McCorriston Joy, Ball Lawrence, Harrower Michael J, Hamilton Ian M, Ivory Sarah J, Senn Matthew J, Steimer-Herbet Tara, Buffington Abigail F, Al-Kathiri Ali Ahmad, Al-Mahri Ali Musalam
Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
Department of Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 May 28;20(5):e0323544. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0323544. eCollection 2025.
In arid regions across northern Africa, Asia and Arabia, ancient pastoralists constructed small-scale stone monuments of varying form, construction, placement, age, and function. Classification studies of each type have inhibited a broader model of their collective and enduring role within desert socio-ecosystems. Our multivariate analysis of 371 archaeological monuments in the arid Dhofar region of Oman identifies environmental and cultural factors that influenced variable placement and construction across a 7000-year history. Our results show that earlier monuments were built by larger, concurrent groups during the Holocene Humid Period (10,000-6000 cal BP). With increasing aridification, smaller groups constructed monuments and eventually switched to building them in repetitive visits. Our model emphasizes the core role of monuments as a flexible technology in social resilience among desert pastoralists.
在北非、亚洲和阿拉伯半岛的干旱地区，古代牧民建造了形式、构造、位置、年代和功能各异的小型石质纪念碑。对每种类型的分类研究阻碍了对它们在沙漠社会生态系统中集体且持久作用的更广泛理解。我们对阿曼干旱的佐法尔地区371处考古遗迹进行的多变量分析，确定了在长达7000年的历史中影响遗迹位置和建造方式变化的环境和文化因素。我们的研究结果表明，早期的遗迹是在全新世湿润期（公元前10000年至6000年）由规模更大的同时期群体建造的。随着干旱化加剧，规模较小的群体开始建造遗迹，并最终转变为通过多次到访来建造。我们的模型强调了遗迹作为一种灵活技术在沙漠牧民社会复原力中的核心作用。
