A team of archaeologists has discovered human footprints left about 115,000 years ago. These are the oldest human footprints on the Arabian Peninsula. They were discovered among the traces of prehistoric animals and this discovery gives new insight into the migration and life of ancient people before the Ice Age. The study was published in the journal Science Advances, writes Earth.

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According to scientists, they did not expect to see traces of human feet in the middle of the desert in northern Saudi Arabia, which were left by representatives of the species Homo sapience about 115,000 years ago.. The fact is that a long-term presence of ancient people had not previously been discovered in this region. A total of 7 separate footprints were discovered, which were well preserved along with the tracks of prehistoric animals.

These footprints were discovered in what was once a lake and archaeologists believe they are the oldest human footprints in the Arabian Peninsula. Archaeologists have concluded that human footprints were formed over a very short period of time.

Scientists believe that these footprints belong to Homo sapiens given archaeological evidence of the spread of this species between 130,000 and 80,000 years ago into the Levant and Arabia. Also, the size of the footprints more indicates that they were made by representatives of Homo sapiens, and not by Neanderthals.

Archaeologists have found no evidence of damage to animal bones by knives found next to human footprints. That is, there is no evidence that people hunted in this region. Therefore, scientists believe that ancient people arrived at the lake only for a short period of time and most likely this was due to the search for drinking water.

At the same time, scientists cannot yet answer the question: why these footprints were not covered with traces of another group of people? It is assumed that these traces were left by the last visitors to this region, when the climate was still temperate and before the Ice Age..

The new discovery also provides some insight into the ecosystem that existed 115,000 years ago. Around human footprints, scientists have discovered traces of animals such as elephants, camels and antelopes. That is, the conditions in this region were significantly different from the arid desert that exists there now. Most likely, animals, like people, came to the lake to drink and their traces remained forever imprinted in fossils.

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