Vast 4,500-year-old network of 'funerary avenues' discovered in Saudi Arabia

Live Science ^ | January 2022 | Owen Jarus

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists in northwest Saudi Arabia have discovered 4,500-year-old "funerary avenues" — the longest running for 105 miles (170 km) — alongside thousands of pendant-shaped stone tombs.

They are called funerary avenues because tombs are located beside them. While funeral processions could have taken place on them this is uncertain. They would have linked oases together and formed an ancient highway network of sorts, the researchers said.

Some of the avenues are delineated with red rock, but most "were simply formed as the ground was worn smooth by the footfall of ancient people — and especially by the hooves of their domestic animals," Mat Dalton, a research associate at the University of Western Australia and lead author of a recent paper on the avenues published in the journal The Holocene, told Live Science in an email.

The network of avenues would have facilitated long-distance travel. "By following these networks, people could have traversed a distance of at least 530 km [330 miles] from north to south. There are also hints of such avenues in southern Saudi Arabia and in Yemen. These require further research but could suggest even longer-distance movements by ancient populations," Dalton wrote in the email...

The research team used satellite imagery, aerial photography, ground surveys and excavations to make the finds. The archaeologists involved in the discovery work under the Royal Commission for AlUla, an organization that conducts archaeological study and conservation in the AlUla region of northwest Saudi Arabia. AlUla is a vast area that encompasses 8,711 square miles (22,561 square kilometers) and contains numerous archaeological remains dating across thousands of years.

[SunkenCiv]

The funerary avenues (part of one shown here) date back around 4,500 years in Saudi Arabia.

Image credit: Royal Commission for AlUla

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger.

[gleeaikin]

Maybe people are overthinking this. When traveling in Mexico I would see crosses and flowers along the road. I though maybe these were tombs, then someone told me they were just markers for where people had died in an accident. I wonder if the big figures are for adults, and the small ones for children. Have they actually dug up bodies where these symbols are?

[Monkey Face]

“Hit the Road, Jack,” takes on a whole new meaning.

‘Face

;o]

[SunkenCiv]

Probably the whole village would go, take food, water, and build the new tomb in the next empty spot.

[PeterPrinciple]

Maybe people are overthinking this.

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When I was in Mongolia, there were big piles of rocks at intercessions of paths (roads). The bigger the pile the more heavily traveled.

I asked my interpreter about it. It was a custom to pick up a rock along the path, and then walk around the intersection as you threw the rock in the pile for good luck. (Buddism) Very practical custom to clear a road and mark interstation.

I observed the big accumulation of trash in the piles and he said, “something new”. Since the roads were paved, they now circled it and threw their trash out of the car.

[Monkey Face]

Only stopping long enough to finish the paving for the day and set up tents while they went about their bidness.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, the whole outdoors was one big outhouse back at that time. And kinda still is.