Discovery of 80,000-year-old tools at Jebel Faya in Sharjah

In the rolling desert landscapes of Sharjah, a remarkable discovery is helping rewrite what we know about early human history.

- Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

A groundbreaking study, recently published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, a leading peer-reviewed journal by Springer Nature, has confirmed that early humans once lived in the Jebel Faya region around 80,000 years ago - adding a vital new layer to a much older story stretching back 210,000 years.

These new findings go far beyond a timestamp. They reveal how early Homo sapiens didn't just pass through Arabia — they adapted to its unpredictable climate, inhabited its landscapes, and left behind clues that speak of innovation, resilience, and survival.

The broader Faya Palaeolandscape, the ancient environment surrounding Jebel Faya, emerges not only as a waypoint in human migration but as a long-term settlement — one that supported life, adaptation, and cultural advancement across millennia.

The study is the result of an ambitious international collaboration led by the Sharjah Archaeology Authority (SAA) in partnership with the University of Tubingen and University of Freiburg in Germany, and Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.

The project was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.

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