“A Wetter Arabia: Clues From Ancient Rock Art”

NASA does the Arabian Peninsula — I doubt that many people today would describe this area as a “savannah.” Yet that’s what it once was. (NASA photograph; public domain)

It appears that, prior to approximately 4000 BC, the Arabian peninsula was considerably wetter and greener than it is today:

http://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2016/07/09/a_wetter_arabia_clues_from_ancient_rock_art_109685.html

This is interesting in itself.

I also note with interest, though, how the archaeologists are piecing this prehistory together: They haven’t, as a matter of fact, found the animal bones that would confirm their thesis — though their argument seems pretty solid without such tangible paleobiological evidence. Rather, they’re extrapolating from other kinds of data, inferring the necessary existence of such animals and such a different environment indirectly, from other kinds of information.

This sort of thing often occurs in studies of the distant past. And I can’t help thinking, in this regard, about arguments concerning the historicity of the Book of Mormon. The cases aren’t identical, of course. They’re quite different in many ways. But not altogether.

“A Wetter Arabia: Clues from Ancient Rock Art”