The Early History of the Western Palmyra Desert Region. The Change in the Settlement Patterns and the Adaptation of Subsistence Strategies to Encroaching Aridity: A First Assessment of the Desert-kite and Tumulus Cultural Horizons

Palaeoenvironmental proxies from geoarchaeological survey work conducted by a Syrian-Italian mission in the Palmyra oasis and the desert areas to the south and west of it indicate a discontinuity between a wet Lateglacial/Early Holocene and a later dry period. The latter, which is presumed to have started during the final PPNB-early Pottery Neolithic, resulted in the progressive nucleation of the Palmyra oasis and in a major change in settlement patterns and the exploitation of natural resources on a regional scale. The paper explores this major adaptive shift in settlement patterns and economic strategies in the region, which is paralleled by the emergence of a distinctive archaeological landscape characterized by desert-kites and cairns