Saudi Arabia - Prehistoric Stone Structures in Saudi Arabia

01 Rajajil standing stones 29°48'46.33"N 40°13'10.83"E 02 Harrat Khaybar 25°20'15.29"N 39°20'25.01"E 03 Harrat Rahat (Madinah Region) 23°46'21.55"N 40°2'10.95"E 04 Harrat Kishb 23°23'56.40"N 39°50'58.56"E 05 Harrat Lunayyir 25°16'8.58"N 37°31'38.96"E 06 Rohab (Tabuk region) 27°25'23.07"N 36°45'22.78"E 07 Ha’it oasis 25°59'55.25"N 40°29'30.00"E 08 Harrat Nawasif early kites 21°19'8.40"N 42°33'43.20"E 09 Hisma 28°25'23.55"N 35°43'50.12"E 10 Al-Faw, piedmont of Jabal Tuwaiq 19°45'17.23"N 45°10'9.43"E Previously misunderstood as a perpetual desert landscape unfavourable to human development, the role of the Arabian Peninsula in the origin of human history is being progressively unveiled. The first humans left Africa to Arabia around 1.7 million years ago, and the first human communities of the peninsula date from the Lower Palaeolithic, which lasted in Arabia until ca. 200,000 years ago. This period characteristically witnessed the production of the Acheulean lithic industry, with large bifacial artefacts (hand-axes and cleavers) as well as simpler tools (choppers). The Middle Palaeolithic, between 125,000 and 55,000 years ago, has left more remains in Arabia, most of which are dated. The episodic peopling of Arabia during the Middle Palaeolithic is associated with well-established humid phases in which increased rainfall facilitated the expansion of both freshwater systems and mammals’ population. On the contrary, the Upper Palaeolithic, characterized by the development of blade tool industries in the Levant and Europe, seems almost unrepresented in the Arabian Peninsula. The absence of blade industries in Arabia, however, might also be due to poor preservation conditions, or result from a lack of research. Human presence in the Peninsula seems to thrive again from the beginning of the “Arabian Humid Period” in the Early Holocene, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, when new stone tools, like projectile weapons and arrowheads, were created, paving the way to the Neolithization process. From the mid-7th millennium BCE, Arabia witnessed the progressive rise of pastoralism, the domestication of donkeys for transportation, and the emergence of unprecedented artistic practices (rock art). The Chalcolithic period describes the transition period induced by the “Neolithic revolution” which led to the Bronze Age, beginning around the 4th millennium BCE, with the first civilizations developing in Mesopotamia and in the Peninsula (around oases such as Qurayyah, Tayma and Dilmun). The later Early Iron Age, dated between 1300 and 300 BCE, coincides in Arabia with the domestication of camels and the emergence of ancient kingdoms along the frankincense caravan road, further strengthened during the Late Iron Age, from 300 BCE to 300 CE.