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Were Environmental Or Demographic Factors The Driving Force Behind Middle Stone Age Innovations In Southern Africa?, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts Mar 2013

Were Environmental Or Demographic Factors The Driving Force Behind Middle Stone Age Innovations In Southern Africa?, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts

Richard G Roberts

Sir—Past human responses to environmental changes have long interested archaeologists. During the last glacial cycle, southern Africa experienced marked climatic fluctuations, as recorded in ice-core records from West and East Antarctica.


The Biggest Losers, Richard G. Roberts, Barry Brook Mar 2013

The Biggest Losers, Richard G. Roberts, Barry Brook

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


Preliminary Results Of The Eip Project, Robert G. Bednarik, Giriraj Kumar, Alan Watchman, Richard G. Roberts Mar 2013

Preliminary Results Of The Eip Project, Robert G. Bednarik, Giriraj Kumar, Alan Watchman, Richard G. Roberts

Richard G Roberts

The primary rationale of the Early Indian Petroglyphs Project is to investigate claims of the occurrence of Lower Palaeolithic petroglyphs in central regions of India. Other purposes of this multifacetted research project are to provide new data for the chronology of the Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin history of India; to introduce scientific methods of rock art dating in this country; and to investigate its Lower Palaeolithic stone tool industries. This project, a collaboration of Indian and Australian researchers, was commenced in 2001. It involves archaeological excavations, a range of analytical studies and intensive field surveys, and it will continue …


Kam Die Kultur Aus Afrika?, Richard G. Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs Mar 2013

Kam Die Kultur Aus Afrika?, Richard G. Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs

Richard G Roberts

According to archaeological standards the Blombos Cave was on the south coast of Africa was a rather small dwelling. The footprint measures just over 50 square meters. But what the researchers unearthed in 13 cubic meters of cave floor was enough to revolutionize our knowledge of the history of the human mind. So-called modern behaviour was therefore on much earlier than previously thought. A team led by South African archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood of the African Heritage Research Institute in Cape Town, who also teaches at the University of Bergen (Norway), discovered in the last 15 years in the Blombos Cave …


Sediment Budgets And Quaternary History Of The Magela Creek Catchment, Tropical Northern Australia, Richard G. Roberts Mar 2013

Sediment Budgets And Quaternary History Of The Magela Creek Catchment, Tropical Northern Australia, Richard G. Roberts

Richard G Roberts

The Magela Creek catchment is situated in tropical northern Australia. This thesis examines the contemporary sediment transport regime of the sand-bed Magela Creek, the Holocene alluviation of its palaeochannel, the Quaternary history of extensive colluvial sand aprons developed along the flanks of the Arnhem Land plateau, and the chronology of isolated alluvial and lacustrine deposits on the plateau surface. Catchment sediment budgets are constructed at contemporary (AD 1950-1989), Holocene (0-7 kyr) and Pleistocene (7-20 kyr) timescales, and a sedimentation chronology for the sand aprons extended back to ∼240 kyr. Contemporary sediment and solute transport rates in the Magela Creek were …


Hominin Dispersal Into The Nefud Desert And Middle Palaeolithic Settlement Along The Jubbah Palaeolake, Northern Arabia, M Petraglia, Abdullah M. Alsharekh, P Breeze, Christopher Clarkson, Remy Crassard, Nick A. Drake, Huw Groucutt, R Jennings, Adrian Parker, A Parton, Richard Roberts, C Shipton, Carney Matheson, A Al-Omari, M Veall Mar 2013

Hominin Dispersal Into The Nefud Desert And Middle Palaeolithic Settlement Along The Jubbah Palaeolake, Northern Arabia, M Petraglia, Abdullah M. Alsharekh, P Breeze, Christopher Clarkson, Remy Crassard, Nick A. Drake, Huw Groucutt, R Jennings, Adrian Parker, A Parton, Richard Roberts, C Shipton, Carney Matheson, A Al-Omari, M Veall

Richard G Roberts

The Arabian Peninsula is a key region for understanding hominin dispersals and the effect of climate change on prehistoric demography, although little information on these topics is presently available owing to the poor preservation of archaeological sites in this desert environment. Here, we describe the discovery of three stratified and buried archaeological sites in the Nefud Desert, which includes the oldest dated occupation for the region. The stone tool assemblages are identified as a Middle Palaeolithic industry that includes Levallois manufacturing methods and the production of tools on flakes. Hominin occupations correspond with humid periods, particularly Marine Isotope Stages 7 …


And Then There Were None?, Richard G. Roberts, Barry W. Brook Mar 2013

And Then There Were None?, Richard G. Roberts, Barry W. Brook

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.


Illuminating Southeast Asian Prehistory : New Archaeological And Paleoanthropological Frontiers For Luminescence Dating, Richard G. Roberts, Michael J. Morwood, Kira E. Westaway Mar 2013

Illuminating Southeast Asian Prehistory : New Archaeological And Paleoanthropological Frontiers For Luminescence Dating, Richard G. Roberts, Michael J. Morwood, Kira E. Westaway

Richard G Roberts

Since the explorations of Alfred Russel Wallace and Eugène Dubois in the nineteenth century, Southeast Asia has been one of the world's focal points for studies of biogeography and biodiversity, human evolution and dispersal, environmental change, and the spread of culture, farming, and language. Yet despite its prominence, reliable chronologies are not available for many of the critical archaeological, evolutionary, and environmental turning points that have taken place in the region during the last 1.5 million years. In this paper, we discuss some of these chronological problems and describe how luminescence dating may help overcome them. "Luminescence dating" is a …


The Nubian Complex Of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry In Southern Arabia, Jeffrey I. Rose, Vitaly I. Usik, Anthony E. Marks, Yamandu H. Hilbert, Christopher S. Galletti, Ash Parton, Jean Marie Geiling, Viktor Cerny, Mike W. Morley, Richard Roberts Mar 2013

The Nubian Complex Of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry In Southern Arabia, Jeffrey I. Rose, Vitaly I. Usik, Anthony E. Marks, Yamandu H. Hilbert, Christopher S. Galletti, Ash Parton, Jean Marie Geiling, Viktor Cerny, Mike W. Morley, Richard Roberts

Richard G Roberts

Despite the numerous studies proposing early human population expansions from Africa into Arabia during the Late Pleistocene, no archaeological sites have yet been discovered in Arabia that resemble a specific African industry, which would indicate demographic exchange across the Red Sea. Here we report the discovery of a buried site and more than 100 new surface scatters in the Dhofar region of Oman belonging to a regionally-specific African lithic industry - the late Nubian Complex - known previously only from the northeast and Horn of Africa during Marine Isotope Stage 5, ~128,000 to 74,000 years ago. Two optically stimulated luminescence …


Mid-Holocene Age Obtained For Nested Diamond Pattern Petroglyph In The Billasurgam Cave Complex, Kurnool District, Southern India, Paul S.C Tacon, Nicole Boivin, Michael Petraglia, James Blinkhorn, Allan Chivas, Richard G. Roberts, David Fink, Thomas Higham, Peter Ditchfield, Ravi Korisettar, Jian-Xin Zhao Mar 2013

Mid-Holocene Age Obtained For Nested Diamond Pattern Petroglyph In The Billasurgam Cave Complex, Kurnool District, Southern India, Paul S.C Tacon, Nicole Boivin, Michael Petraglia, James Blinkhorn, Allan Chivas, Richard G. Roberts, David Fink, Thomas Higham, Peter Ditchfield, Ravi Korisettar, Jian-Xin Zhao

Richard G Roberts

India has one of the world's largest and most significant bodies of rock paintings and engravings, yet not a single rock art site or image has been directly and accurately dated using radiometric techniques. Here we report on results from the Billasurgam Cave complex near Kurnool in southern India. Although this cave complex has been investigated archaeologically since the late 1800s, it was not until 2008 that a large petroglyph, consisting of the remains of three nested diamond designs on a stalactite, was noted. In order to determine if this petroglyph had been made recently, flowstone was sampled from on …