“Ancient Innovation: UAE Archaeologists Uncover 80,000-Year-Old Secrets of Early Tool Makers”
K. Bretzke et al.A collection of stone artifacts discovered at the site.
The stone artifacts date back 80,000 years, around the time when hospitable conditions were ending in the Arabian Desert. They have revealed the presence of Homo sapiens in the region during their migration out of Africa around the same time.
“The finds presented thus provide new evidence to better understand and classify the temporal and spatial course of the spread of early Homo sapiens populations from Africa to Asia. The global spread of Homo sapiens occurred in several waves, which began at least 150,000 years ago,” Dr. Bretzke stated in a press release from Friedrich Schiller University Jena. “The results now presented indicate that around 80,000 years ago one of the waves of spread ran along the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.”
Mojdeh LajmiriAn illustration of the stone blades found at Jebel Faya.
While the stone tools represent a great step in understanding the early migration history of our species, researchers are still searching for human remains to shed more light on this prehistoric process.
“No human remains from the Paleolithic period have been found in southern Arabia so far,” Dr. Bretzke explained.
This unanswered piece of the puzzle leaves a gap in early Arabian history, but researchers remain hopeful that future excavations will uncover human remains, directly linking these stone tools to the prehistoric groups that shaped humanity’s early journeys.
After reading about the earliest evidence of systematic tool production in southern Arabia, dive into the story of the shotel, the ancient curved sword that was once the most fearsome weapon in Ethiopia. Then, read about the Callao Man, the hobbit-like early ancestor of Homo sapiens who stood just under four feet tall.
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