Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec;30(12):1767-1779.
doi: 10.1177/0959683620950449. Epub 2020 Aug 17.

Monumental landscapes of the Holocene humid period in Northern Arabia: The mustatil phenomenon

Huw S Groucutt  1   2   3 , Paul S Breeze  4 , Maria Guagnin  2 , Mathew Stewart  1   2   3 , Nick Drake  4 , Ceri Shipton  5   6 , Badr Zahrani  7 , Abdulaziz Al Omarfi  7 , Abdullah M Alsharekh  8 , Michael D Petraglia  2   9   10
Affiliations

Monumental landscapes of the Holocene humid period in Northern Arabia: The mustatil phenomenon

Huw S Groucutt et al. Holocene. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Between 10 and six thousand years ago the Arabian Peninsula saw the most recent of the 'Green Arabia' periods, when increased rainfall transformed this generally arid region. The transition to the Neolithic in Arabia occurred during this period of climatic amelioration. Various forms of stone structures are abundant in northern Arabia, and it has been speculated that some of these dated to the Neolithic, but there has been little research on their character and chronology. Here we report a study of 104 'mustatil' stone structures from the southern margins of the Nefud Desert in northern Arabia. We provide the first chronometric age estimate for this type of structure - a radiocarbon date of ca. 5000 BC - and describe their landscape positions, architecture and associated material culture and faunal remains. The structure we have dated is the oldest large-scale stone structure known from the Arabian Peninsula. The mustatil phenomenon represents a remarkable development of monumental architecture, as hundreds of these structures were built in northwest Arabia. This 'monumental landscape' represents one of the earliest large-scale forms of monumental stone structure construction anywhere in the world. Further research is needed to understand the function of these structures, but we hypothesise that they were related to rituals in the context of the adoption of pastoralism and resulting territoriality in the challenging environments of northern Arabia.

Keywords: Neolithic; archaeology; climate change; human-environment interaction; pastoralism; territoriality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The distribution of mustatils in the study area, the southern margins of the Nefud Desert. The red dot shows the location of the dated mustatils (see Figure 4 for detail).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Examples of groups of mustatils in the southern Nefud. They appear as faint rectangular shapes. Note variable landscape positions and orientations, and frequent evidence for later alteration. Clockwise from top left: (1) three parallel east-west orientated mustatils, (2) a broadly linear arrangement of four mustatils along jebels, (3) five mustatils from just north of a playa in the area shown in Figure 4, (4) two small and one large mustatils from the area shown in Figure 4. The large mustatil is the largest such structure recorded anywhere in Arabia. The southwestern end of this mustatil has been re-used to build both a keyhole and a pendant, among other structures.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Two examples of mustatils in the study area. Note the platform in the foreground of the top image (from Figure 4 area), taken along the axis of a mustatil. The image at the bottom shows a side-on view of the Jebel Dhaya mustatil near Jubbah, the paired platforms at either end of the mustatils are visible. Scale in both images is provided by team members.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Case study area from southern Nefud with large number of mustatils and other kinds of stone structures. The edge of the Nefud sand sea is located at the northern edge of this area. Note distribution of mustatils along raised area just north of scarp above a series of playas (light coloured areas). A further group of mustatils and other structures occurs in the eastern part of this study area.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
View from between walls of the largest mustatil discovered (located on right of Figure 4). Note team members on right for scale. A separate, small, mustatil is visible on the left.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Two examples of the long walls of mustatils, both showing similar construction techniques, with outer vertically mounted tabular slabs and a rubble wall core.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Geometric painted pattern found on a block that formed part of the platform of a mustatil.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Hole dug into NEF-8 mustatil platform by persons unknown, revealing bone assemblage (right, scale = 5 cm), and leading to the recovery of charcoal from a section inside the platform.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Al Khasawneh S, Murray A, Thomsen K, et al. (2019) Dating a near eastern desert hunting trap (kite) using rock surface luminescence dating. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(5): 2109–2119.
    1. Alsharekh AM. (2004) An archaeological study of Thumamah site: The initial results. Adumatu 9: 7–32.
    1. Alsharekh AM. (2006) The Archaeology of Central Saudi Arabia: Lithic Artefacts and Stone Structures in northeast Riyadh. Deputy Ministry of Antiquities & Museums, Riyadh.
    1. Abu-Azizeh W, Tarawneh M, Abudanah F, et al. (2014) Variability within consistency: Cairns and funerary practices of the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic in the Al-Thulaythuwat area, southern Jordan. Levant 46(2): 161–185.
    1. Abu-Azizeh W, Barakat Tarawneh M. (2015) Out of the harra: Desert kites in south-eastern Jordan. New results from the South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 26(2): 95–119.

LinkOut - more resources