7000 Years Old Stone Monuments Of Saudi Arabia

Rectangular Stone Monument "Mustatil"
(Image credit: 1- APAAME, APAAME_20171027_DLK-0298)

According to a study published in The Holocene, researchers from the Max Planck Society together with Saudi experts, conducted the first detailed study of 'mustatil' stone structures discovered in the Arabian Desert. These vast stone structures piled into rectangular shape are some of the oldest large scale structures in the world. They give insights into how early pastoralists managed to survive in the harsh environment of semiarid Arabia.

 

In the last decade Saudi Arabian archeology has witnessed rapid development which resulted in some amazing discoveries ranging from early hominin sites hundreds of thousands of years old to sites just a few hundred years old. One of the most mysterious archaeological find in western Arabia is the discovery of millions of stone structures, where ancient people have piled rocks to make different kinds of structures, ranging from burial tombs to hunting traps. One enigmatic form consists of vast rectangular shapes. Archaeologists gave these mysterious structures the name 'mustatils,' which is Arabic for rectangle.

Mustatils are only found in northwest Saudi Arabia. They had been previously recognized from satellite imagery, it had been speculated that they might be ancient, perhaps dating back to the Neolithic time. Through field survey and satellite imagery, experts now have considerably extended knowledge on these enigmatic stone structures.

More than one hundred new mustatils have been found around the southern borders of the Nefud Desert, between the cities of Ha'il and Tayma, joining the hundreds previously identified from studies of Google Earth imagery, particularly in the Khaybar area. The team found that these structures typically consist of two large platforms, connected by parallel long walls, sometimes extending over 600 meters in length. These long walls are very low, have no obvious openings. Interestingly small stone tools were also found around the mustatils, suggesting that the structures were not simply utilitarian buildings for water or animal storage.

At one site the team radiocarbon dated the charcoal found from one of the platforms and made a surprising discovery that these mustatils were constructed 7000 thousand years ago. An assemblage of animal bones was also recovered, which included both wild animals and possibly domestic cattle, At another mustatil experts discovered a rock engraved with strange geometric patterns.

(Image credit: APAAME, APAAME_20171027_DLK-0899)

Interestingly several of the structures were built right next to each other, which suggests that their construction was a kind of social activity or perhaps they were sites of animal sacrifices, or feasts.

 

7,000 years ago Northern Arabia was very different than today. Rainfall was higher, so much of the area was covered by grassland and there were scattered lakes. Pastoralist groups thrived in this environment, yet it would have been a challenging place to live, with droughts a constant rsk. Experts hypothesize that mustatils were built as a social mechanism to live in this challenging landscape. 

These structures are uniquely large scale for this early period constructed more than two thousand years before pyramids began to be constructed in Egypt.  Over 1,000 of them, clustered in groups of two to 19, are spread out across a ritual landscape covering 200,000 square kilometres. They range from 20 to over 600 metres in length, with walls that are 1.2 metres high.

Mustatils offer fascinating insights into how humans have lived in challenging environments and experts are hopeful that the future studies will prove to be extremely useful at understanding these ancient human societies.

Source:

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History