Preliminary Survey of the Late Stone Age Faunas from Gihayu (Khor Umayra Lagoon, Republic of Yemen)

Abstract

An overview of the faunal assemblage retrieved during preliminary excavations of the Neolithic site of Gihayu is presented. The analysis, the first of its kind carried out on a site from Yemen, reveals a series of similarities and differences with contemporaneous sites in Oman on the eastern corner of the Arabian Sea. Within the former, a heavy reliance on marine resources is noted that testifies both to the collecting of shellfish along an open shore as well as the fishing of large pelagics in the open sea. The differences relate to the exploitation of molluscs along the shore rather than in lagoons or mangroves as appears to be the case in Oman. They may also reflect phenomena not so straightforwardly related to the availability of certain biotopes. Among these an apparent dominance of carangids (jacks) over scombrids (tunas) could be taken to indicate a less seasonal focused fishery a hypothesis that will require verification once systematically sieved samples become available.