“Touchstones” For Social Belonging: How Did Ancient Pastoralists In South Arabia Adapt To Climate Change?

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - In arid regions of northern Africa, Asia, and Arabia, ancient pastoralists built diverse small-scale stone monuments.

Examples of major (by frequency) monument types from Dhofar. Clockwise from upper left: Platform D028-001, meter scale visible in excavation trench near closest section; HCT D033-001, 20 cm scale visible at mid height; Boat graves D100-001 with meter scale at upper left; a trilith (unsurveyed) with uprights 40-50 cm height. Photo credits clockwise from upper left: Joy McCorriston, Jennifer Everhart, Wael AbuAzizeh, and Michael Harrower. Source https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323544

An international team of archaeologists analyzed 371 archaeological monuments in Oman's Dhofar region and, based on this analysis, identified various environmental and cultural factors that influenced their placement and construction over a 7,000-year period.

As for Dhofar, Oman, Neolithic monuments (7500–6200 cal BP) were sub-circular platforms. Bronze Age tombs (High Circular Tombs) date from 5200–4000 cal BP. Iron Age triliths (2300–1700 cal BP) feature low stands with triads of upright stones. Late Antiquity features boat-shaped grave clusters (1100–750 cal BP) in an area that had become a desert.

The earliest studied monuments were created between 7500 and 6200 BP (years Before Present) during the Holocene Humid Period. This period was characterized by higher-than-modern rainfall in southern Arabia.
Early monuments were constructed with larger stones and built by larger groups at one time. Some of these larger monuments could serve large gatherings of people, where they could converge with multiple herds of cattle and have animal sacrifices and feasts.

"The significance of the larger stones is that it takes more people to lift them.  We know that it took at least seven strong men to lift the largest stones. These large monuments that were built in one episode could only be built early on, before the region became arid. This is when large groups of people could still come together at one time," McCorriston said.

However, as people dispersed due to the increasingly drier climate, smaller groups began constructing monuments, and eventually, they built many of them during several visits.

The most recent monuments studied were created between 1100 and 750 BP, during Late Antiquity, when the area had become a desert. They still had to build monuments for burials, but for these constructions, they could use smaller stones.

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As the region became increasingly arid and could no longer support large numbers of people or their gatherings, small groups traveled widely, seeking out areas with water and places for their animals to graze.

During the long 7,000-year period, people's living conditions often depended on changes as the climate shifted from humid to arid desert conditions. Over time, ancient pastoralists learned to adapt, and systematically modified the location and construction of these stone monuments.

"The findings show that monuments are a flexible technology that reflect the resilience of desert pastoralists in the face of a changing climate," said Joy McCorriston, lead author of the study and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University.

The findings show that during the Holocene Humid Period (10,000–6000 cal BP), larger, concurrent groups were responsible for the construction of earlier monuments. As aridification increased, smaller groups undertook monument construction and gradually transitioned to building them through repetitive visits.
The monuments played a crucial role due to their flexible technology. Such technology could improve social resilience among desert pastoralists. However, the key function of these monuments in individuals' lives remained unchanged.

“These monuments are touchstones for human social belonging. As these groups became smaller and more spread out in the desert, people’s interactions with the monuments consolidates a sense of being part of a larger society,” McCorriston said.

It is impossible to say what the precise messages the monuments were meant to convey, according to McCorriston.
"What we can say is that the monuments conveyed readable meanings to others who shared the same cultural context."

Some monuments were built to assure others in a social network access to crucial environmental information as they came by later.

"People would need to know, did it rain here last year? Did the goats eat all the grass? Pastoralists used this technology to help absorb the risk of being in an inherently variable and risky environment," she said. They would need to rely on social networks for livestock exchanges, marriage partners, and rare materials, such as seashells, carnelian, agate, and metal.

The research can serve as a valuable model for analyzing social resilience in regions such as the Sahel, Mongolia, or the high Andes.

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Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer