30 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Mustatil Structures in Arabia May Be 7,000-Year-Old Stone Remnants of Cattle Cult

Archaeologists examining the mustatil stone remains in the northwest of Arabia think that these stone remains may have been used for 7,000-year-old cattle cult.

A new research group has discovered the prehistoric rectangular stone structures known as mustatils discovered in northwestern Saudi Arabia are older than traditionally thought, perhaps predating the pyramids.

The mustatils are discovered to be among the world’s oldest monuments, according to archaeologists. The discovery was assigned this name by the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), which is the plural version of the Arabic word for rectangles.

While the presence of the mustatils was previously recognized, the analysis suggests that the team counted more than 1,000 stone rectangular-shaped monuments, nearly double the number previously found.

Each mustatil is made up of two thick-walled ends joined by two or more long walls to form a series of massive rectangular courtyards varying in length from 20 meters to over 600 meters. Outside the mustatil’s main entrance, circular/semi-circular cells have been built.

According to the research, about 1,000 of these mustatils occupy an area of 200,000km2 and have very similar shapes, implying that they are all from the same time span.

Mustatil photo
Mustatils are complex monumental structures consisting of two thick ends (base and head) connected by two or more long walls to create a series of courtyards, that look like big rectangles. © AAKSA and Royal Commission for AlUla, courtesy Antiquity

The dissertation on this find is part of the University of Western Australia’s archaeological program in the provinces of AlUla and Khaybar.

“We think of them as a monumental landscape,” said Melissa Kennedy, an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia in Perth and an author of the study, NBC reported her as saying. “We are talking about over 1,000 mustatils. These things are found over 200,000 square kilometers [77,000 square miles], and they’re all very similar in shape … so perhaps it’s the same ritual belief or understanding.”

Scientists are baffled as to why the ancient civilizations who created the mustatils built so many of them around what is now Saudi Arabia’s desert. Kennedy theorizes that certain mustatils were only used once, or that different groups of people created and used different mustatils in close proximity to one another.

One clue to their purpose is the discovery of a small chamber or niche on the headwalls of certain mustatils, which seems to have been used for animal sacrifices.

According to Kennedy, 900-year-old archaeological evidence of a cattle cult was found in the south of Arabia, and the mustatils may have been an early manifestation of that belief. Any mustatils may have been developed to stake territorial claims on productive herd pasture.

Related Articles

The 5,000-Year-Old Beaded Burials that Reveal Women’s Power in Copper Age Iberia: Over 270,000 Beads

6 February 2025

6 February 2025

Archaeologists investigating the Montelirio tholos burial site in southwestern Spain, dating back approximately 5,000 years, have uncovered that the women...

‘Exceptional’ Viking Age silver treasure found in Norway

27 October 2022

27 October 2022

A treasure trove of silver fragments from the Viking Age has been discovered in Stjørdal, near Trondheim in central Norway....

Dacian Treasure Discovered in Romania, Possibly Indicating a Hidden Settlement in Breaza

12 April 2025

12 April 2025

In the spring of 2025, an extraordinary archaeological discovery was made in the Breaza commune of Mureș County, Romania, when...

In the new images, Scotland’s biggest Pictish fort is “reconstructed.’

2 November 2021

2 November 2021

Stunning new reconstructions have revealed how Scotland’s largest known Pictish fort may have looked over one thousand years ago. Three-dimensional...

Early Female Emperors in Japan “Empress Kōken”

2 July 2021

2 July 2021

Born into the aristocratic Fujiwara clan, this extraordinary woman first ascended to the throne as Empress Kōken and became the...

Centuries-old burials discovered near Antandros Ancient City in Turkey

10 January 2022

10 January 2022

Ancient tombs were discovered during a foundation excavation at a building site near the ancient city of Antandros, which is...

1,600-year-old Hunnic double burial found in Poland

15 June 2024

15 June 2024

In 2018, archaeologists uncovered a 1,600-year-old double burial in the village of Czulice near Krakow, Poland, containing the remains of...

3,000-Year-Old Hazelnut Shells Discovered in the Sacred Hittite City of Nerik

30 July 2024

30 July 2024

In the sacred Hittite city of Nerik, located in the northern Vezirköprü district of Samsun province in the Central Black...

Brick tombs dating from the Jin Dynasty have been unearthed in Shanxi Province

15 August 2021

15 August 2021

Archaeologists discovered two brick tombs at an old cemetery with 14 crypts in north China‘s Shanxi Province. The findings offer...

Restoration of the Duomo of Florence has revealed original polychrome paint

1 December 2022

1 December 2022

During the restoration of the Porta dei Cornacchini and the marble cladding of the northern side of Florence’s Duomo, extensive...

A Medieval Barbican and a Network of Passages Uncovered in Western Slovakia’s town of Trenčín

5 December 2024

5 December 2024

A medieval barbican (fortified outpost or fortified gateway), and a network of passages that acted as a sewerage system have...

Swiss Scientists Identify Arrowhead Made from a Meteoritic Iron

1 August 2023

1 August 2023

In a recent study of archaeological collections in the Lake Biel region in Switzerland, an arrowhead from the Bronze Age,...

A rare statue of K’awiil, Mayan god of Lighting have uncovered in Mexico

1 May 2023

1 May 2023

In southeastern Mexico, archaeologists uncovered a rare sculpture of a powerful Mayan god near the path of a large-scale rail...

Neolithic Age Adults and Children Buried Under Family Homes were not Relative

3 May 2021

3 May 2021

An international team of scientists found that Children and adults buried next to each other in one of the oldest...

3D virtual reconstruction of the Celtic city gate

2 May 2022

2 May 2022

A new 3D virtual reconstruction of the Celtic gate has been made in Staffelberg, in the German state of Bavaria....