A life-size parade of stone camel carvings in northern Arabia dates back to the stone age, according to new research.
The 21 camel and horse-like figures were found in 2018 in Al-Jouf province, northwest of the Saudi desert. Researchers first believed that the carvings were about 2,000 years old, in part because they resemble the rock reliefs found in the famous stone city of Petra in Jordan.
New dating efforts reveal that the carvings are much older: they date back 8,000 years. They were probably sculpted between 6000 BC and 5000 BC, when the region was wetter and cooler. At the time, the landscape was a meadow dotted with lakes, where camels, horses and their relatives roamed wild, the researchers said. Humans grazed herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, and apparently created great works of art.
The carvings are chiseled into rocks that are naturally found in the site, and often appear to melt with the natural grain of the rock. Its creation would have required tools made of a stone called flint, which would have come from at least 15 miles away. According to researchers from the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the artists who took on the laborious task of cutting each animal would have needed some sort of scaffolding and a couple of weeks to complete it. . National Center for Scientific Research in France and King Saud University.
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“Neolithic communities repeatedly returned to the camel site, meaning that its symbolism and function were maintained for many generations,” said Maria Guagnin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of History. of humanity, who led the new research. The study was published Wednesday (September 15) in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports.
The sizes are quite eroded, so it was difficult to date them. The researchers used several lines of evidence to do so, ranging from tool marks on the rock to radiocarbon dating of the bones found in related rock layers. (Radiocarbon dating uses the radioactive decay of certain carbon molecules to mark time, but requires organic material for analysis.)
The researchers also measured the density of desert varnish on rocks using a technique called portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Desert varnish is a mineral coating that forms on desert rocks over time. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry uses a handheld device to transmit X-rays. in a sample and analyze in a non-destructive way the elements of its surface. Finally, the team used luminescence dating of fragments that had fallen from the rock wall to determine when those fragments fell. This method measures the amount of natural radiation in rocks and can reveal when a rock was first exposed to sunlight or intense heat and how long it has been acquiring radiation from the sun since then.
The new Neolithic date, or stone age, places the carvings in the context of other rock arts made by shepherds in northern Arabia, according to researchers. he said in a statement. These include large stone monuments called mustatil, which are made of sandstone walls that surround a courtyard with a stone platform at one end.
Originally published in Live Science.