Arabian Hydroclimate and Hominin Dynamics Over 500,000 Years

Over the last 500,000 years, this dataset reconstructs a high-resolution dust record from the western equatorial Indian Ocean to evaluate orbital-scale hydrological variations. It was created by Liang Zhou and links climate variability, indicated by a dust index, to archaeological evidence of hominin occupations in Arabia. The data suggests hominin presence was driven by enhanced monsoon precipitation during pluvial epochs known as Green Arabia periods.

Use Cases

• Modeling the correlation between orbital-scale dust flux and hominin occupation phases based on the dust index.
• Analyzing the timing of hominin population expansions during protracted wet periods (Green Arabia Periods).
• Investigating the impact of brief, high-intensity rainfall phases within glacial periods on hominin activity based on transient high dust content.

Strengths

• High-resolution, multi-proxy dust record spanning over 500,000 years.
• Links climate proxy data directly to archaeological occupation evidence.
• Data is openly available under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small (62.9 KB), suggesting a limited scope or aggregated summary data.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Liang Zhou.

Collection Method

Reconstructed from a dust record in the western equatorial Indian Ocean.

Time Range

Last ~500,000 years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-19 11:00:35.

Geography

Arabian Peninsula and western equatorial Indian Ocean.