Humans occupied lava tube in northern Saudi Arabia as shelter for thousands of years

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Research over the last decade has highlighted a diverse Holocene archaeological record, but the timing of human occupations and their connections with the nearby Levant remain poorly understood, primarily due to poor preservation of organic remains in the region's arid conditions

To get around this problem, archaeologist Dr. Mathew an archaeologist at Australia's Griffith University and Germany's Max Planck Institutes of Geoanthropology and colleagues focused investigations on caves and other underground settings where ancient materials are sheltered from sun, wind and high fluctuations in temperature. They analyzed an archaeological site from a lava tube located in the volcanic field of Harrat Khaybar in Saudi Arabia about 125 kilometers north of Medina.

First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia

The team that included scientists from the US, Europe and Australia has just been published in the journal PLoS ONE under the title "First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings."

Within the lava tube, they found artifacts, rock art, and skeletal remains that documented repeated human occupation over at least seven millennia. The lava tube seems to have been an important resource for pastoralists keeping and herding livestock, as evidenced by rock art and animal bones representing domesticated sheep and goats. Isotopic analysis of human remains reveals an increase over time in plants such as cereal and fruit in the diet, possibly linked to a rise in oasis agriculture in the Bronze Age.

The authors believe that Umm Jirsan was likely not a permanent home, but instead a valuable stopping point for people traveling among oasis settlements. Lava tubes and other natural shelters were valuable resources for...