There is much we do not know about the wandering peoples who lived in Saudi Arabia before the Neolithic earned run average . We know there are amazing monumental stone structures and follow cave art from this time , as well as the remains of fireside that indicate temporary habitation , but not a lot else . Now , researchers have uncovered newfangled mysterious carvings that provide fresh perceptiveness into this ancient history .
The carvings were discovered on a rock-and-roll outcropping near the southern bound of the Nafud desert , in north - central Saudi Arabia . So far , nine large life - sized specimens have been identified across five venire . In many instances , the camels have had othercamelscarved over the top of them or their features and proportions improved , suggest the web site was in manipulation and revisited over a long menstruum of fourth dimension .
The animals depicted in these carvings are thought to be a metal money of wild camel that is now out but tramp across the deserts thousands of years ago . To date , scientists have not given this lost species a name , so we do not know much about them . But the artistic creation is pretty detailed , showing preponderantly virile camels complete with thick winter fur that had not molted . These particular alone suggest the art may have been create during the animal ’s furrow season ( between November and March ) .
Other carvings showing domestic animals found on another panelImage Credit: Maria Guagnin et. al 2023
Thecave artappears at a site called Sahout , which has been jazz to archaeologists for a while , but thecamel carvingswere obliterate until lately . That ’s where the employment of Maria Guagnin , a postdoctoral research worker at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology , and colleagues comes in .
“ One of the panels had been flag in a reputation and in a publication of the Saudi Heritage Commission and we wanted to find it to see its setting ” , Guagnin explain to IFLScience .
“ The land site was quite challenging to chance , because the local topography consists of prospicient , low - lying sandstone ridge so there are many possible locations for careen fine art panel , hit it harder to spot . It was also 42 Celsius ( 107.6 Fahrenheit ) on that sidereal day making it physically hard to appraise . ”
According to radiocarbon go out analysis of the two trench and two ancient fireside found nearby , the Sahout site was repeatedly inspect during what is called the late Pleistocene period ( 2.6 million to around 11,700 years ago ) and the Middle Holocene ( 7,000 to 5,000 years ago ) .
“ For the first time we have grounds to advise this rock artistic creation may be older than antecedently thought . It ’s also the first prison term that we found a rock artistic creation website associated with former Holocene and even terminal Pleistocene archeological deposits ” , Guagnin add .
There are not many archeologic internet site see to this former stop , sorock artlike this may help researchers find similar ones in the future for comparison . This may be because they share similar style of carving or because they were draw to alike lineament in the landscape that also appeal to former rock prowess Lord .
Although more research is need to learn the import of the camels at Sahout , Guagnin has already made connections between these specimen and others .
“ To me what ’s interesting is that we have a panel with low substitute – potentially providing a nexus to reliefs such as at the Camel Site . But there are also lashings of panel in 2D , and lots of panels with later / Neolithic rock candy art . So this permit us for the first time to link a site to the Camel Site reliefs and also to [ other ] Neolithic rock ‘n’ roll artistry sites such as Jubbah and Shuwaymis . ”
“ This help us figure out how honest-to-god individual stone art phases might be . This mix of unlike styles is also our first clue that the large camel engraving might be older than the Neolithic . ”
The newspaper was published inArchaeological Research in Asia .
