Archaeologists Found 120,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Where They Shouldn’t Be
A trace beside an ancient lake
The footprints were made on a muddy lakeshore in what is now the Nefud Desert. Elephants and camels had also crossed the ground, leaving hundreds of tracks alongside the seven human prints.
Researchers described the Alathar site in a 2020 paper in Science Advances. Sediment later covered the tracks, preserving them; experiments cited by the researchers found that fine details in modern mud-flat footprints could disappear within days.
Repeated movement into Arabia
A 2021 study in Nature examined ancient lake deposits in the Nefud containing stone tools and animal fossils. Researchers dated evidence of at least five movements by human ancestors into Arabia’s interior between about 400,000 and 55,000 years ago.
What remains unknown
Groucutt said that when the rains ended, there probably was not enough water for people to remain. The available evidence does not establish whether the people who left the Alathar footprints had descendants.
Until further evidence emerges, the prints remain among the few direct records of early travelers in the region. The name Alathar means “the trace” in Arabic.
Key points
- Seven human footprints were preserved at Alathar in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud Desert.
- The prints date to roughly 112,000 to 121,000 years ago.
- Evidence indicates at least five movements into Arabia’s interior between about 400,000 and 55,000 years ago.
- Researchers link those movements to wetter periods, with different styles of stone tools in each phase.