The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia ─ Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics

The contemporary deserts of Arabia form some of the most dramatic arid landscapes in the world; yet, during many times in the past, the region was well-watered, containing evidence for rivers and lakes. Climatic fluctuations through time must have had a profound effect on human population that lived and passed through the region. In this book, paleoenvironmental specialists, archaeologists and geneticists are brought together to provide a comprehensive account of the evolution of human populations in Arabia. A wide range of topics are explored in this book, including environmental change and its impact on human populations, the movement and dispersal of populations through the region, and the origin and spread of food producing economies. New theories and interpretations are presented which provide new insights into the evolution of human populations in a key region of the world.

Michael D. Petraglia was born in New York in 1960. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge. Over the past 25 years, he has conducted archaeological research in India, Arabia, Europe and North America. He is co-editor of the book, The Evolution and History of Human Populations in South Asia (Springer). Jeffrey Ian Rose was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1975. Over the past 20 years, he has conducted fieldwork in prehistoric archaeology throughout North America, Europe, and Arabia. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Oxford Brookes University and runs an ongoing archaeological research project in the Sultanate of Oman.