Archaeologists from the Free University of Brussels (VUB), led by archaeologist Ella Egberts, unearthed ancient stone tools in Iraq's Western Desert. According to Arkeonews.net, the team discovered seven Paleolithic sites in an area measuring 10 by 20 kilometers during their pilot project, collecting over 850 artifacts that include skillfully worked stone axes and Levallois reduction flakes.
"The fieldwork was a huge success," Egberts said, noting the discovery of key sites that will help better understand human behavior in the region, as reported by Turkiyetoday.com. Among the most ancient artifacts uncovered were hand axes estimated to be approximately 1.5 million years old.
The discoveries were focused on the Al-Shabakah area, which was once a large lake during the Pleistocene epoch but is now a dry lake bed with ancient wadis, or dry riverbeds, running through it. The previous humid climate of the region made it a suitable habitat for early humans, whose presence is now evident through the artifacts found on the surface.
"The people in Iraq are incredibly welcoming, and the collaboration has been highly successful," Egberts said, according to Turkiyetoday.com. "They appreciate our work and encourage us to continue," she said of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, as reported by Arkeonews.net.
An essential part of the fieldwork involved training Iraqi archaeology students in geo-archaeology and Paleolithic archaeology. Three Iraqi students accompanied the VUB team in the field. "A workshop at Al-Qadisiyah University, along with lectures in Karbala and Najaf, reached a multidisciplinary academic audience and the general public, inspiring many more students and academics about the Paleolithic period in Iraq," according to Turkiyetoday.com.
Egberts emphasized the importance of these findings for understanding human development and behavior in the region. "The results from Iraq will significantly contribute to the broader knowledge of humans' prehistoric life on the Arabian Peninsula," she stated. The collected artifacts range from hand axes from the Early or Old Paleolithic to Levallois reduction flakes from the Middle Paleolithic.
"The next step will be to secure funding, with which I hope to reconstruct Pleistocene environmental changes and early human presence and behavior in the Western Desert," Egberts said. "We hope to expand our research over a larger territory, systematically selecting samples from all sites and conducting in-depth technological and typological analysis of the artifacts," she stated.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq