Archaeologists have discovered proof of human habitation inside lava tubes for the primary time, within the deserts of northern Saudi Arabia.

Lava tubes are caves that type throughout a volcanic eruption. The floor of a river of lava cools and solidifies, whereas sizzling molten rock continues to movement beneath it. Ultimately, lava drains out of the tube, forsaking a tunnel.

Mathew Stewart at Griffith College in Brisbane, Australia, and his colleagues excavated a trench inside Umm Jirsan. At 1.5 kilometres in size, it’s the greatest lava tube in Saudi Arabia. The researchers found animal bones, stone instruments and pottery stretching again no less than 7000 years and probably as a lot as 10,000 years.

Stewart and his workforce have labored within the area for greater than 15 years and have beforehand discovered quite a few stone buildings on the floor, confirming human habitation. Nevertheless, the desert’s sizzling, arid local weather has precipitated natural materials to interrupt down, making it troublesome thus far.

On the floor, the panorama is a “sizzling, dry and flat basalt desert”, says Stewart. “However if you find yourself down within the lava tube, it’s a lot cooler. It’s very sheltered and it could have been an excellent place of refuge.”

“It’s reworking our understanding of the prehistory of the Arabian peninsula,” he says.

In elements of the underground community at Umm Jirsan, the researchers additionally discovered human bones, however these are thought to have been dragged in by hyenas.

In different lava tubes close by, Stewart and his colleagues discovered rock artwork, together with representations of home sheep and goats that will have been made by “cultural contemporaries” of the teams utilizing the lava tubes as a refuge, he says.

Mike Morley at Flinders College in Adelaide, Australia, describes the lava tubes as being like “prefabricated exercise areas”.

“As a scientist who works primarily in caves, I’m excited that we’ve got one other kind of cave system being utilized by previous human populations,” says Morley. “These finds symbolize a treasure trove of archaeological data for Arabia, an enormous area that has solely just lately been investigated systematically for prehistoric archaeology.”

Lava tubes have additionally been advised as doable locations for people to shelter on the moon and Mars.