About 12,000 years ago, hunters-gathers living on an area of ​​Arabic desert carved on rocks of animals in natural sizemainly camels and other species, using the rock painting to mark the site of water springs.

The finding shows how ancient people were facing some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth.

Researchers said these monumental works were found south of the Nephood desert in northern Saudi Arabia, on a mountainous territory extending about 30 kilometers.

About 60 rock paintings include more than 130 animal performances, mainly camels, but also goats, gazelles, wild donkeys and a wild buffalo, ancestor of today’s bovine. Some of the camels exceed 2 meters in height and 2.6 meters in length.

Although many images are easily accessible on rocks, some were created on steep cliffs, including 39 meters high, depicting 19 camels and three donkeys.

“The engravers had to stand in a narrow, sloping windowsill in front of the cliff,” said archaeologist and rocky researcher Maria Guangin of the University of Sydney and the Institute of GeoPhropology Max Plank in Germany.

“It was extremely dangerous to make these engravings, as the windowsill are very narrow and downhill. The craftsmen could not see the whole image they created, but they had the ability to perform a naturalistic representation, “she added.

The researchers said the rocky manner marked the existence of temporary water springs in the hard landscape of the desert.

“These ancient communities survived the deserted in the desert between seasonal lakes and marked the sources of water, as well as the paths that led to them, with monumental rock paintings,” Guangin said.

The researchers used a technique called “Lighting Dating” to simple stone tools they discovered and which were used to create rock paintings to determine that the engravings were made 12,800 to 11,400 years ago.

“The findings show that communities were able to completely settle in deserted environments much earlier than we thought to date,” Guangin said. “They had to know the landscape extremely good.”

“Most of the camels depict male camels in the period of estrus, recognizable by the stretched throat muscles as they bring out a hum at the mating season, which usually coincides with the rainy season. Thus, the rocky is connected to the rainy season and marks the sites where water is concentrated, “she added.

There is also evidence that these people were adding new scratches to the rock for two to three millennia, Guangin said.

Researchers do not know if the works were initially decorated with color.

“The engravings are exposed to the elements of nature, and if they were once painted, the pigment would have been flushed long,” Guangin noted.

At the peak of the last glacier era, 20,000 to 25,000 years ago, Arabia was so arid that there was no known human facility. But about 15,000 years ago, a period of heavy rainfall began, which created wetlands and ponds in a desert landscape that became a little greener. Rocks reveal the timetable of hunters who later resided the area, the researchers said.

“This story echoes today, as it shows the remarkable ability of these people to expand, adapt, and survive in marginal environments,” said anthropologist and author Michael Petralia, director of the Australian Research Center of Human Development.

Some objects found in the excavations look like those found in wider areas, indicating a degree of interaction between these hunters and other peoples. However, monumental rocky is something unique, unknown anywhere else in the wider area.

“These communities had contacts with neighboring groups in the eastern Mediterranean, over 400 kilometers, but also maintained their own identity,” Guangin said. “They clearly marked the water sources with rock paintings, but we can’t know if this was stating access rights or perhaps expressing a wish to return the water next year. There may have been many reasons. From the enormous effort required, we can say with certainty that this rock was of great importance to them. “