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The World's Biggest Sea of Sand Shows No Trace of Ancient Humans. Here's Why.
ScienceAlert • • world
Key Points:
- The Rub' al Khali, or Empty Quarter, once featured temporary green corridors and ancient lakes during wetter periods in the Pleistocene, potentially supporting early human dispersal out of Africa.
- A recent study surveyed 125 locations in the desert, finding evidence of ancient lakes at 55 sites dated between 122,000 and 67,000 years ago, but no direct signs of ancient human settlement.
- Researchers discovered that only 10 sites had knappable stone suitable for tool-making, all on the desert's margins, suggesting water alone was insufficient for sustained human habitation.
- The study highlights that the distribution of knappable stone, essential for stone tool manufacture, acted as a key limiting factor for human settlement, creating a "lithic archipelago" of habitable zones in Arabia.
- This research challenges previous assumptions by showing that ancient human migration in the Arabian Peninsula was constrained not just by water availability but also by geological factors critical for tool production.
