The story of human origins continues to cause surprises. For many years, it is accepted that our species emerged in the African continent. The oldest evidence of “Homo” lineage/ancestry is from 2.8 million years ago at Ledi-Geraru in Ethiopia.

For decades, Africa has been seen as the cradle of humanity. Recently, Michael Petraglia unearthed early evidence of human evolution in Saudi Arabia and recommended much of the planet needs to be explored such as India and central Asian nations like Kyrgyzstan.

The current remarkable evidence from Saudi Arabia reminds us that human evolution and subsequent civilisation is not limited to Mesopotamia or the great Egyptian civilisation or 2,500 BC the Indus-Sarasvati or Harappan civilization.

The archaeologists’ findings at the Rub’ al Khali (ربع الخالی) desert in Saudi Arabia has evidence that “Hominins” even lived there. At Mundafan Al-Buhayrah, a flat region that was once a lake, the team found stone tools dating to 80,000 years ago. Rub’ al Khali is a vacant desert, approximately the size of France in south-east of the Arabian Peninsula. It is also called “empty quarter” and has no population.

Michael Petraglia said at the Max Planck Institute, Germany that “we had a very straightforward scenario. Arabia was just on the route out of Africa. “Arabia was a mere pit stop for modern humans as they walked into Europe, Asia and elsewhere.”

#Researchers have evidence that human ancestors had inhabited the Arabian Peninsula for hundreds of thousands of years ago when the climate was wetter there and rivers were flowing near the area of Rub’ al Khali.

#Evidences show that 10,000 years ago there was a rich record of prehistoric societies and environment with many rock art and artefacts there.

#Rock art include life-size Camels and other animals’ figure near Tabuk in north-west Saudi Arabia dates back more than 8,000 years ago. 

#Researchers have also found more that 1000 ancient art near north-west of Saudi Arabia. Some of them are over 7000 years old, much older than Stonehenge of the UK and Pyramids of Egypt.

When Michael Petraglia and other researchers started work in Saudi Arabia ten years ago “some people said there was no prehistory in Arabia.” They have been told not to bother about Rub al Khali region and were even laughed at and mocked. But it turns out that there is an enormous amount of prehistory in Arabia with dozens of archaeological sites.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25133480-700-the-other-cradle-of-humanity-how-arabia-shaped-human-evolution/
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FB Post of 27th August 2021

HOW ARABIA SHAPED HUMAN EVOLUTION: NEW DISCOVERY AT RUB’ AL KHALI (ربع الخالی)

Last month, RSS Chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat said without any authentic, archaeological and scientific proof that Indian civilisation is 40,000 years old.

In just a decade, based on radiocarbon dating archaeologists have found countless sites in Saudi Arabia where hominins lived, hundreds of thousands of years into the past.In Saudi Arabia, Rub’ al-Khali (ربع الخالی), a landscape of reddish sand dunes, roughly about the size of France is both a desert and deserted. The Rub’ al-Khali’s name means “empty quarter”, and nobody lives there. Some ancient arts found there are more that 7000 years old, much older than Stonehenge of the UK and Pyramids of Egypt.

The millions year, river criss-crossed in Arab peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE) and where vegetation and wildlife flourished and a mere 8,000 years ago, there were many lakes. Many researchers now think that Arab peninsula was not a stopover for hominins as they moved out of Africa but should be thought of as part of a “greater Africa” and the peninsula played an important role in human evolution and expansion across the world.

It is highly needed to calibrate Indian ancient relics based on radiocarbon dating to authenticate Dr Mohan Bhagwat distorted preaching on facts and figures.