ence of occupation dating back to 210,000 BCE was discovered, and also at Jebel Barakah in Abu Dhabi. Four periods of Paleolithic hominid occupation at Faya have been identified by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating, corresponding approximately to 210,000 BCE; 170,000 BCE and between 135,000 and 120,000 BCE. These periods of occupation and absence have been linked to global and local climactic variations, with the Indian Monsoon being increasingly used to contextualise patterns of occupation in Paleolithic Southeastern Arabia. Finds of tools dated to 125,000 BCE at the Faya-1 site have been presented as evidence of a virile southern dispersal route of anatomically modern humans from Africa to populate the earth. The tools found at Faya are distinctive and have links in their form and type to tools of a similar age found in Sudan, giving confidence in a virile southern trajectory rather than a leakage east of the people embarking on the Levantine path to Europe. This idea has been strengthened by work from other sites. From Faya they would have crossed to Iran and spread north and east. The archaeological evidence for this route of dispersal to the east is backed by studies of human DNA patterns. Knapped flint tools among extensive assemblages found at Jebel Barakah in Abu Dhabi also yield a date of 200,000 BCE. The Emirates is unusual in that there is scant evidence of Paleolithic occupation in the region throu