A new study has revealed that Neanderthals, whose name has been associated with the cold climates of Europe and Asia, roamed the warmer regions of the Arabian Peninsula between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago.
This astonishing conclusion comes after a careful analysis of stone tools found in the Nafud desert in northern Saudi Arabia, at a site known as "Jabal Katifah-1" (JKF-1), near an ancient lake that dried up long ago.
These findings are particularly significant because the Arabian Peninsula has long been considered an archaeological enigma, as no Neanderthal remains have ever been found there, unlike in other parts of Eurasia. Despite this, the region was a vital crossroads between Africa, Europe, and Asia during the Ice Age, making it a natural candidate for the passage of various human groups.
For years, researchers have faced the challenge of interpreting the significant differences between stone tools discovered at various sites across the Arabian Peninsula. Given the scarcity of bone fossils in the region, these tools have become the primary source for understanding the human groups that inhabited it.
The Jebel Katifa-1 site has been difficult to date precisely, with previous estimates ranging from 90,000 to 50,000 years ago—a vast period encompassing the presence of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in Southwest Asia. This ambiguity has hindered the identification of the toolmakers.
To overcome this obstacle, the research team, comprised of scientists from various institutions, designed advanced statistical tests to analyze the source of the variations in the artifacts. They used a database of 704 complete stone flakes from Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Levant, dating from between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.
The statistical model was able to distinguish between tools associated with Homo sapiens and those associated with Neanderthals with an accuracy exceeding 93%. When applied to the tools of the Jebel Katifa-1 site, the results clearly showed that they had features closer to Neanderthal tool groups, with an average probability of attributing them to them of 78%.
Only four artifacts were confirmed with a higher probability of being attributed to Homo sapiens, which reinforced the conclusion that the site was inhabited by Neanderthals.
In addition to morphological analysis of the tools, the team performed a new dating of the site's sediments using fluorescence dating, a technique that measures when sand grains were last exposed to sunlight. This technique yielded a more precise age estimate for the site, ranging between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago, coinciding with the period when Neanderthals expanded southward into the Levant and the Zagros region (in western Iran and eastern Iraq, extending as far south as southeastern Turkey).
The significance of these findings extends beyond simply identifying the site's inhabitants; they present a new picture of early humans as more flexible and adaptable to diverse environments, rather than simply creatures specialized in cold climates as previously thought. Their arrival in northern Arabia expands their known distribution beyond the Levant.
The study also suggests that the Arabian Peninsula may have been a meeting and interaction zone for different human groups, and perhaps a major route for migrations and interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. This opens the door to a more complex understanding of human history in the region, especially given the scarcity of skeletal remains and DNA at these low latitudes.
The researchers assert in their study, published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, that this quantitative analytical approach to stone assemblages proves effective in revealing the secrets of ancient human behavior and demography, even in the absence of direct fossil evidence.
