Neanderthals might have trekked deep into the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula round 55,000 years in the past, a brand new research of stone instruments suggests.
The analysis, printed on-line Aug. 12 within the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, hints that Neanderthals might have lived farther south than scientists thought, although extra proof is required to substantiate that conclusion.
“Our findings prolong the Neanderthal vary a lot additional south than had been recognized, and into the far more open environments of Arabia,” research co-lead creator Huw Groucutt, an archaeologist on the College of Malta, instructed Dwell Science in an e mail.
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The research centered on stone instruments found at Jebel Katefeh-1 (JKF-1), an archaeological web site beside an historical lake close to the town of Jubbah, in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud Desert (additionally spelled Nafud or An Nafūd). No Neanderthal bones have ever been present in Arabia, so researchers puzzled who was making instruments there.
The brand new research discovered that instruments found at JKF-1 extra intently matched these made by Neanderthals than these crafted by Homo sapiens.
Neanderthals have historically been seen as a cold-adapted, primarily European species. However that image has been altering for years, as proof has placed them thousands of miles east in Siberia in addition to in the Middle East.
Missing bones or DNA, Groucutt and his colleagues recognized the Neanderthal instruments primarily based on the distinctive form of their stone flakes. The crew measured a whole bunch of sharp items of instruments struck from a fastidiously ready stone core from JKF-1 and different websites throughout Arabia, the Levant and northeast Africa.
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Utilizing statistical strategies, the researchers in contrast the flakes’ shapes throughout time and area. Primarily based on the variations between stone instruments from different websites the place the toolmakers’ identities have been nicely established, the researchers created a statistical mannequin to assist them establish whether or not a gaggle of stone instruments was made by Neanderthals or H. sapiens.
Once they utilized the mannequin to the stone instruments from JKF-1 and instruments from a smaller close by web site referred to as ALM-3, the outcomes confirmed that it was much more possible that Neanderthals, not H. sapiens, had made the instruments.
To pin down when these instruments have been made, the crew dug a brand new trench at JFK-1 and dated grains of sand from the soil utilizing a technique referred to as optically stimulated luminescence, which reveals how way back these grains have been final uncovered to daylight.
Specialised stone instruments led researchers to conclude that Neanderthals, not trendy people, made instruments within the Nefud Desert.
(Picture credit score: Palaeodeserts Challenge)
Previous work had dated the instruments to someplace between 90,000 and 50,000 years in the past. However the brand new work narrowed down that vary. The instruments have been found in a layer the place older desert sand gave option to youthful lake sediment, exhibiting that folks have been at JKF-1 round 55,000 years in the past, simply because the desert was turning wetter.
Neanderthals have been the one group residing in southwest Asia 55,000 years in the past. This date, along with the instruments’ form, is why the researchers assume Neanderthals made them, regardless that no Neanderthal bones have but been present in Arabia.
Knut Bretzke, an archaeologist on the College of Tübingen in Germany who wasn’t concerned within the analysis, mentioned the research’s proof for a Neanderthal presence in northern Arabia was compelling.
The brand new dates counsel the Neanderthal foray into Arabia could also be linked to a shift in local weather. JKF-1’s stone instruments sit proper on the transition from a dry spell to a damp section, when a close-by lake was refilling and the encompassing desert would have begun turning inexperienced. Drawing on his personal fieldwork in southern Arabia, Bretzke mentioned that the moist spell might have drawn grazing animals into the desert inside, and Neanderthals would possible have adopted them.
Nonetheless, Bretzke mentioned the underlying assumptions deserve scrutiny. A number of comparability websites used within the pc mannequin are floor websites, the place artifacts can accumulate over huge stretches of time, slightly than a single occupation the place artifacts are discarded over a brief interval, he instructed Dwell Science, however he finds the paper’s conclusion believable.
For now, although, the proof that Neanderthals lived farther south than beforehand recognized stays circumstantial.
“Do I imagine there have been any Neanderthals in northern Saudi Arabia? Sure,” Bretzke mentioned. “Do I believe we now have stable proof to show that perception? No.”
Groucutt agreed {that a} fossil would assist settle the query. However he famous that bones and historical DNA protect poorly in Arabia’s warmth, so stone instruments presently present archaeologists’ greatest window into the area’s deep previous.
Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H. S., Carleton, W. C., Andrieux, E., Armitage, S. J., Shipton, C., Breeze, P. S., Drake, N., Al-Omari, A., Al-Jibreen, F., Alsharekh, A. M., Scerri, E. M., Blockley, S., & Petraglia, M. D. (2026). Neanderthals within the desert? Inhabitants historical past greatest explains Center Palaeolithic technological heterogeneity in Arabia. Quaternary Science Critiques, 390, 110196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.110196
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