Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
3.12 - Arabia
from VII. - Western and Central Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents Summary for Volumes 1, 2 and 3
- Contents
- Volume 1 Maps
- Volume 2 Maps
- Volume 3 Maps
- About the Contributors
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- VII. Western and Central Asia
- 3.1 The Early Prehistory of Western and Central Asia
- 3.2 Western and Central Asia: DNA
- 3.3 The Upper Palaeolithic and Earlier Epi-Palaeolithic of Western Asia
- 3.4 The Origins of Sedentism and Agriculture in Western Asia
- 3.5 The Levant in the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
- 3.6 Settlement and Emergent Complexity in Western Syria, c. 7000–2500 bce
- 3.7 Prehistory and the Rise of Cities in Mesopotamia and Iran
- 3.8 Mesopotamia
- 3.9 Anatolia: From the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the End of the Early Bronze Age (10,500–2000 bce)
- 3.10 Anatolia from 2000 to 550 bce
- 3.11 The Prehistory of the Caucasus: Internal Developments and External Interactions
- 3.12 Arabia
- 3.13 Central Asia before the Silk Road
- 3.14 Southern Siberia during the Bronze and Early Iron Periods
- 3.15 Western Asia after Alexander
- 3.16 Western and Central Asia: Languages
- VIII. Europe and the Mediterranean
- Index
- References
Summary
Arabia covers an area in excess of 2.5 million sq km. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, on the south by the Arabian Sea and on the east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Arabia’s northern boundary is less clear-cut, its arid landscape merging into the Mesopotamian alluvium and the Syrian Desert. This chapter focuses exclusively upon the prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula, that is, the modern countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Yemen, in the period from the Early Holocene to the 1st millennium bce.
Geography and Climate
The Arabian Peninsula displays significant geographical variability that was fundamental to prehistoric human settlement in the region. The peninsula contains a number of highland areas, including the Western Escarpment or ‘Asir Mountains running parallel to the Red Sea coast of Arabia and their continuation – the Yemen Highlands – which reach elevations in excess of 3600 masl and are cut by valleys draining to the southern and western coasts of Yemen and to the interior desert of the Ramlat as-Sab’atayn. In Southeast Arabia, the 600 km-long arc of the Al-Hajjar Mountains reaches 2980 masl at the Jebel Akhdar. Away from the mountainous highlands, the interior of Arabia is characterised by a series of major deserts which cover roughly one-third of the peninsula, including the stony Harra and the sandy Great Nafud deserts in the north and the great sand sea of the Rub’ al-Khali in the south. The general aridity of the region is reflected in the fact that modern Arabia has no permanent lakes or rivers. Modern rainfall varies substantially with topography and latitude.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1596 - 1616Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014