Figure 1
Map of the Final Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites in modern Oman and the UAE. Pink and blue dots indicate sites with projectile points and verified location, while grey dots represent sites where projectile points are present, but their geographical location is approximate. The green circle marks the dated sites included in this study. Dark orange stars indicate the location of speleothems. Map by M. P. Maiorano.
Table 1
List of selected characters and modes.
| CODE | CHARACTER | CHARACTER STATES |
|---|---|---|
| MTH | Maximum thickness of the medial part (Figure 2) | 1–1.5< × <3.7 2–3.8< × <4.5 3–4.6< × <5.5 4–5.6< × <8.2 5– >8.3 |
| OutAng | Outer angles spread sum (Figure 2) | 1–140< × <240 2–241< × <276 3–277< × <307 4– × >308 |
| Msec and BSec | Medial section and Basal section | 1 trihedral 2 plano-convex 3 biconvex 4 romboidal 5 blank (unretouched) 6 irregular (inconsistent retouched) |
| APX | Presence of wings or different appendixes | 1 wings (>4 mm long) 2 “ears” (<4 mm long) 3 denticulation 4 tang tips (hollow based point) 5 long wings (L ≥ tang length) 6 “ergot” (squared/sub-squared) 0 absence |
| ShD and ShV | Dorsal Shaping Symmetry and Ventral Shaping Symmetry | 1 symmetric 2 asymmetric 3 from one side 4 mixed 5 fluted 0 not retouched |
| RTECH | Retouch technique | 1 pressure 2 direct 3 direct on anvil 4 mixed |
| BLK | Blank | 1 flake: LW < 1.79 2 flake-blade: 1.80 < LW < 2.79 3 blade: LW > 2.80 4 unknown |
| III_R_pos and VII_R_pos | Retouch position on the third and seventh sub-square | 1 direct 2 inverse 3 alternate 4 alternating 5 crossed 6 bifacial 0 absent |
| III_R_ext and V_R_ext | Retouch extension of the 1st sub-square | 1 short 2 long 3 covering 0 absence |
| V_R_delin and VII_R_delin | Retouch delineation on the first sub-square | 1 rectilinear 2 convex 3 concave 4 notched 5 denticulated 6 serrated 7 convex shoulders 8 concave shoulders 9 notched concave shoulders 10 winged shoulders 11 crossed shoulders 12 notched convex shoulders 13 “ergot” shoulders 0 absent |
| Total: 15 Characters, 61 Character states | ||
| Total number of analysed points from Oman and UAE: 662 | ||
Figure 2
Characters and modes listed in Table 1. To reduce noise and fit the classification scope, 15 characters were selected based on PCA loadings. These characters effectively capture variability within the points’ distribution.
Figure 3
Distribution of projectile point clusters (blue dots) and traditional techno-complexes (red triangles) using Correspondence Analysis. The left graph (dimensions 1 and 2) better displays bifacially retouched point clusters. Fusiform points without lateral appendices and winged/barbed points are separated in the lower quadrant, while trihedral and planoconvex points are in the upper right quadrant. The variability of laminar points is further explored using the 1st and 3rd dimensions (on the right). Points from Sharbithat and Al-Haddah share the same space due to their thicker and larger blanks and higher invasivity of the retouch, whereas points from Natif, Faya, and Fasad are separated primarily by dimensional components. The grey ellipses show the merged clusters.
Figure 4
Visualization of projectile point distribution using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). The 3rd dimension reflects the distribution of bifacial points (left), the 2nd dimension shows laminar points (right), and the 1st dimension distinguishes the former from the latter. The distinction between these groups is not always neat, with overlaps corresponding to less standardized groups and more hybrid forms.
Figure 5
The newly identified eight clusters (from A to H), reflecting the main techno-complexes.
Figure 6
Spatial distribution of projectile point techno-clusters across the chronological windows discussed in the text.
Figure 7
Total counts of projectile points over time compared with the aoristic sum and total diversity (a). The second graph shows the relative aoristic sums of each technological cluster, effectively presenting time-series distributions of points (b).
Figure 8
(A) Bin-sensitivity analysis with SPDs using 100–500 yr bins, showing stable overall trends. (B) Summed Probability Distribution (SPD black line) of normalized calibrated radiocarbon dates. Blue and red bands indicate chronological ranges where SPD deviates negatively and positively from the null model (95% confidence grey envelope). (C) Taphonomic correction following Surovell et al. (2009), with corrected and uncorrected SPDs displaying closely matching trends.
Figure 9
(A) cKDE (Brown 2017) providing an independent, smoother density estimate with comparable long-term patterns. (B) Separate SPDs for charcoal and shell samples, displaying consistent temporal trends despite different reservoir and taphonomic histories, confirming that demographic patterns are not driven by sample-type biases.
Figure 10
Comparison of point counts, technological diversity, demographic, and climatic proxies. After generating the SPDs, we compared demographic trends with environmental variability using the z-scores of the Hoti and Qunf cave speleothem records (Palmisano et al., 2021b), which serve as proxies for climatic instability and aridification. All proxies are plotted as time-series to visualize potential covariation through time. Furthermore, looking at the diversity maps (bottom), which show pairwise inter-site similarity as a measure of interaction (published by Maiorano et al., 2020a), we observe that population increase coincides with stronger connections between communities, and intensified exchanges of knowledge and goods. In these maps, areas with full colour lines correspond to high inter-site similarity, while highly transparent areas indicate absolute diversity (i.e., minimal similarity).
Figure 11
Summed Probability Distribution (SPD black line) of normalized calibrated radiocarbon dates compared with the SPD reported by Palmisano and colleagues (2021b).