528 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 63 



It is likely that the impression of heavy artifact concentration on the 

 plateau gained by restricting investigation to the area along and near 

 the wadi edge, especially near access routes to the wadi bottom, would 

 not hold true for the J 61 (as this dissected limestone plateau is known) 

 generally. Caton Thompson's experience would tend to lend weight 

 to this supposition. On making the journey from the coast to Tarim, 

 virtually no "paleoliths" were found until the edge of the Wadi Ha- 

 dhramaut above Tarim was reached (Caton Thompson, 1953, p. 191). 

 On this trip, intensive search was not possible. It is quite likely that 

 scattered implements would have been discovered if she had been able 

 to make an intensive search, but such heavy artifact concentrations as 

 those that occur along the wadi edges could not have been overlooked 

 easily, even from a moving vehicle. 



Trimming and workshop debris is largely wanting on the plateau. 

 The tools and flakes occurring there are characterized by a dark brown 

 to nearly black glossy patina. Sometimes in the vicinity of those 

 small buttes which bear a supply of chert, small nmnbers of the lightly 

 patinated artifacts which are common on the tops of the buttes are 

 found on this lower surface as well. 



Flint and chert are usually not far away; they are found in the 

 underlying limestone and are exposed in places along the access wadies, 

 or in the cliffs and fallen rock easily reached from them. 



Tahjbs sites (fig. 2-C) . — Artifacts do not seem to occur in any abun- 

 dance on the upper talus slopes. Unlike most of the lower-lying sites 

 whose locations can often be predicted, the upper talus is everywhere 

 similar and presents no clues as to where artifacts might be found. 

 When artifacts were chanced upon, they generally consisted of a few 

 core trimming flakes and perhaps an occasional core. In a few cases, 

 however, presumably where the flint or chert was of good quality 

 and/or particularly plentiful, such workshop debris occurs in con- 

 siderable abundance. This mostly seems to have undergone much less 

 patination than the material exposed on the plateau above and on the 

 limestone bench below. This may indicate that this material was 

 worked later in time, or, more likely, that since it occurs between blocks 

 of limestone on the talus slope it is much more sheltered from the sun, 

 is possibly more protected from frequent wetting by dew, and perhaps 

 from whatever other factors might contribute to forming the dark 

 desert patination. 



One talus site of particular interest deserves mention. This is a 

 flint mining site on a high ridge in the Qatn area (pi. 2:1). Nodules 

 of flint up to 10 or 15 centimeters in diameter were exposed ; these had 

 been flaked off flush with the limestone surface. The limestone proved 

 to be very tough ; Cole was unable to extract any of the nodules with 

 the aid of a geologist's pick. From the relatively fresh, somewhat 

 concave surface of the limestone, it appeared that a surface layer of 



