A remarkable discovery in Saudi Arabia northern Nefud Desert is rewriting the history of one of the world’s driest regions. Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of life-sized animal petroglyphs carved into cliff faces and boulders, revealing that the area now a barren desert was once home to thriving human and animal life nearly 12,000 years ago.
The findings published in Nature Communications detail 176 massive rock engravings across three previously unexplored sites Jebel Arnaan, Jebel Mleiha, and Jebel Misma. These carvings, some positioned as high as 128 feet on sandstone cliffs, depict camels, ibex, gazelles, horse-like mammals, and even an extinct ancestor of cattle. Researchers say the intricate carvings show evidence of evolving artistic styles over millennia, with newer engravings layered atop older, simpler ones.
Led by archaeologist Maria Guagnin of Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the 2023 study suggests that early nomadic hunter-gatherer groups used the carvings to record water sources and migration routes contradicting long-held beliefs that this desert was uninhabitable during the end of the Ice Age.
Sediment analysis revealed traces of seasonal lakes, which would have sustained both humans and animals. The presence of the extinct bovine, an animal that depended heavily on freshwater, further supports this theory. “These engravings weren’t random art they were records of survival and spiritual memory,” the researchers noted.
The team also unearthed over 1,200 stone tools, decorative beads, and bone fragments beneath some of the carvings, indicating cultural connections between early Arabian populations and neighboring regions like the Levant.
According to the study, the engravers likely risked their lives to reach the steep, elevated rock faces, choosing visible locations that could be seen from afar turning the cliffs into monumental storytelling walls. “The durability of these images helped preserve meaning and belief across generations,” the authors wrote.
The discovery not only fills a major gap in Arabian prehistory but also challenges perceptions of the desert as a lifeless void. Instead, it portrays it as a once-green cradle of human creativity a landscape where early communities adapted, survived, and left behind art that still endures 12 millennia later.