So far, little is thought about the people living in northwestern Saudi Arabia during this era. Neolithic – a period traditionally defined as the moment when humans took control of food production and began to settle in communities engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry.
This fragmentary evidence available, suggested traditional ideas – of small, fighting bands, always moving across barren lands – needed reconsideration.
Now the Australian-led team has released latest research on monumental structures that we call “standing stone circles.” The discoveries help rewrite what we learn about the people who lived on this land between 6,500 and 8,000 years ago.
Our evidence reveals what they ate, what tools they used, and even what jewelry they wore. This leads us to conclude that these people didn’t struggle a lot in any respect, but quite found complex and strategic ways to survive on this earth for millennia.
Design
For the past five years, our research team has been studying 431 stone circles in the Al-Ula and Khaybar regions of northwestern Saudi Arabia as a part of an ongoing project sponsored by Royal Commission on AlUlaOf the 431 structures, 52 have been studied in detail and 11 have been excavated.
Our latest discoveries come from chosen buildings found on Harrat ‘Uwayrid, a volcanic plateau formed over millennia. The dense clusters of standing stone circles on Harrat show us how complex these mobile pastoral communities were. We have also recovered stays left by the people who lived in these buildings for over 1,000 years.
RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney.
We used a variety of contemporary and traditional techniques to beat the practical constraints of working in such a distant and rugged landscape. Aerial surveys using a helicopter helped us discover examples of habitation across 40,000 square kilometres of basalt and sand desert. Drones were also used to attract site plans, a few of which were almost three hectares in size.
More than simply a house
Our’s is the first published evidence of domestic architecture from this era. These buildings are solid, 4 to eight meters wide, and are formed by two concentric rows of enormous stones set one behind the other in a circle.
RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney.
We theorize that the space created between the two rows of stone acted as a foundation for picket posts driven between the rows to support the roof of the house. Another slab in the middle supported a central picket post attached to it.
Based on the tools and animal stays found, we imagine that the inhabitants probably threw animal skins over the top of the structure to surround it and create a sort of roof.
These structures – which we expect of more as shelters than “homes” – were used for all styles of activities. Inside, we found evidence of stone toolmaking, cooking, and eating, in addition to lost and broken tools used to work animal skins.
A diverse palate
Our evaluation of animal bones found inside the structures shows that these people ate mostly domesticated species, akin to goats, sheep, and smaller numbers of cattle, supplemented by wild species akin to gazelles and birds.
This means they will respond flexibly to changes in their environment, making them resilient at a time when climate change may impact water and vegetation availability.
This adaptability also prolonged to their use of plants. left behind a number of grindstones – slabs of basalt that have been worn flat by grinding wild grasses and local plants.
RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney.
Nomadic or mobile?
We assume that these people didn’t stay in one place because they lived in buildings that might be partially dismantled and moved. Goats and sheep also need fresh pastures and water to survive.
That said, these people spent enough time at each site to justify the time and effort it took to acquire and manipulate blocks of basalt weighing as much as a ton each. This suggests that they returned to those sites repeatedly for a whole bunch of years, if not longer than 1,200 years.
They left behind materials gathered from near and far. While local basalt was sufficient for on a regular basis tools, the best materials made out of it chert (hard sedimentary rock) was transported to Harrat Uwayrid to provide high-quality arrowheads, drills and scrapers.
RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney.
They also collected red stone to crushed into pigment.It is feasible that it was used to create rock art or to color bodies and skins.
Small shells were brought from the Red Sea (about 120 kilometers away) to be made into beads. Other items we found included bracelets and pendants carved and polished from exotic stone.
RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney.
Trade in the Levant
It seems likely that these people formed a culturally distinct group that was in contact with their neighbours in the northern Levant, a region that includes present-day Jordan, Palestine, and Syria.
Our findings suggest they imported animals and stone tool technologies. Some of the tools resemble those found at earlier sites in Jordan, suggesting they traded in them or learned to make them further north.
Domesticated goats and sheep also got here from further afield, since there have been no wild versions of those animals in the area. Everything they brought was usefully incorporated into their way of life to suit the lands they already knew so well.
Our work is barely just starting to fill the gaps in our knowledge of what life was like in northwestern Arabia, helping to reposition it – and its people – inside the broader context of the region.