<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Dellmour, Rudolf W.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Coco, Emily</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Samawi, Osama</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Al Kindi, Mohammed</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Al Mahrooqi, Ali</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bebber, Michelle R.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Eren, Metin I.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Harzhauser, Mathias</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Garba, Roman</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Rose, Jeffrey I.</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Stone and water governed early human settlement of the desert</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Nature</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2026</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2026/10/28</style></date></pub-dates></dates><urls><web-urls><url><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11180-5</style></url></web-urls></urls><isbn><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">0028-08361476-4687</style></isbn><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">&lt;p&gt;&lt;meta charset=&quot;UTF-8&quot; /&gt;Models of early human dispersal rely on climate to predict where populations could settle, with freshwater assumed to govern the timing and geography&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a aria-label=&quot;Reference 1&quot; data-test=&quot;citation-ref&quot; data-track=&quot;click&quot; data-track-action=&quot;reference anchor&quot; data-track-label=&quot;link&quot; href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11180-5#ref-CR1&quot; id=&quot;ref-link-section-d30334805e609&quot; title=&quot;Timmermann, A. &amp;amp; Friedrich, T. Late Pleistocene climate drivers of early human migration. Nature 538, 92–95 (2016).&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a aria-label=&quot;Reference 2&quot; data-test=&quot;citation-ref&quot; data-track=&quot;click&quot; data-track-action=&quot;reference anchor&quot; data-track-label=&quot;link&quot; href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11180-5#ref-CR2&quot; id=&quot;ref-link-section-d30334805e612&quot; title=&quot;Beyer, R. M., Krapp, M., Eriksson, A. &amp;amp; Manica, A. Climatic windows for human migration out of Africa in the past 300,000 years. Nat. Commun. 12, 4889 (2021).&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;, particularly across the Saharo-Arabian arid belt, where humid windows episodically opened corridors into the desert interior&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a aria-label=&quot;Reference 3&quot; data-test=&quot;citation-ref&quot; data-track=&quot;click&quot; data-track-action=&quot;reference anchor&quot; data-track-label=&quot;link&quot; href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11180-5#ref-CR3&quot; id=&quot;ref-link-section-d30334805e616&quot; title=&quot;Breeze, P. S. et al. Palaeohydrological corridors for hominin dispersals in the Middle East ∼250–70,000 years ago. Quat. Sci. Rev. 144, 155–185 (2016).&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;. Yet Pleistocene dispersals into &amp;lsquo;Green Arabia&amp;rsquo; were brief and geographically constrained&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a aria-label=&quot;Reference 4&quot; data-test=&quot;citation-ref&quot; data-track=&quot;click&quot; data-track-action=&quot;reference anchor&quot; data-track-label=&quot;link&quot; href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11180-5#ref-CR4&quot; id=&quot;ref-link-section-d30334805e620&quot; title=&quot;Groucutt, H. S. et al. Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years. Nature 597, 376–380 (2021).&quot;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a aria-label=&quot;Reference 5&quot; data-test=&quot;citation-ref&quot; data-track=&quot;click&quot; data-track-action=&quot;reference anchor&quot; data-track-label=&quot;link&quot; href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11180-5#ref-CR5&quot; id=&quot;ref-link-section-d30334805e623&quot; title=&quot;Rose, J. I. et al. A failed human expansion out of Africa 100,000 years ago. Preprint at Research Square 
                https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8751643/v1
                
               (2026).&quot;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;, a pattern not explained by water availability alone. Here we show, from an approximately 1,500-km geoarchaeological survey through&amp;nbsp;the Rub&amp;rsquo; al Khali of Arabia, the largest sand sea in the world, that the availability of stone for tool manufacture operated as an independent factor on early human settlement. Palaeolake deposits were recorded at 55 of 125 localities investigated, yet no lithic artefacts and no knappable raw materials were found along the transect, with ground-surface visibility exceeding 95%, despite abundant freshwater and contemporary occupation at the desert margins. Spatial modelling of the Peninsula supports the inference that settlement tracked the co-occurrence of water and lithic raw materials rather than water alone. Across the Peninsula, 57% of water-accessible terrain lies on formations that lack knappable stone and adding raw-material availability raises discrimination of known site locations from an area under the curve of 0.695&amp;nbsp;to&amp;nbsp;0.768. Convergent patterns from Africa, North America and Asia indicate that the constraint is not peculiar to Arabia. Dispersal models that omit raw-material geology may systematically overestimate the habitable range of stone-tool-dependent populations.&lt;/p&gt;
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