Gulf dry and wide

At www.gulf-times.com April 11th there is a story in which a team of archaeologists from Birmingham University (who pioneered research on the North Sea bottom) have been in Qatar and looking at the sea floor of the Gulf (in conjunction with the Qatar Natural History Museum). They have been able to demonstrate how the Gulf has changed during the last ten thousand years as a result of sea level rise. During the Ice Age the peninsular of Qatar was part of a huge plain stretching all the way across to Iran – broken just by a couple of fresh water lakes. Ancient river courses have been mapped out on the sea floor.