Anthropology

18 April 2024
ByDAVID NIELD

Archaeologists have uncovered a treasure trove of evidence that humans once occupied a cave in Saudi Arabia formed by flowing lava, shedding light on the fascinating history of human life in the region.

The discoveries recorded by the international team of researchers include rock art and animal bones, revealing both how people used the cave network and what their diets were made up of while they were there.

The age of these findings indicates the cave, called Umm Jirsan, was regularly used as a dwelling from roughly 10,000 years ago, during the Neolithic, for at least 7,000 years, possibly up to the Bronze Age.

"While underground localities are globally significant in archaeology and Quaternary science, our research represents the first comprehensive study of its kind in Saudi Arabia," says archaeologist Michael Petraglia, from Griffith University in Australia.

Experts have reported from Umm Jirsan before, finding a scattering of human bones among hundreds of thousands of animal remains thought to have been left by scavenging hyenas. Here the researchers focused on human activity in the cave, which stretches 1.5 kilometers (almost a mile) in length.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/we-have-the-first-evidence-of-ancient-human-life-in-this-vast-lava-tube-cave