Rock Carvings in Saudi Arabian Desert Could Change What We Know About Human History
Somewhere between 11,400 to 12,800 years ago, some hunter-gatherers travelling from the Levant in the north stopped by near the south of the Nefud Desert, to make some art. Using pecking stones, bladelets, stone disc beads, hammerstones, and scrapers, they sketched portraits of antlers drinking from watering holes, wild gazelles roaming around, camels mating, and illustrious women portraying a variety of moods. In total, around 130 rock art pieces were discovered in the desert. Researchers documented the findings in the journal Nature Communications, also ruminating over the various puzzle pieces of human history.
Much like a painting on glass, these drawings were also smoothed out with dark rock varnish, some of them colored with the crayon of green copper pigment, likely collected from the Red Sea, located about 200 miles away. It was previously believed among archaeologists and scientists that around 12,000 years ago, the presence of humans in this region was strongly linked to the humid phases of its climate. At the end of the Ice Age, between 10,000 and 25,000 years ago, the extreme cold conditions triggered a widespread dune mobilisation and population abandonment driven by the extreme cold conditions and the arid environment of the Middle East region.
Then came the “Fertile Crescent,’ during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Considerable humidity and moisture in the air paved the way for more favorable conditions for human settlers. Plants burst out from the soil. Following this period, the Holocene Humid period witnessed the peak of the human population exploding in the region. Chains of palaeolake deposits and hints of pollen archived in the desert sands provided clues that indicated increased rainfall and vegetation.
With the dawn of human civilization, as the sunlight hit the rocks and sandstone cliffs of the Arabian Desert, these settlers and travellers started doing what humans typically do to express their thoughts and emotions: creating art. From large hunting traps called “desert kites” to rectangular ritual structures called “mustatlis,” their rock art featured a mosaic of beauty and timekeeping. Stylised human figures, carvings, and sculptures depicted a transition, indicating that their art style underwent evolution over time. All the art pieces were investigated using different dating techniques, including the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating.
According to ABC News, this art is the “earliest evidence of human re-population of the area after it was deserted in the last Ice Age.” Since the sandstones were too degraded to reach the ledges safely, the art pieces were documented with the help of drones. Before the discovery of these rock art carvings, the study's primary objective was to test whether the rock art panels and archaeological deposits could reveal some important information about the early humans’ occupations during this humid period.
Apart from the various wild animals of that age and illustrations of freshwater corridors, the rock art panels mainly depicted camel figurines. Most of the camel art pieces depicted the animals with a bulging neckline and straining neck muscles, making rumbling noises, indicating that the feral male camels were mating in the wet season. Some of them had rounded eye expressions, while others had cartoon-like eyes. But mainly, these camels represented that the markers were where water pools were located at the time.
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