Ancient artists created giant camel engravings in the Arabian desert

The ancient inhabitants of the Arab desert created monumental works of rock art on their faces on the rocks, including images of camels in full size, possibly as a way to note water sources.

Michael PetrogliaAt the University of Gryffit in Brisben, Australia, and his colleagues found 176 engravings on 62 panels in the non -food desert in Saudi Arabia in 2023. There are 90 images of camels, another 15 smaller engravings of camels and two camel stunks.

One of the sections of the rock art, which contains a 3-meter Dromedari high, was more than 40 meters upside down and it is impossible for members of the team to safely achieve and examination without the deployment of a drone.

“It would be dangerous to make these engravings,” says Petroglia. “I will never go there.”

Along with camels and emphasizing how much more benign the climate was to be, there are other large animals, including IBEX, horses, gazelles and aurochi. The team also found engraved human figures and face masks.

“This is not just drawing or marking the landscape,” says Petroglia. “These are engravings that would be iconic for them culturally.”

Researchers say that the images may have been cut out to warn all outsiders that the Earth was already busy or acted as a pointer for sources of ephemeral water. New discoveries complement evidence An extensive past lesson Saudi Arabia in prehistoric times.

Indicating the antiquity of the images, natural varnish, a process that, as researchers know, would take about 8,000 years have been formed in engravings. Nevertheless, it was impossible to directly meet with works of art, so the team dug up in deposits under the panels of the rock -art.

There they discovered stone points, beads and ocher, indicating in touch with deceased Neolithic people in Levant, as well as tools that would be used to produce engravings. These objects could be dated and varyed at the ages of 12,800 to 11,400 years.

Excavations were also undertaken in small temporary lakes, called Playas, near the engravings, which ancient people would relied on. Pulture deposits and reports confirmed that the region would be much more humid and green.

But, even in this case, the environment was complex and is unlikely to be a place where people could settle and stay for a long time, says Petroglia.

“These were very mobile people and very innovative people,” he says. “These are complex hunters-gatherers, and definitely not people who simply find out.”

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