Archaeologists in planes help to reveal ancient ‘highways’ in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla – The National

Archaeologists in planes help to reveal ancient ‘highways’ in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla – The National

Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered a 4,500-year-old highway network of “funerary avenues” suggesting interaction between regions’ populations in the third millennium BC.

A study published in the journal The Holocene determined that the people who lived in ancient north-west Arabia built the major pathways between oases and pastures, and surrounded them with thousands of burial monuments.

Most of the 17,800 “pendant” tombs found in the study were near permanent water sources, and researchers say the direction of the funerary avenues suggests that many were used to travel between major oases, including those of Khaybar, AlUla and Tayma. Other pathways led away from the water to open areas, suggesting use for herding livestock.