1600 Massive Neolithic Monuments Sit In The Deserts Of Saudi Arabia
These stone ritualistic structures give a glimpse of a land of large cattle herds and plentiful water
“By day the hot sun fermented us; and we were dizzied by the beating wind. At night we were stained by dew, and shamed into pettiness by the innumerable silences of stars.”
― T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
I recently read T.E. Lawrence’s book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, about his time in WWI as a British liaison working with the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. It is a story of politics, war, betrayal, failure, and triumph, but also a tale of geography.
The epic's chief character is the desert itself. Its lack of water, blazing sun, endless sand dunes, and long, infinitely repeating landscapes require a special type of skill to navigate. Moreover, Lawrence’s Arab allies only gained this ability through generations of experience.
This idea of living in such inhospitable conditions made me ask a simple question: Why would someone first settle here? Researchers may have answered this question about a hundred years after Lawrence’s exploits in the region.
Archeologists have been studying a series of structures within the deserts of Saudi Arabia, and their size and quantity are staggering.
In an interview with the BBC, University of Western Australia archeologist Jane McMahon says 1600 of these structures are spread over 300,000 square kilometers. Some are also considered 7,000 years old and stretch the length and width of football fields.
Their age, number, and size challenge conventional wisdom, which sees this region as sparsely populated until the Bronze Age after 4,000 BC.
These stone structures are called “mustatil,” which means rectangle in Arabic, and describe their uniform shape. They also hint that this desert looked much different long ago.
These mustatil tell the story of a land bustling with people and large herds of animals. Although there is no written text, just bones, and stones in the sand, where archeologists have begun to excavate.
Long-Standing But Only Recently Examined
“Ranging from 20–600m in length, these monumental structures were constructed from locally available stone…Distinguished by a rectangular to sub-rectangular form; mustatils are characterized by two parallel platforms; linked by perpendicularly set long-walls, creating a large open courtyard.”
— Kennedy M, Strolin L, McMahon J, Franklin D, Flavel A, Noble J, et al. (2023) Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’ in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla. PLoS ONE 18(3): e0281904
Archeologist Mellissa Kennedy and her research team from the University of Western Australia, in their paper above, say some of these mustatils were originally noticed in the 1970s, but intensive study only began in 2017. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia opened the area to researchers around this time.
A research group called Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Project (AAKSA), led by University of Sydney archeologist Hugh Thomas, began cataloging these mustatils using helicopters, remote sensing, satellites, and excavation. They soon learned these sites filled the northern and western deserts of Saudi Arabia, counting at least 1600 of them.
In their research paper in the archeological journal Antiquity, Thomas and his associates say the standard mustatil consists of the following components: “a head, courtyard, long walls, a base and, in some instances, a series of associated features including circular cells and orthostats.” An orthostat is a stone that stands upward.
Thomas and his group say the head usually comprises piles of unworked local stone. It often has a single rectangular chamber — usually in the center — which connects to the courtyard via a doorway. Another entranceway is present in the base.
Sometimes, these doorways have been found purposefully blocked. Thomas and his associates believe this points to a “decommissioning” of the mustatil. Furthermore, the narrow entrances may indicate a procession of sorts taking place. Also, mustatil tend to cluster in groups.
Archeologist Mellissa Kennedy got a closer view by hand excavating a mustatil and its associated features. She found some interesting things buried inside.
A Physical Excavation Of A Mustatil
In 2019, Kennedy and a group of archeologists traveled to the site IDIHA-0008222 in AlUla County, Saudi Arabia. In the head of this mustatil they found a chamber constructed of unworked stone, with a small, blocked entranceway leading west towards the courtyard. It contained three standing stones in various parts of the room.
Kennedy’s group believes this room went through four phases of use.
The first phase included building the chamber and setting the stones. Two small hearths were set up, and some poorly preserved animal remains (bones and teeth) were found. This area was then covered with orange-like sand.
The second phase involved more stone construction on top of the orange sand and the deposit of animal bones, including a domestic male goat near stone A. After this event, the offerings were buried.
The room’s third phase involved two separate events of use, which included deposits of cranial pieces, teeth, and sections of animal horns. Over one hundred remains were found from the second event, then buried in sand and rock. The room’s entrance was also sealed.
A final fourth phase likewise included two separate offering events, which involved cranial sections of animals, horns, and teeth buried in clay.
Another chamber was also found in the base, which contained animal teeth, horns, and pieces of skulls. Overall, 266 remains were found between the two chambers. These included the following:
Eighty-nine domestic cattle remains.
Over a hundred bovine remains, which might be domestic cattle or wild aurochs (ancestors of domestic cattle).
Five domestic goats and nineteen undetermined caprines (possibly wild goats or antelopes).
The remains of a gazelle and five small ruminants (sheep).
The specific animals and their parts appear to have been chosen well. No mandibles are found, and only certain sections of the skull appear. Older animals are preferred, and they tend to choose males over females. Many teeth are also present.
Radiocarbon dating indicates this site was in use from 5307–5002 to 5056–4755 BC.
However, one surprise remained.
A Small Room And A Human Skeleton
A small rectangular chamber Kennedy and her associates refer to as a “cist” was found to the north of the head of the mustatil. Rubble from a rock overhang and some the sandstone slabs around the room collapsed on it. Once removed, human remains were discovered.
The bones were found with no other artifacts, and the skeleton was highly fragmented. These are the remains of a middle-aged man, around forty years old. The bones indicate he suffered from osteoarthritis and possibly had disc herniation, but no visible cause of death could be determined.
The researchers believe this tomb was set up after the mustatil was decommissioned because the rock used to create the cist appears to cut into the head of the mustatil itself. While the grave is interesting, the original structure had a different purpose.
A Pilgrimage Site For Herders
Thomas and his group explain that a mustatil wasn’t a site occupied year-round. Kennedy agrees, seeing these rectangular structures as ritualistic pilgrimage sites. They also give us hints about their creators.
In their research paper, Kennedy and her team say a “a single sub-adult bovine would have resulted in approximately 100–120kg of meat and 7 L (liters) of blood.” The team believes this could have fed 600 people, or at least a hundred if all consumed significant amounts of meat over days.
The researchers also link the feasting and building of the mustatil to tighter community ties. According to Kennedy and her team:
“This potential communal building programme, with the deposition of selected offerings and possible ritual slaughter and feasting may have been undertaken as a means of developing and maintaining social cohesion amongst the differing nomadic pastoral communities of the region, as well as defining territories and access to pastoral resources. It also suggests a highly complex and structured social system, in which animals held both an important symbolic and subsistence role.”
While they see the standing stones in the main chamber as unique versus other mustatil they’ve studied, the temporary nature of the rectangular structures is more common. Kennedy and her team believe each was only used for a few generations.
This explains why 1600 mustatil dot the landscape. They were used for a period, then decommissioned, requiring more construction, and the cycle continued.
This ritualistic nature of building and feasting also points to another interesting component — large herds and a populous community. But how could they exist in a desert?
A Different Version Of The Arabian Peninsula
The Holocene Humid Period was ten and six thousand years ago when the Arabian peninsula was transformed due to excess rain. While the exact dates when this era ended are debated, Kennedy and her team believe mustatil creation falls within this wet period.
They note that cattle must be watered every two to three days, and the numerous sacrifices at mustatil across the region point to large herds. Not to mention the labor forces required to build the structures. So, it was highly unlikely these ancient people lived in a desert.
It’s much more reasonable to picture them in a land with plentiful pasture and water for their herds. With this in mind, let’s circle back to T.E. Lawrence and my original “simple” question.
Why would someone choose to live in such an inhospitable environment as a desert? Well, perhaps it wasn’t always a desert. As the landscape gradually changes, the inhabitants build resilience and learn the lay of the land.
Only a few of the 1600 mustatil have been excavated so far. But these ritualistic sites will paint a far different image of this region than today's sandy desert.
-Originally posted on Medium 3/10/24