Editing History of Oman (section)

==Prehistoric record==
[[File:Journal.pone.0028239.g011 Dhofar Mountains Oman.png|right|thumb|Archaeologists excavating a Middle Stone Age complex in the [[Dhofar Mountains]]]]
In Oman, a site was discovered by Doctor Bien Joven in 2011 containing more than 100 surface scatters of stone tools belonging to the late Nubian Complex, known previously only from [[Archaeological record|archaeological excavations]] in [[Sudan]]. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates place the Arabian Nubian Complex at approximately 106,000 years old. This provides evidence for a distinct Mobile Stone Age technocomplex in southern Arabia, around the earlier part of the Marine Isotope Stage 5.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc = 3227647 | pmid=22140561 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0028239 | volume=6 | issue=11 | title=The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: an African middle stone age industry in Southern Arabia | year=2011 | journal=PLOS ONE | pages=e28239 | last1 = Rose | first1 = JI | last2 = Usik | first2 = VI | last3 = Marks | first3 = AE | last4 = Hilbert | first4 = YH | last5 = Galletti | first5 = CS | last6 = Parton | first6 = A | last7 = Geiling | first7 = JM | last8 = Cerný | first8 = V | last9 = Morley | first9 = MW | last10 = Roberts | first10 = RG| bibcode=2011PLoSO...628239R | doi-access=free }}</ref>

The hypothesized departure of humankind from Africa to colonise the rest of the world involved them crossing the Straits of Bab el [[Bab-el-Mandeb|Mandab]] in the southern Red Sea and moving along the green coastlines around Arabia and thence to the rest of Eurasia. Such crossing became possible when sea level had fallen by more than 80 meters to expose much of the shelf between southern Eritrea and Yemen; a level that was reached during a glacial stadial from 60 to 70 ka as climate cooled erratically to reach the last glacial maximum. From 135,000 to 90,000 years ago, tropical Africa had [[megadrought]]s which drove the humans from the land and towards the sea shores, and forced them to cross over to other continents. The researchers used radiocarbon dating techniques on pollen grains trapped in lake-bottom mud to establish vegetation over the ages of the Malawi lake in Africa, taking samples at 300-year-intervals. Samples from the megadrought times had little pollen or charcoal, suggesting sparse vegetation with little to burn. The area around Lake Malawi, today heavily forested, was a desert approximately 135,000 to 90,000 years ago.<ref name="U of AZ">{{cite web| url=https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/newfound-ancient-african-megadroughts-may-have-driven-evolution-of-humans-and-fish| title=Newfound Ancient African Megadroughts May Have Driven Evolution of Humans and Fish. The findings provide new insights into humans' migration out of Africa and the evolution of fishes in Africa's Great Lakes.| publisher=The University of Arizona| language=en| date=8 October 2007| access-date=25 September 2017| author=Mari N. Jensen| archive-date=10 September 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910060947/https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/newfound-ancient-african-megadroughts-may-have-driven-evolution-of-humans-and-fish| url-status=live}}</ref>

Luminescence dating is a technique that measures naturally occurring radiation stored in the sand. Data culled via this methodology demonstrates that 130,000 years ago, the Arabian Peninsula was relatively warmer which caused more rainfall, turning it into a series of lush habitable land. During this period the southern Red Sea's levels dropped and was only {{convert|4|km}} wide. This offered a brief window of time for humans to easily cross the sea and cross the Peninsula to opposing sites like Jebel Faya. These early migrants running away from the climate change in Africa, crossed the Red Sea into Yemen and Oman, trekked across Arabia during favourable climate conditions.<ref name="U of AZ"/> 2,000 kilometres of inhospitable desert lie between the Red Sea and Jebel Faya in UAE. But around 130,000 years ago the world was at the end of an ice age. The Red Sea was shallow enough to be crossed on foot or on a small raft, and the Arabian peninsula was being transformed from a parched desert into a green land.

There have been discoveries of Paleolithic stone tools in caves in southern and central Oman, and in the United Arab Emirates close to the Straits of Hormuz at the outlet of the Persian Gulf (UAE site ([[Jebel Faya]]).<ref>Armitage, S.J. et al. 2011</ref><ref>The southern route ‘out of Africa’: evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia. Science, v. 331, pp. 453–456)</ref> The stone tools, some up to 125,000 years old, resemble those made by humans in Africa around the same period.