gatherers communities that seasonally settled along the ancient coastline and islands of south-western Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan) since the end of the eighth millennium BP indicating that early navigation already took place in that period. According to the archaeological evidence, the subsistence activities of these human groups were varied though seasonally based mainly on fishing and shellfish gathering. Broadly speaking marine and mangrove resources were widespread exploited along the two coasts of the Arabian Sea during favourable, well-defined periods of coastal adaptation following the varied environmental conditions and sea-level changes that took place since the beginning of the Holocene

Red Radiolarite Availability in Western Liguria? A Challenging Enigma from Ortovero (Savona, Liguria, Northern Italy)

The authors present a new prehistoric site recently discovered at Ortovero, near Albenga (Savona Province, Italy) in Western Liguria that can be attributed on typological grounds to the Final Epigravettian or to the Sauveterrian. The raw-material characteristics of the chipped stone artefacts resemble those stemming from the red radiolarite outcrops of Eastern Liguria, although the large number of pieces manufactured from this material and the distance from the supposed sources challenge this hypothesis. As a result of field surveys carried out over the last few years, the authors discuss the possibility of a formerly unknown source of vitreous red-coloured radiolarite outcropping in the surroundings of the site that may correspond to the Arnasco radiolarite formation outcropping near OrtoveroLes auteurs pr\ue9sentent la r\ue9cente d\ue9couverte d'un nouveau site pr\ue9historique \ue0 Ortovero, pr\ue8s d\u2019Albenga (province de Savone, Italie) en Ligurie occidentale qui peut \ueatre dat\ue9e sur la base d\u2019observations typologiques \ue0 la fin de l\u2019\uc9pigravettien ou au Sauveterrien. La mati\ue8re premi\ue8re de l\u2019ensemble lithique ressemble \ue0 celles des affleurements de radiolarite rouge de Ligurie orientale, bien que le nombre \ue9lev\ue9 de pi\ue8ces r\ue9alis\ue9es sur ce mat\ue9riau et la distance aux sources suppos\ue9es nous am\ue8ne \ue0 consid\ue9rer cette hypoth\ue8se avec prudence. \uc0 la lumi\ue8re des prospections de terrain conduites durant ces derni\ue8res ann\ue9es, les auteurs signalent l\u2019existence d\u2019un affleurement inconnu de radiolarites vitreuses rouges dans les environs du site, correspondant \ue0 la formation des \uab radiolarites d\u2019Arnasco \ubb qui affleurent non loin d\u2019Ortovero

A source in Bulgaria for Early Neolithic "Balkan flint"

Description of the first discovery of "Balkan flint" outcrops and workshops exploited during the Early Neolithic near Nikopol in Bulgaria close to the course of the Danub

Neanderthal at the south-easternmost edge: the spread of Levallois Mousterian in the Indian Subcontinent

Description of the Middle Palaeolithic, Levalloisian, Mousterian assemblages from the western banks of the Indus, in Lower Sindh (Pakistan) and considerations on the south-easternmore distribution of the Neanderthal Levalloisian assemblage

The Bronze Age Indus quarries of the Rohri Hills and Ongar in Sindh (Pakistan)

New data on the Indus flint mines of the Rohri Hills, with a note on the technology of artefatcs manufactur

The Levallois Mousterian assemblages of Sindh (Pakistan) and their relations with the Middle Palaeolithic of the Indian Subcontinent

The research carried out in the Indian Subcontinent, Central Asia, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula has improved our knowledge of the Middle Paleolithic in the regions. However, the southeasternmost distribution of the Levallois Mousterian is still poorly defined. Although typical Levallois industries are known from Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, they are almost unknown in the Indian Subcontinent, except for Lower Sindh and the Indus Valley. The evidence from Ongar and other sites in Sindh has shed some light on the possible southeasternmost distribution routes of the Neanderthals that are considered the probable creators of the assemblages included in this study

Technological choices and lithic production in the Indus period: Case studies from Sindh (Pakistan) Paolo Biagi

The Indus Civilisation flourished in part of the Indian Subcontinent during the Bronze Age. It was a complex urban civilisation, with a writing system, still undeciphered. It is also famous for its sophisticated handicrafts, painted pottery, stoneware, steatite and semiprecious beads, faience and metalwork, which were traded to long distances across the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Nevertheless chipped stone technology and flint artefacts production still represented important aspects of the economic system, especially in connection with specialised craft productions, which led to an intensive exploitation of the flint raw material sources of the Rohri Hills, in Upper Sindh. Here thousands of flint mines were exploited for a mass production of blades and bladelets, which were later transformed into sophisticated micro-drill points in the craft activity areas of the cities, where they are found in association with semiprecious stone bead making workshops. This paper analyses the complexity of the lithic production of the Indus Civilisation. It describes the technology and methods of production of such blades, according to the evidence collected during several years of research carried out in the Rohri Hills. Here, besides the mines, a good number of flint knapping workshops were excavated by the Italo-Pakistani expedition. The analytical study of the lithic assemblages recovered from these excavations and the experimental reproduction of the debitage sequence, favoured the reconstruction of the techniques and the methods of the Indus flint working

Neanderthals at the south-easternmost edge: the spread of Levallois Mousterian in the Indian Subcontinent

The paper presents a concise overview of current research carried out in the Indian Subcontinent, Central Asia, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula, which has improved our knowledge of the Middle Paleolithic in the regions. The south-easternmost distribution of the Levallois Mousterian complexes is still unclear. Typical Levallois Mousterian assemblages are known indeed from Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, though they are almost unknown in the Indian Subcontinent, except for Lower Sindh and the Indus Valley. The evidence gathered by the Italian archaeological expedition in Pakistan from Ongar and other sites in Sindh during the last 20 years offers a challenging hypothesis about a possible south-easternmost diffusion of the Neanderthals that are considered the most probable producers of the chipped stone assemblages presented in this study

Ceramic production and raw materials in the Tuscan-Ligurian region: an archaeological and petrographic approach in a diachronic perspective

This contribute focuses on the history of ceramic production of a large geographic area from the archaeological point of view encompassing Liguria and N-W Tuscany and using a petro-archaeometrical approach ( essentially based on thin-section analyses of more than a thousand of samples)

The Epipalaeolithic Site of Ouriakos on the Island of Lemnos and its Place in the Late Prleistocene Peopling of the East Mediterranean Region

First report of the excavations carried out at the Epipalaeolithic site of Ouriakos in the island of Lemnos, radiocarbon-dated to the Younger Dryas period. Description of the site, industries and considerations on the Late Preistocene period in the northeastern mediterranean regio