Saudi Heritage Commission Unearths Traces of Neolithic Human Activity in Jabal Irf
The Heritage Commission, in cooperation with the German Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Geoanthropology in the Green Arabia Project, revealed one of the most significant sites of the prehistoric period near Jabal Irf in the Hail region. The study was published in PLOS ONE magazine.
A scientific team comprising researchers and specialists from the Kingdom, Australia, Britain, Italy, and the United States is now studying numerous archaeological materials from different sites dating back to the Neolithic period.
Jabal Irf is located in a lake basin within the Jubbah Oasis, north of the city of Hail and south of the Nafud Desert.
Archaeological evidence including the results of laboratory analyses showed traces of the Neolithic period and its cultural connotations at Jabal Irf. The site is also a unique natural landscape. Stonework, a rock shelter and an open site containing traces of settlement and seasonal human activity dating from the middle and late Holocene era were also found.
The results of radiocarbon (C14) analyses indicate that the peak of human settlement at the site was during the sixth and early fifth millennium BC.
Excavation work revealed that early inhabitants of the place used stone pestles and mills in daily activities even after they were broken due to frequent use. Some were found inside fire stoves, covered with small stones and fragments of broken pestles, which were used in preparing plants and grinding bones. This is based on the results of analyses using microscopic examination of a group of these grinders to determine the dietary habits of humans in that period.
The study of stone mills also showed the dietary habits and economic life of humans in that period, and their uses in preparing plant and animal food, which indicated the beginnings of economic transformation, from hunting to cultivation according to available resources.
People used these simple stone mills to prepare plants as food and extract marrow from animal bones, which was an important food source in the Neolithic environment when there were different types of wild animals living in the Arabian Peninsula that humans consumed for food, including cows, deer, sheep, oryx, goats, and ostriches.
The grinding tools were used in the production of pigments for art, as they are a distinctive feature of the coloured rock art that was common in the northern Arabian Peninsula. It is possible that these pigments were also used as cosmetics.
The use of stone grinders formed an important part of the life of human societies in the Arabian Peninsula, and their use has not stopped. Ethno-archaeological studies have shown the presence of stone grinders in many villages in rural areas that depend on agriculture as a main food source.
These distinctive discoveries shed light on some unknown aspects of human activities in prehistoric periods, which preceded the discovery of writing. They give an indication of human adaptation to this region, and ways of exploitation of available environmental resources. These tools reflected the artistic taste of individuals and the lifestyle and livelihood of communities during various prehistoric periods.
