Ancient Structures in The Arabian Desert Reveal Fragments of Mysterious Rituals

We might be getting closer to understanding why hundreds of large stone structures were built across the deserts of northwest Saudi Arabia thousands of years ago.

According to an in-depth new analysis, the mysterious, rectangular enclosures were used by Neolithic people for unknown rituals, depositing animal offerings, perhaps as votives to an unknown deity or deities. Excavations have revealed hundreds of fragments of animal remains, clustered around an upright slab of stone interpreted as sacred.

The roughly 7,000-year-old monuments known as mustatils (an Arabic word meaning rectangles) have baffled archaeologists since attracting scientific attention in the 1970s.

It wasn’t until 2017, however, that the full extent of their spread across the Arabian Peninsula was revealed in the first scientific paper documenting their discovery. Aerial surveys have aided in the identification of over 1,600 mustatils, sometimes in groups, scattered throughout the desert.

Nicknamed ‘gates’ because of their appearance from the air, mustatils were described in that paper as “two short, thick lines of heaped stones, roughly parallel, linked by two or more much longer and thinner walls.”

They consist of two short, thick platforms, linked by low walls of much greater length, measuring up to 600 meters (2,000 feet), but never more than half a meter (1.64 feet) high.

Though often collapsed, one of the two short ends forms an entrance, while the other contains chambers that range in size. What these chambers were used for is unknown, but there’s a curious absence of tools in and around them.

Archaeologists believe this set of characteristics suggests their use was not a utile one; the low walls and lack of roofs would make them unsuitable as livestock pens or storage facilities, for instance.

What they can contain in some cases are standing and decorated stone slabs, as well as a scattering of animal bones. A number of mustatils also feature a long courtyard, suggestive of a processional element.

In 2019, an international team of scientists led by archaeologist Melissa Kennedy of the University of Western Australia excavated a 140-meter-long sandstone mustatil near Al-‘Ula, named IDIHA-F-0011081, collecting fragments of material and cataloging the various features of the monument.

At the head of the mustatil – the short end featuring chambers – they found a space with standing stone slabs. They also collected 260 fragments of animal bone, teeth, and horns, mostly clustered around the stone slab.

They identified 246 of these fragments; and, even more intriguing, the pieces of bone were exclusively pieces of the animals’ skulls, taken from goats, gazelles, small ruminants, and domestic cattle.

This, the team says, suggests that the stone slab is what is known as a betyl – a sacred stone representing the god or gods of the people who lived in the region thousands of years ago, with animal heads deposited as ritual offerings.

“We hypothesize that the standing stones (betyls) from mustatil IDIHA-F-0011081 … may have functioned as a mediator between humankind and the divine, acting as a proxy or a manifestation of an unknown Neolithic deity/deities or religious idea, to which the faunal elements were deposited as votive offerings,” they write in their paper.

“Due to the number and age of the animals slaughtered and the presence of fragile cranial elements, suggestive of fresh skulls, and anthropic marks indicating specific processing practices, we hypothesize that ritual feasting also played a role at mustatil IDIHA-F-0011081.”

And there’s one more curious clue pointing to the monument’s use in ancient society: a small, rectangular stone chamber, in which the researchers found human remains, next to the head of the mustatil, where the betyl chamber lay. This is a cist; a small, ancient burial chamber, constructed of slabs of unworked sandstone. It had collapsed in on itself over time but still contained broken and partially articulated human remains.

Time had done its work on those bones, too, but Kennedy and her team were able to ascertain that the deceased was an adult male who probably suffered from osteoarthritis. Who he was, and why he was buried at the mustatil, remains unknown; but there’s something a little peculiar about the burial.

The mustatil itself was relatively hidden in sandstone canyons, but the human remains were deposited several hundred years after the animal remains. This suggests that the site remained important long after it was no longer in use, and was possibly a site of pilgrimage, or at least shrine revisiting.

“The evidence from [the site] suggests that the mustatil tradition was characterized by the intersection of belief and economic life-ways,” the researchers write.

“The incorporation of these two facets suggests a deeply rooted ideological entanglement, one which was shared over a vast geographic distance, indicating a far more interconnected landscape and culture than had previously been supposed for the Neolithic period in north-west Arabia.”

The research was funded by the Royal Commission for AlUla and has been published in PLOS ONE.

Mysterious Hand Imprint Discovered In 1,000-Year-Old Moat Wall In Jerusalem

Around 1,000 years ago, just before the Crusades, a deep 10-meter large moat was hewn into the rock surrounding the walls of Jerusalem. Carved into the rock was also a mysterious hand imprint, whose author and meaning remain obscure. The discoveries were announced by the Israel Antiquity Authority on Wednesday.

“The historians who accompanied the First Crusade, describe the arrival of the Crusaders at the walls of Jerusalem in June 1099,” said Dr. Amit Re’em, Jerusalem regional Director at the IAA.

“Exhausted by the journey, they stood opposite the huge moat, and only after five weeks succeeded in crossing it with deploying tactics and at the cost of much blood, under heavy fire from the Muslim and Jewish defenders.”

The excavation began ahead of construction works in the area adjacent to the Old City (as required by Israeli law). A team from the IAA uncovered the moat underneath the main Sultan Suleiman Street.

“People are not aware that this busy street is built directly over a huge moat, an enormous rock-hewn channel, at least 10 m wide, and between 2–7 m deep,” Excavation Director Zubair Adawi remarked.

“The moat, surrounding the entire Old City, dates back about 1,000 years to the 10th century CE or earlier, and its function was to prevent the enemy besieging Jerusalem from approaching the walls and breaking into the city.

Moats, usually filled with water, are well-known from fortifications and castles in Europe, but here the moat was dry, its width and depth presenting an obstacle slowing down the attacking army.”

The moat added another layer of protection to Jerusalem in addition to the defensive wall. The current wall was built in the 16th century, but in the 10th century, the city was already fortified.

“The earlier fortification walls that surrounded the ancient city of Jerusalem were much stronger,” said Re’em.

“In the eras of knights’ battles, swords, arrows, and charging cavalry, the fortifications of Jerusalem were formidable and complex, comprising walls and elements to hold off large armies storming the city.”

In the past, archaeologists had already uncovered tunnels that were part of the fortifications.

“Armies trying to capture the city in the Middle Ages, had to cross the deep moat and behind it two additional thick fortification walls, whilst the defenders of the city on the walls rained down on them fire and sulfur,” Re’em explained.

“As if this wasn’t enough, there were secret tunnels in the fortifications, some of them uncovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists in previous excavations, whereby the city defenders could emerge into the moat and attack the enemy by surprise, and then disappear back into the city.”

Carved in one of the walls of the moat, the archaeologists identified a mysterious hand imprint.

“Does it symbolize something? Does it point to a specific nearby element? Or is it just a local prank? Time may tell,” the experts commented.