Recently discovered, life-sized figures of camels carved prominently onto cliff faces in the northern region of the Arabian Peninsula were likely used to mark routes to water sources in the vast Nafud desert nearly 12,000 years ago, finds a new study involving UCL researchers.
The paper, published in Nature Communications, found that these stone-age carvings indicate that humans settled in the region at a time when seasonal water sources were starting to return at the beginning of the Holocene following the dry conditions of the last ice age.
These large rock engravings were often carved in prominent, highly visible locations near where bodies of water would collect during the rainier winter season. The engravings also mostly show male camels during the mating season, which would have coincided with the winter rains. The researchers believe that because of this, they were used by ancient Neolithic communities to mark the locations of water sources and the routes between them.
Co-lead author Dr Ceri Shipton (UCL Archaeology) said: "The rock art marks water sources and movement routes, possibly signifying territorial rights and intergenerational memory. In a landscape where water meant survival, these life-sized camel carvings were more than art-they were ancient way finders. Etched into stone at key vantage points, they guided early desert dwellers across the shifting sands to the seasonal lifelines that sustained them."
As part of an international expedition in 2023,the researchers identified 62 panels containing 176 engravings at three archaeologically-unexplored locations in the region near Jebel Arnaan, Jebel Mleiha, and Jebel Misma along the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in northern Saudi Arabia.
Of these engravings, 130 depict life-sized depictions of animals, predominantly of camels, but also of other wildlife native to the area including ibex, gazelles and wild donkeys.
These measured as much as 2.2 metres in height and as much as 3 metres in length. Other carvings depicted smaller-sized camels and camel footprints as well as human figures and faces.
Up until now, few archaeological sites have been identified in northern Arabia from this time period. This had led researchers to believe that the region was largely unpopulated between about 20,000 years ago, following the end of the last ice age, known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and about 10,000 years ago when conditions started to grow more humid during the beginning of the Holocene epoch. However, the discovery of these carvings pushes back human occupation of the region by at least two thousand years.
Lead author, Dr Maria Guagnin from Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology said: "These large engravings are not just rock art - they were probably statements of presence, access and cultural identity.
"The carvings would have been significant to the people of the region. Several of the etchings were found carved on top of older ones, indicating that they were maintained and updated over thousands of years. One of the largest etchings was carved into a high cliff with a dangerously narrow ledge to support the artist, underscoring the significance of the images and the effort undertaken to create them."
The team used a combination of radiocarbon dating and luminescence dating in combination with a careful analysis of the geology of the sediment deposits to accurately date the finds and characterise the climate of the region at the time.
Professor Michael Petraglia, of Griffith University and lead of the Green Arabia project, said: "The project's interdisciplinary approach has begun to fill a critical gap in the archaeological record of northern Arabia between the LGM and the Holocene, shedding light on the resilience and innovation of early desert communities."
Additionally, artefacts recovered near the carvings, such as stone points, green pigments and stone beads, resemble others from people of that time who inhabited the Levant region of the Middle East. This indicates that the people living in northern Arabia maintained ongoing connections with the distant region, but the rock art shows they forged their own cultural identity.
The research was carried out by an international team of archaeologists made up of scholars from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), University College London, Griffith University and more as part of the Green Arabia Project. It was done in collaboration with the Heritage Commission and Saudi Ministry of Culture.
