Archaeologists stumbled upon a massive collection of bones in a Saudi Arabian cave in the province of Umm Jirsan
Human existence on the planet dates back to six million years. However, the modern form of humans or the Homo sapiens evolved about 200,000 years ago. The history of modern humans has been sketchy, or there are big gaps in our evolutionary history that need to be filled.
This is the work of Archaeologists who scour the remotest parts of the planet to find remains of humans which are thousands of years old. The most preserved fossils have been obtained from the Tundra regions, where the human remains are preserved for thousands of years under the permafrost. But do you expect human remains thousands of years old in a dry and dreary desert?
Understanding the prehistory of ancient Arabia
News 18 reports that Archaeologists stumbled upon a massive collection of bones in a Saudi Arabian cave in the province of Umm Jirsan. The bones include a human skull, cattle, rodents, camels, and many other animals. The discovery will serve as a treasure trove for researchers and Archaeologists who will now be able to understand the prehistory of ancient Arabia.
The cave itself was formed by the flow of volcanic lava millions of years ago when the young Earth was hot molten, and semi-solid.
The cave formed by volcanic lava is about 1.5 kilometers long and contains thousands of bones, including humans. The bones seem to be collected throughout thousands of years by the striped hyena, whose existence on the planet dates back even earlier to humans.
Radio Carbon dating of the 1,917 bones and teeth recovered from the cave estimates the age of the bones from 439 to 6,839 years old. The scientists evaluated the radiocarbon dating data of the bones and concluded that the carnivores had used the cave for an extended period of time.
Archaeologists : ‘Bones are a time capsule‘
Archaeologists consider the bones as a time capsule that will enable them to etch out the prehistory of ancient Arabia.
Since it is a dry environment, bone preservation is pretty poor as compared to the Tundra region. Hence this discovery is a treasure trove and will help understand the prehistory of ancient Arabia.
