Ancient town, tombs full of weapons found hidden in Arabian oasis

The find of a 4,000-year-old fortified municipality hidden successful an oasis successful modern-day Saudi Arabia reveals really life astatine nan clip was slow changing from a nomadic to an municipality existence, archaeologists said connected Wednesday.

The remains of nan town, dubbed al-Natah, were agelong concealed by nan walled oasis of Khaybar, a greenish and fertile speck surrounded by godforsaken successful nan northwest of nan Arabian Peninsula.

Then an ancient 14.5 kilometer-long wall was discovered astatine nan site, according to investigation led by French archaeologist Guillaume Charloux published earlier this year.

For a caller study published successful nan diary PLOS One, a French-Saudi squad of researchers person provided "proof that these ramparts are organized astir a habitat," Charloux told AFP.

The ample town, which was location to up to 500 residents, was built astir 2,400 BC during nan early Bronze Age, nan researchers said.

Virtual 3D reconstruction of al-Natah, a Bronze Age colony successful Saudi Arabia. Charloux et al., 2024, PLOS One

It was abandoned astir a 1000 years later. "No 1 knows why," Charloux said.

When al-Natah was built, cities were flourishing successful nan Levant region on nan Mediterranean Sea from present-day Syria to Jordan.

Northwest Arabia astatine nan clip was thought to person been barren desert, crossed by pastoral nomads and dotted pinch funeral sites.

That was until 15 years ago, erstwhile archaeologists discovered ramparts making love backmost to nan Bronze Age successful nan oasis of Tayma, to Khaybar's north.

This "first basal discovery" led scientists to look person astatine these oases, Charloux said.

"Slow urbanism"

Black volcanic rocks called basalt concealed nan walls of al-Natah truthful good that it "protected nan tract from forbidden excavations," Charloux said.

But watching nan tract from supra revealed imaginable paths and nan foundations of houses, suggesting wherever nan archaeologists needed to dig.

They discovered foundations "strong capable to easy support astatine slightest one- aliases two-story" homes, Charloux said, emphasizing that location was overmuch much activity to beryllium done to understand nan site.

But their preliminary findings overgarment a image of a 2.6-hectare municipality pinch astir 50 houses perched connected a hill, equipped pinch a wall of its own.

Tombs wrong a necropolis location contained metallic weapons for illustration axes and daggers arsenic good arsenic stones specified arsenic agate, indicating a comparatively precocious nine for truthful agelong ago.

Pieces of pottery "suggest a comparatively egalitarian society," nan study said. They are "very beautiful but very elemental ceramics," added Charloux.

The size of nan ramparts -- which could scope astir 5 meters (16 feet) precocious -- suggests that al-Natah was nan spot of immoderate benignant of powerful section authority.

These discoveries uncover a process of "slow urbanism" during nan modulation betwixt nomadic and much settled colony life, nan study said.

For example, fortified oases could person been successful interaction pinch each different successful an area still mostly populated by pastoral nomadic groups. Such exchanges could person moreover laid nan foundations for nan "incense route" which saw spices, frankincense and myrrh traded from confederate Arabia to nan Mediterranean.

Al-Natah was still mini compared to cities successful Mesopotamia aliases Egypt during nan period.

But successful these immense expanses of desert, it appears location was "another way towards urbanization" than specified city-states, 1 "more modest, overmuch slower, and rather circumstantial to nan northwest of Arabia," Charloux said.

In:
• Archaeologist
• Saudi Arabia