Occupation during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic period in the Adam region (Sufrat Valley, Sultanate of Oman).

International audienceArchaeological surveys conducted since 2012 in the Adam region (North-Eastern part of the Sultanate of Oman) highlight an extensive area, the Sufrat Valley, rich in lithics industries discovered lying on the surface. The Sufrat valley, flanking the southwestern of the Jebel Salekh, is composed by a small hills complex where both water supply and raw materials are reacheable. The current surveyed area where lithics remains have been found extents more than 5000 hectares (50km2). Lithic remains covered all the topographic units of the valley, except the present time alluvial plain. High density in situ lithics scatters were discovered on the flat-top summit of the hills. The clearest indicator of the Middle Palaeolithic attribution for those remains is the founding of many Levallois Flakes and Levallois cores. Also, two bifacials pieces with typo-technological traits characteristic to the Lower Palaeolithic period have been discovered of the slope The hypothesis of a long-term, probably discontinous, occupation in this area is proffered along with a correlation to the proposed « southern » route out of Africa