The animal species depicted in the rock art of Shuwaymis, Saudi Arabia, provide a record of Holocene climatic changes, as seen by the engravers. Of 1903 animal engravings, 1514 contained sufficient detail to allow identification with confidence. In addition, the stratigraphy of the engravings and the depiction of domesticates provide a broad chronological framework that allows a division into images created during the Holocene humid phase and animals represented after the onset of desert conditions. Despite the large sample size, only 16 animal species could be identified, which represents an extraordinarily narrow species spectrum. Comparison with the scarce faunal record of the Arabian Peninsula shows that all larger animals that are thought to have been present in the area were also depicted in the rock art. The contemporaneous presence of at least four large carnivores during the Holocene humid phase suggests that prey animals were abundant, and that the landscape consisted of a mosaic of habitats, potentially with thicker vegetation along the water courses of the wadis and more open vegetation in the landscape around them. Community Earth System Models (COSMOS) climate simulations show that Shuwaymis was at the northern edge of the African Summer Monsoon rainfall regime. It is therefore possible that Shuwaymis was ecologically connected with southwestern Arabia, and that an arid barrier remained in place to the north, restricting the dispersal of Levantine species into Arabia.

Recent interdisciplinary archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Arabian peninsula is transforming our understanding of ancient human societies in their ecological contexts. Hypotheses about the cultural and demographic impacts of a series of droughts have primarily been developed from the environmental and archaeological records of southeastern Arabia. Here we examine these human–environment interactions by integrating ongoing research from northern Arabia. While droughts and extreme environmental variability in the Holocene had significant impacts on human societies, responses varied across space and time and included mobility at various scales, as well as diverse social, economic and cultural adaptations, such as the management of water resources, the introduction of pastoral lifeways, and the construction of diverse types of stone structures. The long-term story of human societies in Arabia is one of resilience in the face of climate change, yet future challenges include rising temperatures and flash flooding. The history of human responses to climatic and ecosystem changes in Arabia can provide important lessons for a planet facing catastrophic global warming and environmental change.

A systematic survey of rock art and associated archaeological features in the Jubbah oasis provides evidence of Holocene occupation from the early Holocene to the present. In total 1249 panels with rock art and inscriptions, and 159 archaeological sites, were recorded on twelve different jebels. Analyses of rock art content and engraving stratigraphy indicate that the iconic Jubbah style had a long tradition among pre-pastoral hunters and continued to be used by early herders.We also identify a distinct body of rock art that pre-dates the Jubbah style and may be associated with a nearby Epipalaeolithic site. Our systematic dataset identifies a body of Bronze Age rock art that is further supported by the material culture and radiocarbon dates obtained from the remains of disturbed cairns. The wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aae Arab Arch Epig. 2017;28:138-152.

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The archaeological record of the Arabian Neolithic remains extremely fragmentary. Archaeological sites containing faunal remains of early domesticates are extremely rare and only a few sites yielding these excavated in Yemen and along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Neolithisation models have therefore had to infer population dynamics and subsistence changes across vast distances. Here we present the first report of a newly discovered Neolithic site in the Jubbah oasis, on the southern edge of the Nefud desert. The site is located on the margin of palaeolake deposits and consists of a large cluster of at least 170 visible hearths. Test excavation of two hearth features yielded radiocarbon ages between 5200 and 5070 BC. Abundant lithics consisted of both ground and chipped stone artefacts, some of which recall the Pottery Neolithic in the Levant. Some 15 fragments of Bos dentition were also recovered. The age of the site raises the distinct possibility that the faunal remains represent domestic cattle. The nature of the site, with evidence for repeated occupation, may therefore indicate seasonal use by pastoralists. The site of Jebel Oraf 2 promises to fill a major geographic gap in our understanding of the Neolithisation process in Arabia.

The function of prehistoric dogs in hunting is not readily visible in the archaeological record; interpretations are thus heavily reliant on ethnographic data and remain controversial. Here we document the earliest evidence for dogs on the Arabian Peninsula from rock art at the sites of Shuwaymis and Jubbah, in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Hunting scenes depicted in the rock art illustrate dog-assisted hunting strategies from the 7 th and possibly the 8 th millennium BC, predating the spread of pastoralism. Though the depicted dogs are reminiscent of the modern Canaan dog, it remains unclear if they were brought to the Arabian Peninsula from the Levant or represent an independent domestication of dogs from Arabian wolves. A substantial dataset of 147 hunting scenes shows dogs partaking in a range of hunting strategies based on the environment and topography of each site, perhaps minimizing subsistence risk via hunting intensification in areas with extreme seasonal fluctuations. Particularly notable is the inclusion of leashes on some dogs, the earliest known evidence in prehistory. The leashing of dogs not only shows a high level of control over hunting dogs before the onset of the Neolithic, but also that some dogs performed different hunting tasks than others.

Archaeological surveys and excavations in the Jebel Oraf palaeolake basin, northwestern Saudi Arabia, have identified a well-preserved early-to mid-Holocene landscape. Two types of occupation site can be distinguished: nine small and ephemeral scatters from single occupation phases on the slopes of sand dunes and three hearth sites indicative of repeated occupation on palaeolake shorelines. In Highlights  Well preserved Neolithic landscape in the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia  Evidence for changes in landscape use across the transition to herding  Two lake high stands show seasonal use of the area by early pastoralists  Rock art documents the presence of wild camel in the Iron Age  Lithic industry indicative of contacts with the Levant over several millennia

Aim Our knowledge of the prehistoric distribution of animal species is so far largely dependent on the location of excavated archaeological and palaeontological sites. In the absence of excavated faunal remains, many species that were present in the Levant and North Africa have been assumed to have been absent on the Arabian Peninsula. Here, we explore representations of four species that were identifiable in the rock art, but had not previously been reported in north‐western Arabia. Location Jubbah and Shuwaymis UNESCO world heritage rock art sites in Ha'il province, north‐western Saudi Arabia. Methods In total, the rock art panels surveyed and recorded in Jubbah and Shuwaymis contain 6,618 individual animal depictions. Species were identified based on diagnostic features of the anatomy. The resulting dataset was then compared to the faunal spectrum reported in the (archaeo)zoological literature. Results The rock art dataset provides evidence that the distributions of lesser kudu (Tragelaphus imberbis), wild camel and African wild ass (Equus africanus) extended into the north‐west of Arabia and that the engravers may have had knowledge of aurochs (Bos primigenius). Main conclusions The presence of previously undocumented mammal species in Arabia provides new information regarding their distribution, as well as the types of habitat and vegetation that were available in prehistoric landscapes. Moreover, the presence of kudu on the Arabian Peninsula indicates that the identification of palaeo‐distributions based exclusively on faunal remains may miss key species in the Afro‐Eurasian faunal exchange.