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Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discover that human beings were living in a lava tube at least 7,000 years ago and possibly earlier , a young study finds .
The lava tube-shaped structure , holler Umm Jirsan , is located in a volcanic field called Harrat Khaybar , approximately 78 miles ( 125 kilometer ) north of Medina , researchers said in a financial statement .
Researchers explore the vast Umm Jirsan lava tube system in Saudi Arabia.
" Umm Jirsan is presently the longest reported lava thermionic tube in Arabia in terms of the horizontal distance of passageway , at 1481 metres [ 4,859 feet ] , " the scientists wrote in the paper put out Wednesday ( April 17 ) in the journalPLOS One .
Although ancient man are known to have live on the Arabian Peninsula during prehistoric times , organic clay are light due to poor preservation in the arid region . So the researcher looked for area that would have preserve artifacts because they were sheltered from the sunlight , wind and wild temperature change over the past millennia . Umm Jirsan met these touchstone , so the team decided to face there .
Their intuition turned out to be expert . They found artifacts such as fragment of cloth and bring wood ; rock music art of domesticated animals ; and the skeletal remains of nine human bones . These finds suggest that mass occupy the lava tuba for at least the past 7,000 geezerhood and possibly as far back as 10,000 years , harmonize to carbon 14 dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating , which canvass when the last meter sure minerals were unwrap to heating or sunlight . Some of the dates are relatively recent and the tube appear to have been used into modernistic sentence , Stewart say .
It’s possible to identify species in the rock art of Umm Jirsan, including (A) sheep; (B) goat and two stick figures with tools on their belts; (C) long-horned cattle, photo enhanced with digital software; and (D) ibex with ribbed horns and coat markings. Bottom: tracings of examples A-D.
The humans who used the lava electron tube lead a few hint about their lives . These include bones of naturalize sheep and goat , as well as rock art depicting these animals , indicate that these creatures were key to the humans ' survival . A chemical analysis of the human remains showed an increase in sure plants , like cereal and fruit , over fourth dimension — mayhap because of a rise in oasis USDA in the Bronze Age , the squad enounce in the statement .
The analysis suggested that humans were n’t hold up in the lava vacuum tube for retentive periods at a metre , however . " The lava thermionic valve does not appear to have dish as a lasting habitation location , but rather as a site that likely lay on herding route and that allowed approach to tincture and water system for pass herders and their animal , " the author pen in the survey . " Prior to this , as well as during arcadian menstruum , the lava tube was likely also linked with hunting activeness , which probably remained a cornerstone of local economies into the Bronze Age . "
Lava tubes organise when lava creates hush-hush passages that can transport large quantities of molten stone ; when the lava supplying end or if the lava is diverted elsewhere , the empty tube is entrust behind , according to theNational Park Service . And while they may sound inhospitable , they can be a good source of shelter . For instance , scientist at JAXA , Japan ’s space authority , have suggest thatfuture human being could live in lava tubes on the moon .
Study co - authorMathew Stewart , a enquiry feller at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Australia , said lava tubes like this one preserve to be used by modern - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. masses in the neighborhood " whether it be for corralling animals , access water imagination , or simply for leisure , " Stewart told Live Science in an email .
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It ’s hard to say when Umm Jirsan was last filled with lava , Stewart said , although volcanic natural action has pass off intermittently in the region . " There have been some 1500 volcanic eruptions in Arabia over the past 1500 year , and many more in antiquity , " Stewart said .
learner not involved with the research spoke positively of the squad ’s work . It is " marvellous work by this squad that has made a hard reputation for excellent fieldwork and interpretation,“Gary Rollefson , a prof emeritus of anthropology at Whitman College and San Diego State University , told Live Science in an email . " Although the digging produced comparatively little in the way of artefact and faunal stiff , the material nevertheless reveals warm connection of material recovered in other parts of northern Saudi Arabia , " Rollefson said , mention that there are similarity with material excavate in parts of Jordan .
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Anthony Sinclair , a prof of archaeological theory and method at the University of Liverpool in the U.K. , said in an e-mail that in increase to allow shelter , the lava tube also would have been a " defendable position — in term of allowing the pastoralists to safeguard their flocks at night against local predators . There would have been skirt chaser , hyena and quite possibly social lion and Panthera pardus across Arabia . " Today , some of these creature are endangered or no longer present in Arabia .
