The Western Periphery of the Red Sea as a Hominin Habitat and Dispersal Corridor: Marginal or Central?

The Western Periphery of the Red Sea (WPRS) is an important region for paleoanthropological discussions about the history of hominin dispersal out of Africa. This paper examines the existing Paleolithic evidence in the region and some key aspects of its environmental setting, with the goal of assessing its role in hominin survival and dispersals. The paper’s chronological focus is the span 1.8–0.05 million years ago (Ma). Although the majority of the Paleolithic (Stone Age) sites so far documented in the region lack precise chronological control, the available evidence comprises Acheulean, Middle and Later Stone Age technocomplexes that can be broadly linked to distinct hominin settlement episodes. Most of the documented sites appear to be related to terrestrial niche exploitation around channelized alluvial plains between the coastal zone and the eastern slopes of the Red Sea Hills, although wave erosion may have destroyed sites associated with coastal resource use. As an extension of the East African Rift system, the WPRS mirrors the landscape features of the fossil-rich Rift Valley region, with the addition of a coastal niche. Thus, it may have posed little survival risk for hominins coming from the inland habitats, and some of the inhabitant populations may have easily dispersed toward Eurasia from there.