12,000-year-old animal rock carvings have been discovered in Saudi Arabia

Huge rock carvings of dozens of animals have been found in Saudi Arabia’s Nigod Desert. They date back 12,000 years, and are 2,000 years larger than the earliest evidence of human occupations. The finding has been published in the magazine Natural Communications.

Before this discovery, the first human presence in the region was recorded in the Neolithic scene 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic, with activity peaking between 7,600 and 6,800 years ago, the end of the Holocene wet period, when large stone hunting traps, ritual structures, ritual structures and carved animal art and figures of formal figures. Since the Holocene wet period, few archaeological materials have been found on the Arabian Peninsula. The environment is very dry and there are no outdated archaeological sites, and people believe that human occupations do not exist.

In 2022, the Sahout Rock Art website was discovered. Archaeologists have documented 18 carvings of camels, ibex, gazelle, wild clocks and aurora, over 6 feet tall, carved on sandstone boulders and outcrops. However, the test excavations at the time were unable to associate any outdated materials with rock art.

The public reported three other camel boards to the heritage authorities in the area south of the Sahout print. Archaeologists documented newly discovered panels and found more panels on the surface of boulders and cliffs, some of which were apart from inaccessible locations. The largest recording panel is accessible only by climbing up the cliff. The engraver then has to stand on the widest place, less than 20 inches wide downwardly tilted ledge. Perched on this tiny ledge, 125 feet high on the cliff surface, carved 23 life-sized camels and stretched up to 9 feet high on two cliff surfaces, forming a huge panel over 75 feet long. Archaeologists must record it using drones.

Overall, the researchers recorded 62 rock art panels, including 176 prints, of which 130 were realistic and realistic descriptions of camels, IBEX, Equids, Gazelles and one Aurochs. The first indicator of the remarkable age of these panels is the natural dark rock varnish that covers the sandstone surface and embeds itself in the engraving line. After the sandstone was carved, the varnish took more than 8,000 years in form.

Archaeologists dug four trenches to find archaeological deposits related to the rock art that can be dated. These excavations produced more than 1,200 lithologic (small rock pieces in the carving) and 16 bone fragments that could date radiocarbon. Directly under the carving of two life-sized camels, excavation discovered a clear strata that determined that the camels must be carved no later than the fourth layer of deposition. They discovered lithology and a stone pecking tool that might be used to engrave art.

In the era of radiocarbon, luminous dates and stratigraphic analysis led archaeologists to conclude that some rock art was carved about 12,000 years ago. Since the last Glacier Maximum (LGM), the artist who actually risked his life to carve huge animals onto the cliff face was the first inhabitant of Northern Arabia.

These pioneers were able to flourish under the drought conditions of the late Pleistocene and due to seasonal water bodies. The presence of key lithologic artifacts such as El Khiam and Helwan Points, as well as decorations of green pigments and dental beads, suggests that these human groups remain in touch with their Levantese neighbors during this period. [Pre-Pottery Neolithic]cross a long distance. However, Jebel Arnaan and Jebel Misma’s engravers have their own cultural and symbolic identities. They adapt to environments of water that are only temporarily available, involving the complex activity of routes connecting different water sources. Unlike their Levantine neighbors, they made a huge rock art surrounding desert animal symbolism: camels. These huge images used to mark water sources and their routes between them, perhaps providing impressive visual access while also commemorating these extraordinary desert adaptive groups over the millennium.