Investigating the Archaeology of the Pleistocene in Saudi Arabia - Anthony Sinclair

Future Directions for Investigating the Archaeology of the Pleistocene in Saudi Arabia
Dr. Anthony Sinclair, University of Liverpool
5th June 2024
16.00 CET (Rome, Paris, Berlin / GMT+2)
17.00 (İstanbul, Athens / GMT+3)
10.00 (New York / GMT-4)
Archaeological research related to the Pleistocene occupation of Saudi Arabia is a relatively recent phenomenon. It has been stimulated by results from the Comprehensive Survey of the Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s and, from the 1990s, the widespread acceptance of the African origins of the major dispersals of hominin species. The Arabian Peninsula, and Saudi Arabia, in particular are now identified as one of the most important places in which to look for archaeological evidence of the first hominins leaving Africa. This presentation will review briefly some of the results of major programmes of archaeological survey along the Red Sea coastline and in the arid interior. It will reflect on the information recently gained about the occupation of the Kingdom by early hominins, and identify some of the missing gaps in our knowledge and research skills and infrastructure that identify possible directions for work in the next 10 to 20 years.