12,000-Year-Old Camel Carvings Rewrite Arabian Desert History

Ancient Arabian desert rock art showing camels marked water sources

About 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers who inhabited a swathe of Arabian desert carved life-sized images of camels and other animals on sandstone cliffs and boulders, using rock art to mark the location of water sources in an illustration of how ancient people tackled some of Earth's most inhospitable environs.

Monumental animal art reveals people in 'uninhabitable' Arabia 12,000 years ago

Spectacular animal engravings found in Saudi Arabia's Nefud desert date to the early Neolithic, a time when the region was thought to be too arid to sustain human life

Ancient camel engraving was one of world’s first ‘road signs’

Researchers say the rock art dates to between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago.

Scientists discover life-sized camels carved into rocks in the Arabian Desert

The drawings—the oldest dated monumental rock art in Arabia—are the firmest evidence that humans lived there during a dry period about 12,000 years ago.

12,000-year-old carvings of animals discovered in Saudi Arabian desert

The carvings, made with a pick, include likenesses of camels, gazelles and aurochs – an extinct species of cattle. Researchers have discovered life-size, rock carvings of camels, gazelles and other animals in the Saudi Arabian desert. The carvings date back to about 12,000 years ago and many are more than 6ft (1.8 metres) tall. Scientists say they were created using a wedge-shaped rock to create sharp lines. Several were etched on narrow ledges …

Scientists find ancient life-size animal rock carvings in the Saudi Arabian desert

Researchers have discovered life-size rock carvings of camels, gazelles and other animals in Saudi Arabia.