Huge Camel Carvings Dating Back 12,000 Years Marked Wet Season Oases Like Cultural Road Signs

Huge Camel Carvings Dating Back 12,000 Years Marked Wet Season Oases Like Cultural Road Signs

Huge Camel Carvings Dating Back 12,000 Years Marked Wet Season Oases Like Cultural Road Signs The outline of a camel etched into stone near a seasonal water source – Credit: Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project 12,000-year-old engravings of desert animals like the dromedary camel were used by ancient Arabian tribes to mark where water could be found, a new discovery hypothesizes. An international team of archaeologists discovered more than 60 rock art panels containing 176 engravings in three previously unexplored areas: Jebel Arnaan, Jebel Mleiha, and Jebel Misma, along the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in northern Saudi Arabia. The engravings mainly depict camels, ibex, equids, gazelles, and auroch in 130 life-sized and naturalistic figures, some measuring up to three 10 feet long and more than two 6 feet high. The researchers say the rock art dates to between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago, a period when seasonal water bodies reappeared in the region following extreme aridity. They e…