Arabia occupies a crucial central position between Africa and Eurasia. The northward expansion of the monsoonal rain-belt and the formation of grasslands during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 provided favourable conditions for Homo sapiens to occupy and traverse now arid areas of Arabia. While “Green Arabia” may have been a crucial stepping-stone on the way to H. sapiens global settlement, the occupation of Arabia is an important area of study in itself and could offer vital perspectives on human-environment interactions. In particular, Green Arabia can offer a unique insight into processes of human dispersal, occupation and extirpation in an environmentally fluctuating landscape. Here we synthesise archaeological, palaeoclimate and ethnographic data to develop a holistic model for the occupation of Green Arabia and offer targets for future research. We suggest that, on broad timescales, the resource availability and carrying capacity of Green Arabia facilitated rapid population expansion and occupation across Arabia. On human time-scales, dispersal was probably a slow process due to the requirements of metapopulation structures, likely consisting of many “micro-dispersals” spanning numerous generations. Transitions to more arid conditions were probably echoed by local hominin extirpations, dispersals into surrounding regions and retraction to resource-retaining core areas.

阿拉伯在非洲和欧亚大陆之间占有至关重要的中心地位。在海洋同位素阶段（MIS）5期间，季风雨带向北扩张和草地形成，为智人占领和穿越阿拉伯干旱地区提供了有利条件。尽管“绿色阿拉伯”可能是通往智人的关键垫脚石。在全球定居点中，对阿拉伯的占领本身就是一个重要的研究领域，可以为人类与环境的相互作用提供重要的观点。尤其是，绿色阿拉伯可以在环境不断变化的环境中提供有关人类传播，占领和灭绝过程的独特见解。在这里，我们综合了考古，古气候和人种学数据，以开发出一个整体模型来占领绿色阿拉伯，并为今后的研究提供目标。我们建议，在广泛的时间范围内，绿色阿拉伯的资源可用性和承载能力促进了整个阿拉伯人口的快速扩张和占领。在人类的时间尺度上，由于代谢种群结构的需要，传播可能是一个缓慢的过程，可能由跨越许多世代的许多“微分散”组成。