Archaeologists Uncover 4,500-Year-Old Funerary Avenues in North-West Arabia, Revealing Ancient Connections
Archaeologists from the University of Western Australia (UWA), working under the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), have discovered extensive 'funerary avenues' in ancient north-west Arabia. These pathways, flanked by thousands of burial monuments, connected oases and pastures, indicating a sophisticated network of social and economic interaction among populations during the 3rd millennium BCE. The findings, published in The Holocene journal, are part of a broader collaborative effort involving 13 archaeological and conservation project teams globally, working with Saudi experts in AlUla and Khaybar counties in Saudi Arabia. This discovery sheds light on the lives of the region's ancient inhabitants and suggests the existence of complex social structures across a significant portion of the Arabian Peninsula 4,500 years ago. AlUla is also home to Hegra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its carved Nabataean monumental tombs.
