The excavation of an enigmatic stone monument at AIUIa in Saudi Arabia offers new insight into the rituals and culture of Neolithic-era peoples.
Called “mustatil,” the structure is one of approximately 1,600 such rectangular monuments that have been recorded in northern Arabia. As part of a five-year project by the University of Western Australia and the Royal Commission for AlUla, researchers are studying a distinctive 7,000-year-old mustatil with large sandstone slabs surrounding a long inner courtyard .
The architectural characteristics of a mustatil. Photo: Kennedy et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0.
In the 140-meter (460-foot) long complex, archaeologists have identified 260 fragments of animal remains, namely the skulls, horns and teeth of domesticated cattle such as goats and gazelles.
These deposits of upper cranial bones were found clustered around a central vertical stone, called a “betyl” (or “house of god”), leading researchers to believe that the structure served ritual or cultic purposes. .
Animal remains recovered with mustatil, including an upper left bovine molar (left) and a bovine horn (right). Photo: Kennedy et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0.
“It appears that cattle, goats and gazelles were brought to the site, potentially slaughtered there, and then presented to what is likely a stone representation of an unknown deity,” said archaeologist Melissa Kennedy. head of the University of Western Australia. Archeology Wiki.
According a study published by the research teamthe remains discovered in the excavated mustatil represent not only the earliest evidence of animal domestication in northwestern Arabia, but the earliest known examples of animal sacrifice in the region, predating earlier published evidence of almost 900 years.
The horned frontal of a male domestic goat found in front of a standing stone. Photo: Kennedy et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0.
Although not all mustatils contain betyles, the team noted that the religion of pre-Islamic Arabia has been characterized as a “worship of betyles”, with these stones representing a mediator between the living and the divine. In addition to blood sacrifice, the tradition also encompassed hunting and ritualized feasting.
A ground survey of 80 other mustatils also revealed remains of roughly contemporary animals, suggesting that this same belief was held by Neolithic populations in the region. The mustatils that dot the area between northern Arabia and Rub’ al-Khali thus denote what the team called “one of the oldest and largest ritual landscapes in the world”.
Horns recovered from mustatil, including bovine horns (a, c and d), goat horn (b), bos horn (e) and gazelle horn (f). Photo: Kennedy et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0.
“Collectively what we have seen across all these monuments is the suggestion that much of northern Arabia was marked by similar cultic belief and ritual construction, as well as pilgrimage activity – a more connected than usual for this period,” Kennedy said.
“This suggests that our understanding of the Neolithic period in the Arabian Peninsula needs further revision,” she added.
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