A newly detailed archaeological record from the United Arab Emirates is reshaping what researchers know about early human settlement in Arabia, showing that people returned to the region again and again over tens of thousands of years, including as far back as about 125,000 years ago.
The study, led by K. Bretzke of the University of Tübingen in Germany and published in “Nature Communications,” centers on Buhais Rockshelter in Sharjah.
Researchers found clear evidence of human occupation at roughly 125,000, 59,000, 35,000, and 16,000 years ago. The findings suggest southern Arabia was not as empty during key stretches of prehistory as many scholars had believed.
That matters because Arabia sits along routes tied to the spread of Homo sapiens beyond Africa. Yet the region has long offered only patchy evidence for the period between about 70,000 and 12,000 years ago, a time linked to major changes in human history.
Stone tools mark four ancient occupation phases
At Buhais Rockshelter, researchers uncovered layered deposits containing stone tools from different periods of occupation. Those layers allowed the team to trace repeated visits to the same place across a vast span of time.
The oldest layer, dated to about 124,000 to 125,000 years ago, adds to earlier evidence from nearby Jebel Faya and strengthens the case for a deep human presence in this part of Arabia.
The site also produced evidence from about 59,000 years ago, when humans left behind a distinct group of stone tools. Another layer, dated to about 35,000 years ago, showed what researchers described as a fully developed early Upper Paleolithic tool tradition in southeastern Arabia. A later layer, from about 16,000 years ago, points to human activity even near the end of the last Ice Age.
The study goes beyond tools and dates. Researchers also examined ancient environmental conditions in the surrounding Faya paleolandscape.
Their fieldwork showed that human occupation at Buhais matched periods when water became more available. At those times, the landscape appears to have supported freshwater flow, spring activity or lake conditions.
Repeated clues of human settlement in Arabia
That link is central to the study’s broader argument. For years, the late Pleistocene in Arabia has often been seen as too dry and harsh for sustained human presence, especially between about 60,000 and 16,000 years ago.
The Buhais evidence challenges that view. Instead, it suggests that even during generally arid periods, short phases of better conditions opened the door for people to move into and live in the area.
The discovery also hints at change over time in how people made tools and possibly how groups connected across the wider region. Researchers say the Buhais sequence preserves both Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic occupations, offering a rare look at cultural shifts in Arabia.
Taken together, the findings extend the known record of occupation in the Faya region from about 210,000 to 16,000 years ago. Researchers say the site now offers one of the clearest long-term records for testing how humans adapted to desert environments and moved through southern Arabia.
