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Seven footprints found at Alathar, an ancient lake deposit in northern Saudi Arabia, were likely made by Homo sapiens about 115,000 years ago. The tracks place people in the Arabian interior during a wetter phase of the region’s past—but the species identification is probable, not definitive, and the prints do not reveal why the people were there or where they went next.
What was found at Alathar?
Researchers identified seven likely human footprints among impressions preserved at Alathar, a former lake margin in what is now an arid part of Saudi Arabia. National Geographic’s 2020 account describes 376 depressions scattered across the surveyed patch, including tracks attributed to animals as well as people. The scene is dated to approximately 115,000 years ago.
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The impressions are the evidence; identifying who made them requires interpretation. Researchers compared the tracks’ shape and size with ancient and modern footprints and judged the seven prints likely to be human. They further attributed them to Homo sapiens, but the prints are not sufficiently preserved to make that species identification certain.
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Alathar was not the dry landscape visitors see today. Evidence from ancient algae indicates that its lake held fresh water. The tracks suggest that people and animals came to its shore while water was available, perhaps as the lake was drying.
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The human and animal tracks were likely made within hours or days of one another, according to the researchers’ interpretation. That is an estimate for the shared track scene, not a precise measurement of the time between particular footprints.
What else was moving around the lake?
Animal tracks at the site include those attributed to elephants and camels. The National Geographic account also mentions possible traces of giant buffalo and ancient horse relatives. Together, the impressions suggest that the lake margin drew both people and a range of animals.
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Matthew Stewart, zooarchaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and first author of the study, recalled how the team began recognizing the impressions: “As soon as we saw one, we could see them all.” He was describing how spotting a prominent animal impression helped researchers notice other tracks.
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The headline’s “where humans weren’t supposed to be” points to a former gap in the picture of early human movement: the Arabian interior could be overlooked when attention focused on better-known routes through the Levant. The Alathar tracks add evidence that people ventured farther into Arabia. They do not overturn a settled rule that humans could not have been there; rather, they contribute a clue to an incomplete account.
The Arabian Peninsula’s past included wetter conditions, with grasslands, rivers and many lakes. A freshwater lake could therefore provide a setting for human and animal activity in a region that is largely arid today. But this one site cannot establish a specific migration itinerary.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the footprints cannot tell us
The tracks do not identify the trackmakers with certainty, explain why they visited the lake, show how long they stayed, or reveal what happened to them afterward. Nor do they establish the precise route by which they reached Alathar. Those questions go beyond what a set of preserved impressions can show.
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The strongest conclusion is narrower: roughly 115,000 years ago, people likely visited a freshwater lake in the Arabian interior alongside animals. That is meaningful evidence of human presence there, even without a complete story of the people who left the prints.
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