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Volcanism and human prehistory in Arabia
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research ( IF 2.9 ) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 , DOI: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2020.107003
Huw S. Groucutt

Abstract The Cenozoic harrats (lavafields) of western Arabia constitute one of the major volcanic areas of the world. Recent precise chronometric dating of volcanic rocks in Harrat Rahat makes it possible to outline a detailed chronology of volcanic activity. Likewise, recent advances in archaeology have demonstrated that early humans repeatedly occupied the Arabian Peninsula in the Pleistocene. Most archaeological sites in Arabia correlate with phases of increased rainfall, such as interglacials. However, we should be cautious about reducing the prehistory of Arabia to simply the story of rainfall fluctuation. This paper explores the impacts of volcanism on human populations in Arabia, as a case study of causality and scale in human-environment interactions. Periodic environmental ‘windows of opportunity’ allowed early human groups to expand into western Arabia. However, the western highlands are also home to volcanically active areas that saw repeated eruptions. In the Holocene a major eruption occurred in western Arabia around every 300 years, and the emerging evidence for Pleistocene volcanism demonstrates repeated major eruptions at the same times as early humans were occupying the area. As well as offering a review of human-volcanism interactions in Arabian prehistory, a model is proposed in which volcanic activity in western Arabia may have facilitated further population dispersal. As well as negative health impacts as a ‘push factor’, a balanced perspective on the impacts of volcanism, and associated phenomena such as earthquakes, emphasises possibly positive impacts in terms of factors such as water availability and the formation of fertile volcanic soils. These positive impacts may have offered ‘pull factors’, and facilitated regional occupation longer than would be predicted based on climatic variables alone. This framework offers not only an explanation for some of the characteristics of the Arabian archaeological record, but potentially offers part of the explanation for how early human populations were able to pass through the Saharo-Arabian arid belt from our African birthplace to populate the rest of the world.

中文翻译:

阿拉伯的火山活动和人类史前史

摘要 阿拉伯西部的新生代火山岩(熔岩原)是世界上主要的火山区之一。最近对 Harrat Rahat 火山岩的精确计时定年可以勾勒出火山活动的详细年表。同样,考古学的最新进展表明,早期人类在更新世反复占领阿拉伯半岛。阿拉伯的大多数考古遗址都与降雨量增加的阶段相关,例如间冰期。然而,我们应该谨慎地将阿拉伯的史前史简化为降雨量波动的故事。本文以人类与环境相互作用的因果关系和规模为例,探讨火山活动对阿拉伯人口的影响。周期性的环境“机会之窗”允许早期人类群体扩展到阿拉伯西部。然而,西部高地也是火山活跃地区的所在地,火山反复喷发。在全新世,阿拉伯西部大约每 300 年就会发生一次大喷发,更新世火山活动的新证据表明,在早期人类占领该地区的同时,又发生了多次大喷发。除了回顾阿拉伯史前人类与火山活动的相互作用外,还提出了一个模型,其中阿拉伯西部的火山活动可能促进了进一步的人口扩散。除了作为“推动因素”的负面健康影响,对火山活动和地震等相关现象的影响的平衡观点,强调在诸如水的可用性和肥沃的火山土壤的形成等因素方面可能产生的积极影响。这些积极影响可能提供了“拉动因素”,并促进了比仅根据气候变量预测的时间更长的区域占领。该框架不仅为阿拉伯考古记录的某些特征提供了解释,而且可能为早期人类如何能够从我们的非洲出生地穿过撒哈拉-阿拉伯干旱带以居住在其余地区提供部分解释。世界。
更新日期:2020-09-01
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