THE MYTH OF NORTH AFRICA AS ARAB,UNCOVERED

[Saif al-Arab]

You guys were even luckier then us, Not even Alexander the great or all his wannabes conquered you. Now you get to reap the benefits while Britain,and Europeans go about showing off all our as their artifacts because of Colonization.

That was actually his plan as the Romans had planned before him (the capture of Arabia Felix to control the sea routes and the most valuable resource in the ancient world - incense) but he died before he could undertake such a difficult task. The Romans actually conquered Northern Arabia but it was one of their lesser controlled provinces.

As for artifacts, I am afraid that I have to disagree.

Many of the ancient artifacts in Arabia, Yemen for instance which has the second highest number of mummies in the world after Egypt,

have been stolen by the West and are now found in Western museums. You have to remember that Brits where present in Arabia as well and long before them the Portuguese which is why you can still find Portuguese forts all over Arabia.

Also when oil and gas was discovered in the Middle East, KSA included, many Westerners employed in the oil companies used to take local archeological findings and take them home as there was no control of this matter and little interest. After all, paradoxically, it was the Westerners who had to discover many of our lost civilizations or at least make them known worldwide.

Let me give you an concrete example of this:

Americans honored for returning Saudi treasures ​

JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS | Published — Monday 31 December 2012

Seven US citizens have taken the initiative to return a number of Saudi artifacts, which they possessed for decades and were of great value, to the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA).
The Americans were copiously honored by Prince Sultan bin Salman, SCTA president, at the opening ceremony of the three-month-long exhibition “Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, which was opened on Nov. 15.
The citizens who returned the artifacts are “Sons of Aramco”, said Janet Smith, wife of the US Ambassador to the Kingdom James Smith. “They were born and lived in the Kingdom with their parents, who were working for Saudi Aramco, and are now part of the Alumni Association Aramco families and retirees, which includes people between the ages of 5-90 years,” she said.
Barbara Denis Martin, one of the honorees, said that she was born in the Kingdom and lived there until she was 20, so she considers it to be her second homeland.
“When I was a child, I used to go camping with my family out of the urban area. The desert was fascinating with its wild flora and fauna. Moreover, there were wide ranges of thousand-year pottery spread. We used to spend hours exploring, and managed to find many artifacts that emerged due to wind erosion. We could gather a collection of 60-70 pottery and glass pieces, some intact, others shriveled. We were aware of their archaeological value, but they wouldn’t be given much appreciation by nationals back then, so we kept them at our homes. Years later, we went back to America and took them to boastfully show them in our America-based houses,” Martin declared.
Louis Wolfram, speaking about her story with Saudi monuments, said: “I was accustomed to collecting pottery items from the Kingdom’s prairies, where I used to go to on excursions when I was a child. One day I went with my family to Jubail on a trip, and I found there a green pottery piece that was half sunk in the sand, so I dug it out and then removed more sand layers in the same location to find a two-handled ceramic pot. We took both pieces with us home and kept them in care for years.”
Lucile Lynn, from Florida, recalled her memories in the Kingdom, when they used to spend hours with her two daughters out of Aramco employees’ residential area. They were hiking around freely, when they found a number of historical artifacts.
About retrieving the artifacts, Barbara Martin said: “I was not aware of the real number of all artifacts we found, until I visited my father’s house last year to clean it and found out that they were too many, feeling happy that I could get them back home.”
Arthur Clark, associate editor of Aramco World magazine, said: “Our invitation for retrieval of Saudi artifacts was widely responded, encouraged by the initiative of Prince Sultan bin Salman. We could contact Aramco sons and organized several meetings with them to inform them about the initiative for returning and restoring these artifacts to be displayed in the Kingdom’s under-construction museums.”
This invitation was addressed to Saudis and non-Saudis all over the world to restore these monuments to their homeland, Clark said.
“Sons of Aramco” could take care of them for years before the modern Saudi urban development. Now, with all the regulations and laws issued by the SCTA, theses artifacts will be well appreciated and taken more care of in their homeland.
The agreement got its fruit by encouraging numerous governmental associations and individuals to retrieve more than 3,000 artifacts from within the country and more than 14,000 from all over the world. The returned treasures were exhibited in the Riyadh National Museum, as a feature of an exhibition was held under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/americans-honored-returning-saudi-treasures

Check out this great article from AramcoWorld

http://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/March-2016/Returning-Treasures-to-the-Kingdom

Over 10,000 artifacts retrieved ​

Author
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab News
Publication Date:
Thu, 2009-12-24

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has retrieved more than 10,000 of its artifacts from other countries, Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), said on Wednesday.

“Retrieving antiquities has now become a national issue,” he said, adding that the government would continue its efforts to bring back Saudi artifacts scattered across the world.

He said an exhibition of the recovered antiquities would be held soon.

Prince Sultan said the SCTA with the cooperation of other government agencies would prevent the theft of antiquities, especially the ones from the Islamic heritage sites in Makkah and Madinah.

He disclosed plans to establish a major Islamic and national museum at Al-Khozam Palace in Jeddah and a Qur’an museum in Madinah.

Efforts are also under way to establish 12 new museums in other parts of the country, he said.

“We have so far licensed more than 70 private museums in the Kingdom and will soon start providing financial support to such museums in association with banks and other public and private agencies,” he told a gathering at the residence of Abdul Maqsood Khoja, a prominent Jeddah businessman.

Prince Sultan said the Kingdom would host the first international conference on architectural heritage on April 18.

“We have received requests from at least eight world exhibition centers to display Saudi antiquities,” he pointed out. He also said that the SCTA was working on setting up a company with the private sector to develop heritage hotels.

“The commission is committed to bringing about a qualitative change in people’s perception of national heritage and antiquities,” the prince added.

“Saudi Arabia is replete with a large number of valuable antiquities and protection of these artifacts is a national duty,” he said, adding that the Kingdom would not tolerate smuggling of antiquities.

He said registration of heritage sites at UNESCO would take years, adding that the registration of Madain Saleh took four years.

“We have presented an application to UNESCO to register the historical area of Jeddah and we hope it would be voted on after two years,” he said. “We are now working on a number of programs to develop Old Jeddah into an architectural heritage site of international importance. We are facing a lot of challenges.”

Efforts are under way to renovate old palaces built during the Saudi era.

“We have completed renovation of 90 percent of these palaces and turned them into cultural centers and museums,” he pointed out.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/331666

Considering the "lawlessness" on this field we can easily conclude that this number is many, many times higher. I believe that locals have not returned 20 times that number. At least. If such things are not even fixed today what can we then expect?

Anyway luckily enough much of the ancient artifacts of Egypt still remain in the hands of the rightful owners (Egyptians) and this is also the case with most of Arabia's heritage which the current "Roads of Arabia" (which has been visited by millions of Europeans and Americans in the past few years) collection of some 500 artifacts (currently touring) are an example of.

Now they are currently at display in the National Museum of China in Beijing!

https://defence.pk/threads/one-of-t...bs-discovered-in-ksa-from-space.443566/page-7

Ancient Saudi treasures on display in Beijing​

chinadaily.com.cn/Xinhua | Updated: 2016-12-21 11:00
Cultural relics on display at the Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia exhibition, in Beijing, Dec 20, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

As the final chapter in this year's major events, the National Museum of China (NMC) in Beijing opened an exhibition of Saudi Arabian treasures on Tuesday, which will run until March 19. It's the first time that Saudi antiques are being displayed in China.

The exhibition, titled Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia, includes nearly 500 items from 15 major museums of Saudi Arabia. They were selected from important discoveries in the country's excavation work over the past 40 years.

From the Stone Age to pre-Islamic and Islamic times to the founding of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the exhibition presents the traditional Arabian culture and its interactions with other cultures beyond the Arabian Peninsula.

The three-month-long exhibition is co-hosted by China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, and the NMC.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2016-12/21/content_27734071.htm

Some of the almost 500 ancient artifacts:

‘Roads of Arabia’ receives Chinese plaudits ​

ARAB NEWS | Published — Monday 26 December 2016

RIYADH: Chinese media and popular circles have highlighted the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition, which was recently inaugurated by Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, and Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang.
A Chinese newspaper published article titled “Saudi archaeological masterpieces reveal the common cultural and historical heritage,” saying that the exhibition includes many artifacts revealing deep-rooted historical and cultural links between the Kingdom and China.
Beijing is the first Asian stop of the exhibition that has been held in five European countries and four cities in the United States and has attracted more than 4 million visitors around the world.
Director of the Chinese Art Gallery Wang Jun, the co-organizer of the Saudi exhibition said: “The exhibition represents a rare opportunity for Chinese citizens to learn about the rich civilization and ancient heritage of the Kingdom.”
He added that the ancient maritime Silk Road flourished due to the civilizations along the sea route, particularly in China and the Arabian Peninsula, and this exhibition helps to strengthen cooperation within the framework of the New Silk Road Initiative by achieving a deeper understanding of the historical legacy of the great civilizations of the two countries.
Chinese newspapers quoted Prince Sultan as saying: “The exhibition represents the convergence of Chinese and Saudi civilizations, and the importance of the exhibition lies in that it shows that the Kingdom, beside its economic weight, has a long history and rich culture which receives widespread response and interest from the Chinese side,” stressing there are many opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in various cultural fields.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1029736/saudi-arabia

 

[The SC]

Firstly you sound more like a Pakistani than an Arab. Secondly, just because @Kuwaiti Girl has opinions which doesn't match with yours, you accuse her of being a hindu or Indian.
I believe she is an Ayam from Kuwait.

Think and believe what you want, that is your right, I am just not interested in debating anything with an Indian , sorry, there is no affinity in your debates nor anything interesting..You just want to believe that Hindus are liked by Arabs more than Pakistanis and Chinese, which is not the case..
I am Muslim, do you expect me to defend hindus who won't miss any occasion to bash Muslims. Islam, Arabs and GCC? not open to debates..

 

[Saif al-Arab]

It does make sense.

Even if one were to disregard all the evidence/data, just looking at a map would solve the problem. Ancient humans after all, did not have large boats or airplanes to travel across the world. The cradle of human civilization lies in the Middle East.

Definely. But it depends on your definition of civilization. I for instance consider the Neolithic civilizations of Northern Arabia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Southern Levant as one of the earliest civilizations if not the oldest as they were the first to built settlements in the world and the first to introduce farming and to domesticate animals on a large scale.

Some prefer to look at where humans first settled.

Whatever way you look at it Arabia/Arab world predates IVC/Pakistan on this front but take nothing away from the IVC or any other ancient civilization.

Nor do I see much reason to believe that the first humans did not originate from Eastern Africa/Horn of Africa and I do not see how that contradicts with Islam.

It's hard to discuss with people who provide no sources of worth or whose views are in the tiniest of minorities.

BTW, recently (as in 2016) there was a DNA test done on those earliest Neolithic mummies found in Southern Levant and guess which modern-day people they clustered most with? Saudi Arabians! Give me a second and I will provide the sources.

 

[venu309]

Think and believe what you want, that is your right, I am just not interested in debating anything with an Indian , sorry,there is no affinity, in your debates nor anything interesting..

Good. That makes the two of us. By the way I wouldn't have quoted you if you hadn't brought up Hindu/Indian.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Are you telling me that ancient Egyptians who might actually predates the Arabs themselves, the pharaohs, spoke Arabic??????

Yes. Tutankhamun spoke full on A-rabic.

IVC is the grand daddy of all.

Hurahh brother !

whole Northern Spiral of the Milky Way is in fact Arab.

Yep, you were right. The entire darned Milky Way !

The only valid point he makes is Semite link although I think Berbers are not in that category. Semite however today is so loose that it even includes Germans, Polish, Latvians etc. And I wonder who does the term 'Anti-Semite- include? Certainly not Saudi's.

Even more crazy is the claim by African-Americans. They think Egypt was Black African civilization.

@EgyptianAmerican I have to agree that Egypt is indeed one of the cradles of human civilization.

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

Yes. Tutankhamun spoke full on A-rabic.


Hurahh brother !

Yep, you were right. The entire darned Milky Way !

The only valid point he makes is Semite link although I think Berbers are not in that category. Semite however today is so loose that it even includes Germans, Polish, Latvians etc. And I wonder who does the term 'Anti-Semite- include? Certainly not Palestinians.

Even more crazy is the claim by African-Americans. They think Egypt was Black African civilization.

@EgyptianAmerican I have to agree that Egypt is indeed one of the cradles of human civilization.

Well the Indus civilization is quite impressive and something all Pakistanis should be proud of regardless if it's the oldest civilizations in the world.

So hats off to you guys.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

@EgyptianAmerican @Chinese-Dragon @The SC

I am not sure if you have encountered Pan-Africans (as in Black nationalists - mostly African Americans) on forums or social media but a minority of them have a tendency to claim that all the civilizations of the Arab world (in particular) Middle East were founded by Black people.

Not only that but that Arab people were Black Africans until very recently when we supposedly started to mix with Persians and Turks (forgetting that Turkish presence in the Arab world is barely 1 millennia old), LOL.

Anyway this recent finding that I talked about, the DNA tests done on those earliest Neolithic mummies in Southern Levant, shattered that dream once and for all as those Neolithic mummies were almost 15.000 years old (!) and thus predated all known civilizations.

That recent DNA study proved that modern-day Saudi Arabians, Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians have the largest ancestral claim on the Neolithic civilizations that first appeared in Southern Levant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natufian_culture

A culture that existed from 12.5000 BC to 9.500 BC whose people are known to have built the first Neolithic settlements on the planet as well as made the first attempts at agriculture, organized included. It was also arguably the first sedentary culture of this size in the world as well.

Here are the DNA results from this year (2016)

https://plot.ly/~PortalAntropologiczny9cfa/1.embed?share_key=za9Lb3y1UX6nJRG9v4EXOL

Here is the entire report:

http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/06/16/059311.full.pdf

It's quite cool that Saudi Arabians (in particular as they scored the highest percentage, one sample 60.38%!), Palestinians, Jordanians, "Israeli" Bedouins and Egyptians (afterwards other Arabs in the Near East and other MENA people) show the strongest genetic affinity to the ancient Natufian culture (12.500 BC - 9.500 BC) that was not only the first settled Neolithic civilization/community in the world but the first culture and people who introduced farming and built the first known settlements! More so knowing that the Natufians did not hail from the outside whether nearby Europe or Africa! They were indigenous.

And surprise surprise, Arabs are also indigenous to the Arab world. Not Black Africans from Sub-Saharan Africa, not nomadic Turks from the steppes of Central Asia nor fake "Aryans" from Iran.

Yet we have outsiders here belittling our history. Can you imagine the insanity for a second?

I say let the anti-Arabs and Arab-obsessed users here (they know who they are) cry all the way to bed. Nobody is going to steal our ancient history or change the ground realities, less so when we have science nowadays to help us establish the truth.

In this thread I learned that Hijazi Arabs are not "real Arabs" from some Pakistani based in the UK and dare I bet that we will see similar statements form foreigners teaching us about our own history. Talk about comedy on a high level. Those tools do not have even 10% of the knowledge I have on this field. I have literally spent years reading about our regions history on all fronts. It's one of my greatest hobbies. I am even a moderator on a DNA project that deals with Arab DNA where I have access to data from across the entire Arab world from Arab volunteers (private individuals).

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

Even more crazy is the claim by African-Americans. They think Egypt was Black African civilization.

@EgyptianAmerican I have to agree that Egypt is indeed one of the cradles of human civilization.

Ignore the afro-centrists, they are crazy.

I am not sure if you have encountered Pan-Africans (as in Black nationalists - mostly African Americans) on forums or social media but a minority of them have a tendency to claim that all the civilizations of the Arab world (in particular) Middle East were founded by Black people.

I actually have had quite a few conversations with that bunch. They are quite... Colorful.

 

[HannibalBarca]

A thread to know who has a bigger one than the other... Good luck. In the End, Humanity came from Africa. I win

 

[Saif al-Arab]

A thread to know who has a bigger one than the other... Good luck. In the End, Humanity came from Africa. I win

Eastern Africa/Horn of Africa which is closer to Arabia than Tunisia. Arabia is also the second longest inhabited area on the planet after East Africa/Horn of Africa.

Beat that, bro.

Arabia/Egypt win this round due to simple geography.

The Next round will be for Tunisia.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Ignore the afro-centrists, they are crazy.

I know. I find some similarties between Pakistan and Egypt. I think both countries have enormous potential and will go on to greater things in the future. Both are river reliant countries. Egypt is gift of the Nile. Pakistan is gift of the Indus. Both river turn deserts into green via irrigation. Both countries are modern iteration of past ancient civilizations. You have some fantastic sites - we don't have as fantastic in Rehman Dheri,Harrapa or Mohenjo Daro but they still set the trend in their time.

I hope to visit Egypt at some time - in as much I have respect for Egypt I have just disdain for KSA. Indeed I hate that sandland. I don't regard Islam as some copyright property of KSA and they can shove their oil dollars you know where. They will run out and then watch what happens. As my Iranian friends used to joke there was a reason why the almighty sent prophets to where they were sent .....

 

[HannibalBarca]

Eastern Africa/Horn of Africa which is closer to Arabia than Tunisia. Arabia is also the second longest inhabited area on the planet after East Africa/Horn of Africa.

Beat that, bro.

Yeah , but The first Humans did not cross the yemeni strait, but the sinai one

 

[The SC]

No need to get over excited sunshine, use of emoji are sign of immaturity. However healthy debate is welcomed.

keep the DNA BS aside, lets talk about the real facts here and also from Islamic point of view.

On the Arabian peninsula itself, there are two types of Arabs, one , the original Arabs from Yemen side who are classed to be the most ancient of all, and the other group from Hijaz side who are from the family tree of Prophet Ibraheem (AS) and his lineage down Ismaeel (AS), who by the way wasnt Arab himself. Its is the second group from where the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) came. So geographically speaking, the "original Arabs" are actually further down south towards Yemen in Arabian peninsula, so what to make of other nations like Egyptians, is anyone guess really.


Do you believe the Noah (AS) is the second progenitor of humanity After Adam (AS) due to the great deluge? Do you believe in Quran? Because what I am going to write now, read it carefully

Your one liner about IVC not the world most ancient civilization is utter BS I am afraid. All facts, excavations, carbon dating, artifacts, put IVC at top of the food chain of human civilization. It not only predates Babylon and Egypt, two other "recognized" human civilizations, but it was three times bigger then both of the other two "combined". Below is the world first "recognized" human city, by the archaeologist, not some keyboard warriors, a part of Indus civilization, long before babylon and Egypt, what to say about Arabs!

This is what Allah mentioned in Quran about Bani Isreal


17:3

O descendants of those We carried [in the ship] with Noah. Indeed, he was a grateful servant.


So if we locate, or let me rephrase we can infer through logical conclusions as to where the Noah was from, this will kill all the debate about which land is actually the womb of humanity, all races actually.

There is one very interesting fact about IVC. All major cities found were buried ten feet underground. A typical sign of tsunami/floods.

There is this chap which I think you might be fimilar with called Aristotle. He traced back the origin of Hebrews, back to Indus , and according to him these lot were tribe of Indus, dislodged from their original lands by great deluge. Read this with Quran (17:3) (above), it will all make sense, Insha Allah. And if you really think deep about this particular Quran Surah, the propet Ibraheem (AS) himself who is the father of Hijazi Arabs and also of Bani Israel, his own origin , is actually in Indus. Even the birth place of Ibrhaeem (AS) is now considered to be somewhere in north west Pakistan, in the land of Pakhtoons (the ten tribes of Isreal), before he was ejected from these lands towards what is now middle east by the tyrant Nimrod. Jamrood in KPK province of Pakistan is the place, to be precise.

Even in Hinduism, who are also offshoot of IVC, there is this personality called Ma-Nu. You can research on your own leisure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shraddhadeva_Manu

Nazi German, vicious kind maybe, but they were not fools infact very intelligent lot. They traced back their beginning down to the Indus plains.

If you speak to any Muslim scholar, the maximum time of human history, they will give you max 7000 years from Adam down to current humanity. some might extend to 10000 years at max. Unless you believe we came from Monkeys that is. Within this time frame, there is NO other civilization which fits the bill other then IVC, and its people, which can be classed as the nation of Noah.

There is a clear evolution or transfer of Human civilization going from IVC down to Babylon and to Egypt. East to west. Archaeology supports that, but if some random people want to keep their head burred in their arses due to nationalism and race, it wont change the facts on ground really.

Qura'an also says that there are prophets you know about and others you do not know about!, So let's not speculate..Thanks

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Yeah , but The first Humans did not cross the yemeni strait, but the sinai one

That's actually wrong.



See this peer-reviewed article named "The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia", written by the Oxford professor Michael Petraglia, below.

http://www.academia.edu/471425/The_Evolution_of_Human_Populations_in_Arabia

He is professor of human evolution and prehistory at the University of Oxford’s department of archaeology. He is also the principle investigator for the Palaeodeserts Project, a five-year collaboration between the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities and University of Oxford which has involved more than 30 scholars from a dozen institutions and seven countries.

Other articles:

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/herit...ands-helped-early-man-make-leap-out-of-africa

http://www.livescience.com/47555-stone-artifacts-human-migration.html

Besides Sinai is basically Arabia man. Geographically, culturally and in terms of locals. Just next door too.

Green Arabia's key role in human evolution​

By Sylvia Smith BBC News, Saudi Arabia

• 16 September 2015
  
• From the section Science & Environment

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionWhilst the interior of the Arabian Peninsula is dry today, it was once lush and green
Scientists have been illuminating the vital role played by the Arabian Peninsula in humankind's exodus from Africa. Far from being a desert, the region was once covered by lush vegetation and criss-crossed by rivers, providing rich hunting grounds for our ancestors.

As the sun rises over a vast sand sea in the Arabian Peninsula its first rays illuminate a number of hand axes scattered over the surface of the arid desert.

Nearby, a team of international experts start their day's work picking up and examining remains that are putting a new gloss on the history of human occupation in the area and challenging previously-held theories.

These sites are of global importance... they are the signatures of modern humans moving out of Africa
Ali Ibrahim Al Ghabban, Saudi Commission on Tourism and Natural Heritage

For the first time, the technical expertise of scientists in varied disciplines including palaeontology, geochronology and mapping is being combined to take a holistic look at the role played by Saudi Arabia in the African exodus.

Recent finds are overturning long-held theories by moving it from the periphery right to the centre.

According to Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the first Arab to go into space and currently head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, the multidisciplinary team have uncovered evidence that our human ancestors' first steps out of Africa were made 50,000 years earlier than was commonly believed.

"The Arabian Peninsula has witnessed dramatic changes in climate," he says.

"In the middle Pleistocene this encouraged early man to make for the then-green peninsula as his destination."

Image copyrightCRASSARD ET AL. 2013
Image captionScientists have mapped the ancient river systems that criss-crossed what is now desert
Wet environment
New research by the international team of experts shows that the Peninsula had human settlements for long periods of time and was not merely a transit point, as was previously thought.

The teams have uncovered several settled periods of wet weather with numerous shifts in environments over the last million years.

One advantage of marrying diverse disciplines under one umbrella is that the various strands can be woven in to a comprehensive common story about the mutating Arabian environment and human history.

What appear to be large dried-up water courses when seen from the ground become major palaeo-rivers viewed from space.

Michael Petraglia, who heads the group and is professor of human evolution and prehistory at the School of Archaeology, Oxford University, says the multidisciplinary approach is paying off.

"Innovative space shuttle technology has allowed the mapping of over 10,000 lakes across Arabia including the now barren Nafud desert," he says.

"This finding links directly with the discovery of the remains of elephants, hippos, crocodile and molluscs at a couple of our sites in the Kingdom."

Image copyrightRICHARD DUEBEL
Image captionProf Michael Petraglia is uncovering a rich history of settlement by early modern humans
Exit plan
Indications are that the earliest lakes had fresh, potable water and were in some cases interconnected. The 50-strong team now believe that there were real routes for animals and humans to follow.

While the main routes into Arabia were from the Horn of Africa into south-west Arabia, the other was across the Sinai. From those two points it is believed that humans were following rivers into the interior.

Ali Ibrahim Al Ghabban, deputy director of the Saudi Commission on Tourism and National Heritage says that with no human skeletal remains in Arabia from the time ranges in question, human history depends on other evidence.

Image copyrightRICHARD DUEBEL
"[It is assessed] on the basis of similarities in stone technology between finds in Arabia and Africa," he says.

"It is reasonable to suppose that anatomically modern humans have been present in Arabia for at least 125,000 years, and possibly a little longer."

Most of the early sites consist of little more than stone tool scatters, and Prof Petraglia's team have unearthed hundreds of these implements fashioned for activities associated with hunting such as scraping skins.

This is a significant stage in human evolution with our forebears showing the ability to think ahead.

"It means that at this stage we are able to kill our prey more easily," says Prof Petraglia. "Working stone in this way indicates forethought and planning. It is also what we see in East Africa."

Among the group of experts are rock art specialists whose work, according to Ali Ibrahim Ghabban may well lead to yet more interesting results.

Rock art sites occur in central Saudi Arabia at the Jubbah palaeolake in the Hail region, where there is excellent evidence for Middle Palaeolithic sites along lake shores.

"These sites are of global importance," Ghabban says.

"They are the signatures of modern humans moving out of Africa."

Other field expeditions are looking into world-rated rock art sites in Jubbah, Shuwaymis, and Nejran, with finds examined in multiple laboratory studies.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34170798
Even if we assume that the Sinai route was the correct one (incorrect) they would have reached Arabia (which is basically next door) sooner than Tunisia almost 2000 km away.

 

[Anaoshak]

None of what I have written is trolling. In fact it is pure facts that you as an Iranian obviously have a hard time accepting let alone being able to counter. Moreover there is nothing called an "Arab" haplogroup or genome. All haplogroups predate the notion of ethnic groups by millennia but all Arabs cluster with each other and belong to the same haplogroups. A totally different thing.



J1 and J2 are basically the same haplogroup as they both descend from haplogroup J. Try again.

Anyway everything was explained in post 35.

My posts were thanked by an moderator here and fellow Arabs (Egyptians).

What is funny is the fact that supposed Iranic peoples (who do not share a single language let alone a single culture) cluster much less with each other than Arabs do which is not really strange when geography and history is taken into context.

Don't even bother trying to derail the thread, you are ignored. I wouldn't be surprised if you turned this thread into something else other than what it's about, Which is the genetic make up of North Africans.
And if you know anything about genetics then you wouldn't say that J1 and J2 are the same haplogroup. They have the same Ancestor but they aren't the same and it's stupid to claim that. Which shows your lack of understanding in regards to genetics. And the oldest known J2a samples at present were identified in remains from the Hotu Cave in northern Iran.

Iranians are mixed, no doubt about it and i haven't claimed otherwise. But don't talk about things you have no idea about, there is an inverse relationship of J2a and R1a in Iranian-speaking groups, with an excess of the latter among the eastern Iranian peoples, and of the former among the Persians. But there is no surprise that you fail to know that, as you are the copy-paster and always edit your posts after you post on these boards.

But the most mixed people genetically in the middle east is without a doubt, Arabs. Whether you want to admit that or not, i don't care but this thread even shows that as well. Check the map of the J1 you posted yourself to see how mixed you are.
Since you are Saudi, we can use the same source you use.
Saudi Arabia 14% J-M172 (J2a) Abu-Amero 2009
Iran 3.2% J-M267 (J1) El-Sibai 2009
So you have more of J2a in you than we have J1 according to your own Source. Fact.

But compared to you, i actually don't let myself be blinded by Chauvinism. I try and keep objective.

@Ceylal anyway, good find

Not gonna get into the Indus Valley Civilazation discussion, even though it needs to be reviewed, the academic world is poorly motivated to rewrite history books and that's why it hasn't been looked into properly.