Vote for song
Merge 104.8 | 09 August 2020
Archaeologists on the Arabian Peninsula have discovered an array of 8,000-year-old fluted stone tools in Oman, Yemen, and the UAE — the first time fluting has been seen in varieties of Early Holocene weapons found in the region.
As ‘Science Times’ (ST) reports, fluting is seen when “the fluted point is created by a flintknapper removing a flake from the base or tip of a spear point.”
It’s a method of carving that, according to ST, is common to the Americas, across the Arctic, all the way down to Patagonia. The fact that the practice has been discovered for the first time on the Arabian Peninsula could, ST says, indicate “a local innovation of southern Arabian people originating from the central region of the peninsula’s southern extremity.”
As per ST, the findings could represent an example of “cultural convergence”, as the fluting of weapons has been commonly found at Native American archaeological sites dating from 10,000- to 13,000-years-old.
However, as ST reports: “[…] cultural exchange could not have brought the technologies as the two stone fluted points are separated by too much time and space.”
The stone tools found in Oman and the region have fluted markings near the tips of the points, while those found throughout the Americas have the markings along the weapons’ bases and blades.
Source: Science Times
(Also read: Omani artist work selected for book covers of famous novels.)
