News Anthropology

Stone Age humans or their relatives occasionally trekked through a green Arabia

Long-ago rains drew hominids in phases to what’s now dry desert

Jubbah oasis

Excavations at the Jubbah oasis (shown) in northern Saudi Arabia produced stone tools that, along with nearby lake bed finds, indicate that hominids periodically trekked through the region starting around 400,000 years ago.

Ceri Shipton/Palaeodeserts Project

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Arabia, known today for its desert landscape, served as a “green turnstile” for migrating Stone Age members of the human genus starting around 400,000 years ago, a new study finds.