Monumentality, Social Memory, and Territoriality in Neolithic–Chalcolithic Northwestern Arabia

Abstract

Recent excavations undertaken by the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (AAKSA) project have recovered significant skeletal material, evidence for funerary offerings, including jewelry, and the earliest chronometrically dated domestic dog in the Arabian Peninsula. Despite being heavily disturbed by recent looting, these monumental funerary structures were found to be collective burials dating to the 5th and 4th millennia B.C. The evidence recovered from these graves provides new insight into the social and funerary landscapes of northwestern Arabia during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, shedding light upon issues of social memory, territoriality, and monumentality in the Middle Holocene of the Arabian Peninsula.

Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory

“…Very little remains known about the paleoecology and prehistory of northern Arabia, and this is, in no small part, due to the exceptionally scant fossil record. For instance, fossil evidence consistent with pastoralism in northern Arabia is restricted to just a few sites comprising very limited and/or fragmentary remains (Guagnin et al 2017(Guagnin et al 2021Scerri et al 2018;Groucutt et al 2020;Munoz et al 2020;Thomas et al 2021). In light of this, researchers have turned to the rock art record, the results of which have been illuminating (e.g., Guagnin et al 2015Guagnin et al 2018Guagnin et al 2020.…”

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

“…Recent archaeological research is beginning to identify an increase in human activity towards the end of the Holocene humid period. The frequency of radiocarbon dates appears to increase substantially between 5500 BCE and 4800 BCE, with a peak around 5200 BCE (Groucutt et al, 2020;Guagnin et al, 2017b;Guagnin et al, 2020;Munoz et al, 2020;Scerri et al, 2018;Thomas et al, 2021b;Thomas et al, 2021a) and may correspond to a change in activity patterns, intensification of longdistance interactions, and population increases. A newly documented phenomenon from this period are mustatil, large rectangular stone structures that were probably built as communal meeting places for rituals (Groucutt et al, 2020;Thomas et al, 2021a).…”

Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’ in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla

“…The construction of IDIHA-F-0011213 and the interment of individual SK003, some 400-500 years after the final phase, suggests that a strong tradition of social memory and memorialisation was maintained across the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. Social memory and memorialisation appear to have been a key component of these periods in the AlUla region, with this taking the form of monumental collective burials, some of which span a 600-year period [130]. This later emphasis on collective burials, which were also used as territorial markers, broadly corresponds to the end of the mustatil phenomenon; with this transition potentially marking a change in the way territoriality was expressed from ritual to funerary during the mid 5 th millennium BCE.…”