Guest editorial – the Middle Palaeolithic in the desert II

Abstract

Research on Middle Palaeolithic occupations within the midlatitude desert belt is enjoying a sustained surge of interest. This ongoing focus is in part because the mid latitude arid belt forms a shifting environmental barrier between different biogeographic zones. Ecological flux within these desert regions have therefore modulated human dispersals both temporally and spatially. Until recently, broad-brush models of human adaptation and expansion have been coarsely framed within such environmental frameworks, and typified by the reduction of past population dynamics to arrows on maps covering vast landscapes. More nuanced patterns of past population dynamics are now being identified that also expose the complexities of early human demography. Specifically, dramatic advances in complementary disciplines, namely genetics and climate science, have helped to expose past patterns of human demography and expansions in ever increasing resolution. While the skeletal record of the mid-latitude arid belt includes both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, an increasingly complex demographic picture is becoming evident from genetic research, which break down simple dichotomies between ‘modern’ and ‘archaic’. From a cultural perspective, these identifications have emphasized the increasing need to focus on population-level studies, acknowledging the complexities of the relationship between material culture and biology. Such archaeological approaches can reliably ground their analyses in terms of geography, past environments and, most importantly, time, none of which can be simply achieved through genetic approaches. Furthermore, archaeological research permits the examination of when and where major population expansions occurred, and also how they were achieved. Combining these different approaches is key, with each discipline helping to identify new foci of study in the others.