115,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud Desert Lakebed

Archaeologists working in northern Saudi Arabia have uncovered a uniquely preserved patch of prehistoric mud that contains seven hominin footprints dated to about 115,000 years ago. The prints were discovered in 2017 at a site called Alathar (Arabic for “the trace”), exposed when wind and erosion removed more recent sediments from a dried lakebed in the Nefud Desert.

An Exceptional Preservation Window

The Alathar prints were preserved in unusually fine, rapidly buried mud that retained detail far longer than typical wet substrates. Experimental studies of modern human footprints in mudflats show that fine details fade within days and prints can become unrecognizable within a week. That evidence supports the argument that the Alathar impressions formed within a narrow time window and were quickly buried, protecting them for tens of thousands of years.

Who Made the Tracks?

Seven hominin footprints were identified among hundreds of animal tracks. The research team attributes the prints to early Homo sapiens, citing several lines of evidence: regional fossil and archaeological records showing H. sapiens presence in the Levant and Arabia between roughly 130,000 and 80,000 years ago; a lack of clear Neanderthal presence in the Levant at that time; and the footprint sizes, which are more consistent with early H. sapiens than with H. neanderthalensis.

“Seven hominin footprints were confidently identified, and given the fossil and archeological evidence for the spread of H. sapiens into the Levant and Arabia during [~130,000–80,000 years ago] and absence of H. neanderthalensis from the Levant at that time, we argue that H. sapiens was responsible for the tracks at Alathar.”

Not a Camp — Just a Watering Hole

Unlike many archaeological sites, Alathar lacks abundant stone tools, butchery marks, or other indicators of extended occupation or hunting activity. The authors therefore conclude the site was likely a transient lakeshore stop used mainly for drinking water as people and animals moved through a network of freshwater corridors across the peninsula.

The researchers also note the broader environmental context: these individuals may have been passing through a relatively temperate corridor as an approaching ice age began to reshape climates and habitats, which could explain why later groups did not overprint the tracks before fresh sediment covered them.

Why Mud Matters

The study places Alathar among other famous preservation examples to show how rapid burial in mud can create exceptional fossil records — from Burgess Shale soft-tissue preservation to intact dinosaur skeletons found in rapidly buried sediments. In short, mud frequently acts as nature’s archive, sealing delicate details for geological time.

Dating and methods: The team used geochronological and stratigraphic context (sediment analyses and regional dating frameworks) to estimate the prints’ age. Because different dating methods are applicable at different timescales, the authors combined multiple lines of evidence to reach the ~115,000-year estimate.

Alathar’s discovery offers a rare, direct glimpse of early human behavior on the Arabian Peninsula and emphasizes how brief, practical uses of landscape — like stopping to drink — can leave a lasting imprint in the archaeological record.