The arid deserts of northeastern Saudi Arabia were once wet enough for large numbers of animals to thrive, and now evidence has been found that ancient hominins also lived there.
A paper on these findings has been published in the journal PLOS One.
“This paper provides the first archaeological picture of inland northeastern Arabia, a vast area that has been largely unstudied to date,” said geochemist Monika Markowska from Northumbria University in the UK.
The study focuses on a little-studied part of the Arabian Peninsula between Qatar and Kuwait. Evidence of prehistoric human presence in the area has yet to be found, although scientists know that it once received enough rainfall to support a rich ecosystem.
“Hominin people have been present in Arabia for at least 500,000 years, possibly through many waves of settlement,” said archaeologist Hugh Groucutt of the University of Malta, who led the research.
To better understand the people who inhabited the area in ancient times, Groucutt and his colleagues explored ancient rivers and caves located near deposits of flint, a hard, dense rock that prehistoric people used to make tools.
“Caves often serve as important sources of archaeological, paleontological and climatic data,” the scientist explains.
In total, they inspected 79 caves and surrounding areas. Some traces of ancient humans and animals have been discovered. More than 400 Paleolithic stone tools were found at one site. Remains of ancient reptiles, bats, birds, camels, antelopes, hyenas and wolves were also found inside the cave.
By analyzing stone tool making techniques, researchers discovered that hominins lived near these caves 100,000 to 10,000 years ago.
“Although today (Arabia) acts as a barrier to the movement of species, in previous periods of favorable climate may have created conditions more suitable for settlement and migration. The exceptional state of preservation of the thousands of skeletons in these caves provides a rare glimpse into past ecosystems,” Markowska said. Professor Michael Petraglia from Griffith University in Australia, who has researched archeology in Arabia for many years, added: “This work is another step forward in understanding the caves and rivers, their contents and what they tell us about life in the dynamic ecosystems of Arabia.”
