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Zarei S. (2022). Lithic Industries of Pleistocene Communities on the Northern Littoral of the Strait of Hormuz and Oman Sea: A Review of a Lithic Collection from the Survey of Thibault and Kadjar, 1977. Parseh J. Archaeol. Stud.. 6(19), : 1 doi:10.30699/PJAS.6.19.7
URL: http://journal.richt.ir/mbp/article-1-715-en.html

Abstract
One of the key issues of the Paleolithic archaeology is pathways and expansion routes of Pleistocene human populations into Asia. Recent discovered Paleolithic sites in the southern coasts and hinterlands of Iran, indicate the importance of these zones in the Pleistocene human dispersals. The 1977 joint French-Iranian geological survey carried out by Thibault, Dufaure, Mercier and Kadjar, gave rise to one of the important contributions to Paleolithic knowledge on the northern coastline of the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea in pre-revolutionary years. During this survey, remarkable lithic assemblages were collected above a sequence of successive pediment surface, but unfortunately, the final report of Paleolithic finds, was never published. The lithic collections kept at the Paleolithic Department of National Museum of Iran. In this paper, the techno-typological characteristics of this collection is presented. The most prominent feature of this collection is the core-flake industry of the Lower Paleolithic; although we are not sure about the Acheulian evidence. The Middle Paleolithic artifacts in the collections are defined by Levallois debitages, discoid/semi-centripetal cores, and scrapers on flakes, especially transverse and oblique scrapers; however, it is not enough to attribute these finds to the Mousterian culture. The low frequencies of the blades and the lack of bladelets make it difficult to draw conclusions about the Upper/Epipaleolithic industries. The small number of blades and the presence of single platform blade/bladelet core, as well as a truncated blade, are possible evidence of Upper/Epipaleolithic presence in these assemblages. These assemblages can be considered as a new insight into technological behavior of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in this poorly known part of the Iranian plateau. They show the high capacity of northern shores and littoral of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea for Pleistocene archaeological studies, and a notable place to test hypotheses such as Out-of-Africa and coastal expansions.
Keywords: Persian Gulf, Oman Sea, Pleistocene Archaeology, Paleolithic, Lithic industries, Coastal Dispersal.

Introduction
An important aspect of Paleolithic archeology relates to pathways and routes taken by Pleistocene human groups in Asia. Discovered Paleolithic sites along the northern coasts and hinterlands of the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Oman Sea (Thibault, 1977; Vita-Finzi & Copeland, 1980; Sarlak et al. 2004; Dashtizadeh, 2009, 2010, 2012a, 2012b; Ali Talesh, 2012; Biglari et al. 2012; Barfi et al. 2013; Zarei & Ravaei 2013; Anjomrooz, 2019; Rahmati & Dashtizadeh, 2019; Zarei, 2021) indicate the importance of these zones in the Pleistocene human dispersals. One of these region that produced a substantial body of evidence is the northeastern shores of the Strait of Hormuz in the Hormozgan Province.
The first Paleolithic material discovered along the southern coast of Iran was by Vita-Finzi during his 1974 and 1975 fieldwork along the Makran coast. It constituted a surface collection with Middle Paleolithic characteristics, including the use of the Levallois method (Vita-Finzi & Copeland, 1980). After that, the French-Iranian joint team with the supervision of Claude Thibault and Mohammad Hassan Kadjar surveyed this region during April and May 1977. During this mission, remarkable lithic assemblages were collected on the surface of a succession of pediment surfaces (Thibault, 1977; Dufaure, 1978). Unfortunately, the final report of this survey was never published due to the untimely death of Thibault (Thibault, 1977; Amirlou, 1986; Biglari & Shidrang 2006). The lithic assemblages kept in the Paleolithic Department of the National Museum of Iran, has been studied by the author for a Master thesis (Zarei, 2015). A small part of the survey finds was taken to Bordeaux University by Thibault for further analysis and therefore were excluded from this study (F. Biglari, personal communication, Jan 2014). In this paper, I present the techno-typological characteristic of this lithic collection.

The 1977 Joint French-Iranian Geological Mission
The French-Iranian joint field mission included the following: C. Thibault as Quaternary geologist and Paleolithic archeologist; Jean-Jacques Dufaure as geomorphologist and Jacques Mercier and M. H. Kadjar, both structural and regional geologists, all arrived together in April 1977 with base camp in Minab. On the very first day of field work along the Hassan Langi to Roudan road section, Thibault began picking up lithics material left behind on a pediment surface superposed on a magnificently exposed reverse fault. Unfortunately, with the untimely death of Thibault in a car accident during an archeological mission in Algeria, a final publication concerning these Paleolithic finds was no longer possible but accompanied with a preliminary field report (Thibault, 1977). Dufaure, also wrote a detailed review and synthesis of his observations (Dufaure, 1978). After two decades, a new French team came back to the Minab area to set up a GPS network for Neotectonic studies. Regard and colleagues also measured in situ produced 10Be in quartz boulders exposed on the top surfaces of Late Quaternary sequences (Regard et al. 2005).
With the initial establishment of Center for Paleolithic Research (later Paleolithic Department) in 2000 and officially starting this center, all lithics were taken out from warehouses of museum and organized at this center. Meanwhile, Thibault’s collection was obtained and transferred to the Paleolithic Department and the was briefly studied by Biglari and Shidrang (2006). Initially, the assemblages which consists of 430 lithics, were divided into 6 general categories based on the locations in the tags which include: Minab-Roudan Road, Minab, Sadich, Hassan Langi, and two untitled locations. These locations contain 22 sampling points based on the combination code of the tags. Due to the presence of geofacts in the initial observation, the geofacts and lithic artifacts were separated, which resulted in the identification of 160 lithics (37.2%) and 270 geofacts (62.8%).

Conclusion
Paleolithic research in Southern Iranian coasts, began in 1974-77 following the geological studies of east Hormozgan. During the geological survey of French-Iranian joint mission by Thibault and Kadjar in 1977, a significant lithic assemblage was collected. The typo-technological characteristics of Lower Paleolithic core-flake in these assemblages shares some similarities with Baluchistan region and Arabian Peninsula. In addition, possible artifacts attributed to Acheulian culture are comparable to the Arabian Peninsula; however, such evidence has not been reported in more northern regions such as Kerman, Fars, and Southern Zagros. On the other hand, the use of Levallois method along with some scrapers in the Middle Paleolithic period is comparable to the examples of Arabian Peninsula, Southern Zagros, Fars, and Kerman. However, these assemblages do not provide sufficient information to identify the Upper Paleolithic/Epipaleolithic culture on the southern coasts of Iran and its comparison with the neighboring regions.
The surface of the Persian Gulf has been affected by changes in the mean sea level and these changes caused the Gulf to pull back to follow the Strait of Hormuz during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene and in several phases dried completely (Rose & Petraglia, 2009; Rose, 2010; Armitage et al., 2011). According to the recent finds, it is possible that Pleistocene human groups entered the northern shores of the Persian Gulf after passing the Arabian Peninsula and crossing the dry Strait of Hormuz. However, the route of distribution from Southern Zagros to the northern shores of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is also worth considering and must be tested. To gain more concise details regarding the Pleistocene human distribution in this region, intensive and systematic survey, excavation of in situ deposits, absolute datings and more accurate knowledge of the typo-technological characteristics are needed, that should be expected in the near future.