Despite being the only bridge early hominin species could have crossed to enter Eurasia, the Arabian Peninsula bears little to no evidence of early human occupation. Subverting expectations, a recent excavation in the Nefud Desert found tools dated to different stages of hominin evolution. It turns out that early humans moved in and out of the peninsula whenever the climate allowed them to do so. We know a good deal about how early hominins — the branch of our evolutionary tree that split from chimps and bonobos up to seven million years ago — moved around their place of origin in eastern Africa. Fossils indicate they eventually made it to Eurasia through the Levant area of western Asia. This luscious green region, located on the easternmost edges of the Mediterranean, served our ancestors
