Life-sized Neolithic camel sculptures in Arabia: A scientific assessment of the craftsmanship and age of the Camel Site reliefs

A rock art tradition of life-sized, naturalistic engravings of camels in Northern Arabia: new insights on the mobility of Neolithic populations in the Nafud Desert

“…The similarity in size and technical skill between the engravings and reliefs at the Camel Site, and their geographic overlap, suggest that the reliefs discussed in this article may represent a more sophisticated, 3D expression of the same tradition (Charloux et al 2020). A recent chronological assessment of the Camel Site suggests a Neolithic date for the reliefs (Guagnin et al 2021), and the engravings described here may therefore be of a similar age. Superimpositions observed amongst some of the newly documented panels provide further evidence of their probable age.…”

“…Recent investigations of the Camel Site in the Jawf region of Saudi Arabia (Figure 1) have provided a Neolithic date for a group of naturalistic reliefs depicting life-sized camels and equids (Charloux et al 2018; Guagnin et al 2021). The site documents a level of skill, technical knowledge and communal effort that is unprecedented in the Near East.…”

The Sustainability of Rock Art: Preservation and Research

“…Carbonates are more stable than oxalates and Useries dating results are more reliable than other dating systems. Attempts have been made to determine the age of petroglyphs and weathering crusts and varnishes efficiently support the substrate for radiocarbon [30,33] and chemical measurement of elements [80][81][82][83][84]. In this case, the required sample is small, and it can be collected, after a careful geomorphological assessment of surfaces, on the rock substrate of engravings but not directly on them.…”

“…When rock varnish is a relict landscape feature or the rate of varnish formation is too slow to re-cover engravings, it represents a non-renewable canvas for ancient artists and the rate of varnish [76,78]. However, the partial regrowth of rock varnish is a valid relative dating method for engravings superimposition [76,79], as well as offering the opportunity to estimate petroglyphs' age via chemical measurement of elements and areal density of Mn and Fe [80][81][82][83][84]. From a different point of view, the formation of continuous and some tens of microns-thick Mn-rich coating represent a case-hardened shell [61] protecting rock surfaces against wind abrasion.…”

Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf

“…However, the extent of this economic shift is still uncertain in northern Arabia. Cattle feature prominently in the rock art of this period, yet faunal assemblages recovered from Neolithic sites are often dominated by wild species, for example at Jebel Oraf, and at the Camel Site [ 1 , 7 ]; while faunal remains from ritual contexts often consist of a mixture of wild and domesticated species [ 8 , 9 ]. It is also not known to what extent the exploitation of wild or domesticated plants was part of the subsistence economy.…”