Southern Arabia Was Shelter For Ice Age Refugees, Humans Lived Here 10,000 Years Earlier

New evidence suggests that Southern Arabia was a shelter, or refugium, for a chunk of displaced human population 20,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. According to a report, scientists found DNA evidence that backs the theory.

A major part of our planet was rendered uninhabitable during the last Ice Age, however there were still habitable zones were people could take shelter and survive. University of Huddersfield researchers specializing in human DNA analysis have found new proof that Southern Arabia was one of these refugia.  Later on, the population of the Southern Arabia shelters dispersed and flourished in Arabia, Horn of Africa, and maybe even further with the start of the Late Glacial Period about 15,000 years ago.

According to the prevailing view, it was believed that Arabia did not witness a large settlement of people until around 10-11,000 years ago when agriculture developed. However, the recent findings published in journal Scientific Reports show that the territory of Southern Arabia has been lived in longer than what was generally estimated.

The discovery of an Ice Age shelter in Arabia, and the consequent flourishing migration, is based on the analysis of R0a which is a rare mitochondrial DNA lineage found most commonly in Arabia and Horn of Africa. The detailed study of the R0a DNA by Dr Francesca Gandini, a research fellow in archaeogenetics, and her team led to the conclusion that its root was more ancient that previously thought.

Therefore, the researchers suggested the presence of at least one glacial shelter in Southern Arabia during the last Ice Age of the Pleistocene period. According to the study, the post glacial period saw population dispersals from Arabia to eastern Africa about 11,000 years ago. Furthermore, there is also evidence that humans from the R0a haplogroup, meaning ancestral clan or single line of descent, travelled into Europe through the Middle East. The experts also speculated that there might have been a gene flow into the areas of present day Iran, Pakistan and India.