This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Models of early population migrations assume people moved to places with easy access to water. But this assumption has left us with a fascinating mystery in ancient Arabia.
Despite evidence that monsoon rains once filled lakes and supported grasslands in the vast sandy interior, evidence of early human occupation is concentrated almost entirely around the desert margins. To see why this might have been the case, Jeffrey I. Rose at the University of Algarve in Portugal and colleagues did something no other researchers had done when looking at this specific issue.
They traveled through the desert to conduct a roughly 1,500-kilometer (932-mile) survey to check the ground themselves. Previous studies relied on computer modeling. The researchers inspected 125 locations between sand dunes.
At each one, they looked for ancient lake deposits, documented the types of local rocks and searched the exposed ground for stone tools or any other traces of human occupation. After completing the field survey, the team used geological maps and regional water network reconstructions to develop a spatial model of the Arabian Peninsula. They then tested their model against 362 known archaeological sites across Arabia to see if water was enough to draw people in, or whether they also needed stone for toolmaking.
Their findings are published in a paper in the journal Nature. Archaeologist Emanuele Cancellieri at the University of Algarve discusses the research in a News and Views piece in the same issue. Despite their exhaustive search, the team found zero evidence of early human occupation.
However, they discovered evidence of ancient lakes at 55 locations. They also came across fossilized shells and ostrich eggshells, which suggest that if any tools had been left behind, they would have spotted them. The spatial model reveals a similar pattern across Arabia.
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