An investigation of Late Palaeolithic stone tool assemblages from the Nejd Plateau, Southern Oman

Technological and typological analysis of lithic assemblages from southern Oman have been undertaken for this study. These assemblages are characterized by the production of elongated end products (i.e., blades/leptoliths) using varied core reduction modalities exemplified here. These modalities have been identified based on technological analysis of production waste and core reconstructions using artefact refittings. Such blade technologies are accompanied by formal tool such as tanged projectile called Fasad point, burins, endscrapers and pseude-backed knifes. This technological and typological package has been identified on both systematic surface collections and stratified sites, making it possible to place these assemblages chronologically between 10.000 and 7.000 before present (BP). The chronological and techno-typological characterization of these blade assemblages warrants its status as a lithic industry of the Late Palaeolithic technocomplex. At present, blade assemblages from stratified sites in Yemen (Shi’bat Dihya) and Oman (al Hatab) which dated to 55.000 and 11.000 BP, represent the possible source of the techno/typological package found across Southern Oman at the beginning of the Holocene. No technological or typological resemblance with any other industry from outside of Arabia has been noted, enforcing the local , Arabian, origin of the Early Holocene Populations of the South Arabian Highlands