Desert Ghost Footprints Map 115,000-Year-Old Homo sapiens in Arabia
Archaeologists report seven Homo sapiens footprints at the Alathar paleolake in Saudi Arabia dating to about 115,000 years ago, the earliest evidence of modern humans in the Arabian Peninsula. The prints, found among tracks of elephants and camels, were preserved in lake sediment from a brief humid interglacial and dated via luminescence; no tools or skeletal remains were found, suggesting transient movement rather than settlement. The team used 3D photogrammetry to document the impressions before erosion.