Novel archaeological and palaeontological findings in cave and palaeoriver landscapes of inland northeast Arabia

Knowledge about environmental change and the evolutionary history of hominins in Arabia has been rapidly developing over the last two decades. Interdisciplinary research on humans and environments across the vast and heterogenous landmass of the Arabian Peninsula remains, however, highly spatially uneven. Here we present the results of archaeological, hydro-geological, and palaeontological research in inland northeastern Arabia, a poorly studied area with diverse landscape features including caves, palaeorivers, and chert outcrops. Hominin use of the landscape appears to be sparse in comparison to other regions of Arabia, though archaeological evidence spanning from the Lower Palaeolithic to the historic era was identified, including finds from the Middle Palaeolithic, which is the most well represented period. The caves of inland northeast Arabia contain a rich record of past climate change in the form of speleothems, as well as abundant faunal assemblages. Our survey results highlight the significant potential of these records to cast light on environmental, faunal, and cultural changes over time while demonstrating regional variation across Arabia.

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Publication Details

Journal
PLoS ONE
Published
2025-11-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0337005
Primary Topic
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Novel archaeological and palaeontological findings in cave and palaeoriver landscapes of inland northeast Arabia

Mesfer Alqahtani, James Blinkhorn, Gilbert J. Price, Paul S. Breeze et al.
PLoS ONE
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
article

Novel archaeological and palaeontological findings in cave and palaeoriver landscapes of inland northeast Arabia

Mesfer Alqahtani, James Blinkhorn, Gilbert J. Price, Paul S. Breeze, Mahmoud Al-Shanti, Michael D. Petraglia, Eric Andrieux, Abdullah Memesh, Nicole Boivin, Abdullah Alsharekh, Iyad S. Zalmout, Hubert Vonhof, Nils Vanwezer, Mathew Stewart, Yahya A. Mufarreh, Huw S. Groucutt, Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Faisal Al‐Jibreen, Nick Drake
article en

Abstract

Knowledge about environmental change and the evolutionary history of hominins in Arabia has been rapidly developing over the last two decades. Interdisciplinary research on humans and environments across the vast and heterogenous landmass of the Arabian Peninsula remains, however, highly spatially uneven. Here we present the results of archaeological, hydro-geological, and palaeontological research in inland northeastern Arabia, a poorly studied area with diverse landscape features including caves, palaeorivers, and chert outcrops. Hominin use of the landscape appears to be sparse in comparison to other regions of Arabia, though archaeological evidence spanning from the Lower Palaeolithic to the historic era was identified, including finds from the Middle Palaeolithic, which is the most well represented period. The caves of inland northeast Arabia contain a rich record of past climate change in the form of speleothems, as well as abundant faunal assemblages. Our survey results highlight the significant potential of these records to cast light on environmental, faunal, and cultural changes over time while demonstrating regional variation across Arabia.

PLoS ONEVol. 20(11)
Smithsonian Institution (US), Griffith University (AU), United States Geological Survey (US), Ministry of Culture (IN), National Museum of Natural History (US), University of Liverpool (GB), The University of Queensland (AU), University of Pittsburgh (US), University of Cologne (DE), King's College London (GB), Durham University (GB), University of Malta (MT), China Geological Survey (CN), King Saud University (SA), Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (DE), Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen (DE), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) (SA), Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (DE), Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Openalex Percentile: Top 61%
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
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