Modalities and characteristics of human occupations in Yemen during the Early/Mid-Holocene

Although few reference sites are known in Yemen, those found to date give good, although preliminary, chronostratigraphic sequences that demonstrate different types of lithic industries. The Hadramawt region of eastern Yemen is particularly rich in Early to Mid-Holocene sites. These sites are characterized by the appearance of laminar and especially bifacial lithic industries. The latter includes the production of flat as well as symmetrical arrowheads, and likely later manufacture of arrowheads with triangular section. The distribution of the trihedral points through southern Arabia suggests a technical tradition anchored at the beginning of the Middle Holocene. Presence of the fluting technique reinforces the impression that a true local Arabian “endemic development area” was constituted through time, without any particular external influences. Climate and geography probably contributed to settling modalities and consequently influenced diffusions, relations and movements of populations.