Camel Carvings Found in Saudi Arabia Are From Prehistoric Era

In 2018, a series of animal carvings made on a massive scale were found in Saudi Arabia and scientists now say that they date to the prehistoric era, BBC reported.

The camel-like carvings, which were carved into rock faces are likely to be the oldest large-scale animal reliefs in the world, the Journal of Archaeological Science said in a recent study.

When they were first found three years ago, they were believed to be 2,000 years old, but erosion has made the study of them much more difficult, BBC reported.

Now, scientists say that the carvings are between 7,000 to 8,000 years old, making them older than Stonehenge, which is about 5,000 years old and the Pyramids at Giza, which are 4,500 years old, BBC reported.

“They are absolutely stunning and, bearing in mind we see them now in a heavily eroded state with many panels fallen, the original site must’ve been absolutely mind blowing,” Dr. Maria Guagnin, from the department of archaeology at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the lead author of a new study on the late Stone Age carvings, told The National News.

“There were life-sized camels and equids two or three layers on top of each other. It must have been an absolutely stunning site in the Neolithic."

Carvings of this scale found in the country are rare, according to BBC.

During the time they were made, Saudi Arabia was much more lush and fertile, having more green landscapes than the sand and stone it is known in modern times.

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