ARCHEOLOGY IN SOUTH ARABIA — VAN BEEK, COLE, AND JAMME 531 



from the random chipping in evidence, it is possible that flint or chert 

 artifacts were picked up and brought to a shelter for purposes of fire- 

 making. (The present-day Bedouin employ them in this fashion.) 



Shallow shelters sometimes occur in the limestone cliffs but, with a 

 single exception, no surface evidence of human occupation was found 

 in any of them. The exception is a rather large shelter beneath the 

 lower cliff-forming limestone near Henin. This will be mentioned 

 again below. 



A few hand axes or hand axlike tools were found during the course 

 of the survey. In several cases, these were associated with assortments 

 of surface material characterized by a Levallois technique of flake 

 preparation. Two specimens, however, were isolated finds on talus 

 slopes, and one of these appears quite acceptable as an Acheulian-type 

 implement. In fact, several of these tools would not be out of place in 

 various East African Acheulian assemblages although, with the ex- 

 ception noted, they could not be regarded as typical. The suspected 

 Acheulian hand ax (pi. 4:1) was found near Qarn Qaimah. It is of 

 a material distinct from the ubiquitous grey limestone of the Hadhra- 

 maut, displaying a reddish, heavily weathered surface. It may prove 

 to be of the same material as the second isolated find mentioned above. 

 The second implement was found in Kathiri territory, and as all ma- 

 terial collected there had been packed before entering the Qu 'aiti state 

 there was no possibility of comparing the two specimens. 



The scarcity of these possible Acheulian bifaces, together with the 

 apparent lack of cleavers, picks, large flake scrapers, and other Acheu- 

 lian artifact types, and the fact that nothing even vaguely reminiscent 

 of Acheulian workshop debris was seen, suggests that Acheulian oc- 

 cupation of the Hadhramaut was very sparse, if it occurred at all. 

 The possibility that evidence of such occupation has been buried be- 

 neath thick silt deposits must not be dismissed. Although chert is 

 abundant, suitable raw material above the level of the present wadi 

 floors appears to be virtually nonexistent. Judging from the size of 

 slightly worked cores and core-trimming flakes, it would seem that the 

 nodules were too small to be used for the manufacture of characteristic 

 large-sized Acheulian implements. If suitable material were available 

 below the present level of wadi fill — and there is some reason to think 

 this may have been the case ^ — certainly workshop debris would not 

 be found far removed from the source, and finished artifacts are not 

 apt to have been taken very far up the slopes. 



The industry most abundantly represented in the area covered by the 

 survey is based on a Levallois technique of flake preparation. The 

 basic flake type is the quadrilateral flake derived from longitudinally 



* In the upper reaches of that part of the Wadi Hadhramaut that was Investigated, 

 occasional pieces of a hard siliceous sandstone were seen and a few artifacts made of It 

 were noted. The exposed thickness of Cretaceous sediment is greater here, and it may be 

 that this material comprises a lower member of the series, although no outcrops were seen. 



