Excavating the Horns’ Chamber Mustatil: A Neolithic open-air sanctuary evidencing pastoral nomadic ritual activity in northwestern Arabian Desert (AlUla)
Abstract
As part of the large-scale archaeological landscape survey undertaken in AlUla County on behalf of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), an excavation program focusing on the Late Prehistoric remains was launched to begin establishing chronology and function for the variety of site types evident in this region. Many of these Late Prehistoric site types remain enigmatic, as surface examination often does not allow a determination of their date and nature. These include the mustatil monuments (“rectangle” in Arabic), which have a distinctive, typically rectangular shape, reaching sometimes over 600 m in length, and constitutes some of the most impressive stone-built constructions of the landscape. The excavation at one of these sites, located on the fringe of the AlUla ‘Core Area’, revealed an exceptional structured deposit of faunal remains, of unusually high quantities of animal bones, exclusively of skull parts of wild and domesticated horned species. The deposit of the Horns’ Chamber Mustatil attests to complex and sophisticated ritual practices that date to the Neolithic period (ca. 5300-5000 cal BCE). This unprecedented discovery sheds a new light on ritual activities evidenced by a widespread Neolithic tradition of monumental open-air sanctuaries related to early pastoral nomadic societies in the northwestern Arabian Desert.
References
Abu-Azizeh W. 2010. Excavations in the tumuli area, p.193-207 in L. Nehmé, D. al-Talhi, F. Villeneuve (eds), Hegra I. Report on the First Excavation Season at Madâ’in Sâlih, 2008, Saudi Arabia (A Series of Refereed Archaeological Studies n°6). Riyadh : Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, 2010.
Abu-Azizeh W. 2012. Study of the cairns, p.223-286 in: L. Nehmé (ed.), Report on the Fourth Excavation Season (2011) of the Madâ’in Sâlih Archaeological Project, HALSHS-00671451, online at: http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00671451.
Abu-Azizeh W. 2013. The South-Eastern Jordan's Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age Pastoral Nomadic Complex: Patterns of mobility and interaction, Paléorient 39/1, p.149-176.
Abu-Azizeh W. 2014. Stone Enclosures and Late Prehistoric Pastoral Nomadic Campsites: A Methodological Review of Al-Thulaythuwat Case Study, Southern Jordan, p.187-208, in: B. Finlayson & C. Makarewicz (eds.), Settlement, Survey, and Stone. Essays on Near Eastern Prehistory in Honour of Gary Rollefson. Berlin: Ex Oriente.
Abu-Azizeh W. 2015. Excavation of a cairn complex in Jabal al-Khraymât, Massif 22, Loci 42000, p.171-192 in: L. Nehmé (ed.), Report on the Fifth Season (2014) of the Madâ’in Sâlih Archaeological Project, HALSHS-01122002, online at: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01122002.
Abu-Azizeh W. & Tarawneh M. 2015. Out of the Harra: Desert kites in Southeastern Jordan. New results from the South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 26: 95-119.
Abu-Azizeh W., Tarawneh M., Abudanah F., Twaissi S. & Al-Salameen A. 2014. Variability within consistency: Cairns and funerary practices of the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic in Al-Thulaythuwat Area, Southern Jordan, Levant 46/2: 161-185.
Abu-Azizeh W., Tarawneh M., Crassard, R. & Sánchez Priego, J.A. 2021. Discovery and Excavation of Desert Kites in the Southeastern Badia of Jordan, p.225-251 in: Betts, A. et van Pelt, P. (eds.), The Gazelle’s Dream. Game Drives of the Old and New Worlds. University of Sydney Press, Sydney.
Adams R., Parr P.J., Ibrahim M. & Mughannum A.S. 1977. Saudi Arabian Archaeological Reconnaissance-1976 Preliminary Report on the First Phase of the Comprehensive Archaeological Survey Program, Atlal 1: 21-40.
Al-Hajri M., Hussain Y., Al-Mutlaq M., Al-Jurdid J., Al-Rodhain S., and Shaiks N. 2002. Tayma Excavation, Rujoum Sasa, fìrst season 1418 A.H./1997 A.D., Atlal 17: 23–25 and 43–67 (in Arabic), pl. 3.1–3.16.
Al-Hajri M., al-Mutlaq M., Hashim A., al-Shaman S., al-Najam, S., al-Helwa, S., and al-Radhiyan, S. 2005. Archaeological Excavations on the Site of Rujoom Sa’sa‘ – Tayma (Second Season 1421 H/2000 AD, Atlal 18: 23–27 and 55–67 (in Arabic).
Avner U. 1984. Ancient cult sites in the Negev and Sinai Deserts. Tel Aviv 11: 115–31.
Avner U. 2002. Studies in the Material and Spiritual Culture of the Negev and Sinai Populations, During the 6th–3rd Millennia B.C. Unpublished PhD thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Avner U. & Horwitz L.K. 2017. Sacrifices and offerings from cult and mortuary sites in the Negev and Sinai, 6th-3rd millennia BC. ARAM 29: 35-70.
Barge O., Abu-Azizeh W., Brochier J.-E., Crassard R. & Régagnon E. 2020. Desert-kites et constructions apparentées : découvertes récentes et mise à jour de l’extension géographique, Paléorient 46/1-2 : 179-200.
Bronk Ramsey C. 2021. OxCal. Available at: https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal.html (accessed 01 April 2021).
Crassard R., Abu-Azizeh W., Barge O., Brochier J.É, Chahoud J. & Régagnon E. 2022. The Use of Desert Kites as Hunting Mega-Traps: Functional Evidence and Potential Impacts on Socioeconomic and Ecological Spheres, Journal of World Prehistory 35: 1-44.
Dalton M., McMahon J., Kennedy M.A., Repper R., Al Shilali E.S., AlBalawi Y., Boyer D.D. & Thomas H. 2021. The Middle Holocene ‘funerary avenues’ of north-west Arabia. The Holocene 00: 1-17.
Gebel H.G.K. 2013. Arabia’s fifth-millennium BCE pastoral well cultures: hypotheses on the origins of oasis life. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 43: 111–26.
Gebel H.G.K., 2016. The socio-hydraulic foundations of oasis life in NWArabia: the 5th millennium BCE shepherd
environs of Rajajil, Rasif andQulban Beni Murra, p.79-114 in Luciani M. (ed.), The archaeology of North Arabia: oases and landscapes: proceedings of the International Congress held at the University of Vienna, 5–8 December, 2013. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Gebel H.G.K., Mahasneh H., Keilholz P. & Baumgarten J., 2011. Life at the Edge: Sepulchral, Hydraulic and Pastoral Land Use in Wadis as-Sahab al-Abyad and al-Asmar, South-Eastern Jordan: Preliminary Report on the Fourth Season of the Eastern Jafr Joint Archaeological Project, 2010, ADAJ 55: 537-559.
Gilmore M., Al_Ibrahim M. & Murad A.S., 1982. Preliminary Report on the Northwestern and Northern Regions Survey, 1981 (1401), Atlal 6: 9-24.
Goring-Morris N. & Horwitz L.K. 2007. Funerals and feasts during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Near East. Antiquity 81: 902-919.
Groucutt HS, Breeze PS, Guagnin M, Stewart M, Drake N., Shipton C., Zahrani B., Al Omarfi A., Alsharekh A.M. & Petraglia M.D. 2020. Monumental landscapes of the Holocene humid period in Northern Arabia: The mustatil phenomenon. The Holocene 30(12):1767-1779.
Guagnin M., Jennings R.P., Clark-Balzan L., Groucutt H.S., Parton A. & Petraglia M.D. 2015. Hunters and herders: exploring the Neolithic transition in the rock art of Shuwaymis, Saudi Arabia. Archaeological Research in Asia 4:
–16.
Guagnin M., Jennings R., Eager H., Parton A., Stimpson C., Stepanek C., Pfeiffer M., Groucutt H. S., Drake N. A., Alsharekh A. & Petraglia, M. D. 2016. Rock art imagery as a proxy for Holocene environmental change: A view from Shuwaymis, NW Saudi Arabia. The Holocene 26: 1822-1834.
Guagnin M., Shipton C., al-Rashid M., Moussa F., el-Dossary S., Sleimah M. B., Alsharekh A. & Petraglia M. D. 2017. An illustrated prehistory of the Jubbah oasis: Reconstructing Holocene occupation patterns in north-western Saudi Arabia from rock art and inscriptions. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 28: 138-152.
Guagnin M., Breeze P., Shipton C., Ott F., Stewart M., Bateman M., Martin L., Graham L., el-Dossary S., Kingwell-Banham E., Zahrani B., al-Omari A., Alsharekh A.M., Petraglia M. 2020. The Holocene humid period in the Nefud Desert: hunters and herders in the Jebel Oraf palaeolake basin, Saudi Arabia. Journal of Arid Environments 178: 1–17.
Hausleiter A. & Zur A. 2016. Tayma’ in the Bronze Age (c. 2,000 BCE): Settlement and Funerary Landscapes. p.135-173 in Luciani M. (ed.). The Archaeology of North Arabia: Oases and Landscapes. Proceedings of the International Congress held at the University of Vienna, 5-8 December, 2013. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Horwitz L.K. & Ducos P. 2005. Counting Cattle: Trends in Neolithic Bos Frequencies from the Southern Levant. Revue de Paléobiologie: 10: 209-224.
Kennedy D. 2011. The ‘Works of the Old Men’ in Arabia: remote sensing in interior Arabia. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 3185–203.
Kennedy D. 2017. ‘Gates’: a new archaeological site type in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy
: 153–74.
Kennedy D.L. & Al-Sa’eed A., 2009. ‘Desktop Archaeology’, Saudi Aramco World July/August, 2–9.
Kennedy D., Banks R. & Dalton M. 2015. Kites in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 26: 177–195.
Lepetz S., Zazzo A., Bernard V. De Larminat S., Magail J., Gantulga J.-O. (2019). Customs, rites and sacrifices around ritual complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia (Tsatsyn Ereg, Arkhangai, Mongolia). Anthropozoologica. 54 (15) 151-177. doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2019v54a15
Martin L. & Edwards Y. 2013. Diverse strategies: evaluating the appearance and spread of domestic caprines in the southern Levant. p.49-82 in Colledge S., Conolly J., Dobney K., Manning K. & Shennan S. (eds) The Origins and Spread of Domesticated Animals in Southwest Asia and Europe. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Mahasneh H. & Gebel H.G.K., 2009. The Eastern Jafr Joint Archaeological Project The 2001 and 2006 Surveys in Wadi as-Sahab al-Abyad, Southeastern Jordan, ADAJ 53: 465-478.
Makarewicz C. 2020. The adoption of cattle pastoralism in the Arabian Peninsula: A reappraisal. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 31(1): 168–177.
McCorriston J. & Harrower M.J. (eds). 2020. Landscape History of Hadramawt : The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA Project 1998-2008). Monumenta Archaeologica. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.
McCorriston J., Harrower M., Martin L. & Oches E. 2012. Cattle cults of the Arabian neolithic and early territorial societies. American Anthropologist 114(1): 45–63.
McCorriston J., Harrower M., Steimer-Herbet T., Williams K.W., Matthiew S., al-Hadhari M., al-Kathiri M., Saliège J.-F. & Everheart J. 2014. Monuments and landscape of mobile pastoralists in Dhofar: the Arabian Human Social Dynamics (AHSD) project. Journal of Oman Studies 12: 117–43.
Meier J.S., Goring-Morris A.N. & Munro N.D. 2017. Aurochs bone deposits at Kfar HaHoresh and the southern Levant across the agricultural transition. Antiquity 91: 1469-1483.
Munoz O., Cotty M., Charloux G., Bouchaud C., Monchot H., Marquaire C., Zazzo A., Crassard R., Brunet O., Boschloos V. & al-Malki T. 2020. Marking the sacral landscape of a north Arabian oasis: A sixth-millennium BC monumental stone platform and surrounding burials. Antiquity 94: 601–621.
Parr P.J., Zarins J., Ibrahim M., Waechter J., Garrard A., Clarke C., Bidemeade M. & Badr H. 1978. Preliminary Report on the Second Phase of the Northern Province Survey 1397/1977, Atlal 2: 29-51.
Reimer P.J., Austin W.E.N., Bard E., Bayliss A., Blackwell P.G., Bronk Ramsey C., Butzin M., Cheng H., Edwards R.L., Friedrich M., Grootes P.M., Guilderson T.P., Hajdas I., Heaton T.J., Hogg A.G., Hughen K.A., Kromer B., Manning S.W., Muscheler R., Palmer J.G., Pearson C., van der Plicht J., Reimer R.W., Richards D.A., Scott E.M., Southon J.R., Turney C.S.M., Wacker L., Adolphi F., Büntgen U., Capano M., Fahrni S.M., Fogtmann-Schulz A., Friedrich R., Köhler P., Kudsk S., Miyake F., Olsen J., Reinig F., Sakamoto M., Sookdeo A. & Talamo S. 2020. The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62: 725–57.
Rosen S.A. 2015. Cult and the rise of desert pastoralism: A case study from the Negev. p.38-47 in: Laneri N. (ed.) Defining the Sacred. Approaches to the archaeology of religion in the Near East. Oxford: Oxbow.
Rosen S.A., Avni Y., Bocquentin F. & Porat N. 2007. Investigations at Ramat Saharonim: a desert Neolithic sacred precinct in the Central Negev. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 346: 31–57.
Scerri E.M.L., Guagnin M. & Groucutt H.S. 2018. Neolithic pastoralism in marginal environments during the Holocene wet phase, northern Saudi Arabia. Antiquity 92(365): 1180–1194.
Steimer-Herbet T. 2004. Classification des sépultures à superstructure lithique dans le Levant et l’Arabie occidentale (IVè–IIIè millénaires av. J.C.). (British Archaeological Reports International series 1246). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Thomas H., Kennedy M., Dalton M., McMahon J., Boyer D. D., & Repper R. 2021. The Mustatils: Cult and Monumentality in Neolithic North-west Arabia. Antiquity 95(381): 605-626.
Zarins J., 1979. Rajajil: A Unique Arabian Site from the Fourth Millennium B.C., Atlal 3: 73-78.
Zazzo A. 2014. Bone and enamel diagenesis: a radiocarbon prospective. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 416 : 168–178 .
Zazzo A. & Saliège J.-F. 2011. Radiocarbon dating of biological apatites: a review. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 310 : 52-61.
Zazzo A., Lepetz S., Magail J., Gantulga J.-O. 2019. High-precision dating of ceremonial activity around a large ritual complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia. Antiquity 93/367: 80–98 https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.175
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Archaeopress Publishing, Oxford, UK
