About 12,000 years ago, high up on a cliff in the desert of northern Arabia, an artist (or perhaps artists) was hard at work. Standing on a narrow ledge and with primitive tools, they engraved into the rock an image of a life-sized camel. This wasn’t the first artwork of its kind: in fact, there was already an entire row of fresh camel engravings on the 128 foot high (39 meter) cliff face, below which a shallow lake sparkled in the sunshine.
Over thousands of years, these engravings weathered the elements. They gradually eroded until they were almost invisible and had been forgotten. That is, until our international team discovered them and more than 170 others while on a field trip to the region, which sits near the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in Saudi Arabia, roughly two years ago.
As we explain in a new study, published today in Nature Communications, the engravings would have marked important desert water sources – and demonstrate the resilience and innovation of people who lived in such a harsh, arid environment.
Our earlier research had shown that between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago Arabia was much wetter than it is today. Grasslands had spread into areas that are now desert, and cattle herders used these pastures for their herds. The rock art they left behind is well known from two UNESCO World Heritage sites.
We could see there was also older rock art at these UNESCO sites. It was much larger and more detailed, showing life-sized and naturalistic camels and wild donkeys. But it was not clear how old it was. So in May 2023 we set out to find more of this ancient rock art in the hope of finding clues about its age.
Hellbound and Down 