Human footprints at Alathar lake
Huellas humanas del lago de Alathar
- Date
- c. 120 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Alathar, Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia
- Credited to
- Last-interglacial hominins (probably Homo sapiens)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Seven hominin footprints, with tracks of camels, elephants and grazers, on the fossilised shore of a Nefud lake, dated to c. 120 ka (Stewart et al., 2020). They document the wet landscape that let humans cross Arabia.
Assigning the prints to Homo sapiens (rather than Neanderthals) is probable but not certain; the coordinates are approximate and the site lies in the Tayma-Nefud basin.
What it led to
- direct evidence of human presence in interior Arabia during the last interglacial
- calibration of 'Green Arabia' phases with palaeoecological data
- a new survey approach for Nefud palaeolakes