17 September 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Researchers reveal the 4,500-year-old network of funerary avenues in Arabian Peninsula

Archaeologists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) have determined that people living in ancient northwest Arabia built long-distance “funerary avenues” (major pathways flanked by thousands of burial monuments).

This complex network of funerary rites found in northwestern Arabia points to the existence of social and economic links between the region’s populations in the 3rd millennium BC.

The UWA search is part of a larger effort involving 13 archaeological and conservation project teams from across the world, all working under the auspices of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU).

The researchers recorded more than 17,800 ‘pendant’ tombs in their primary study areas of AlUla and Khaybar counties, using a combination of satellite imagery, aerial photography, ground surveys, and excavations to survey an area of 160,000 square kilometers. Around 11,000 of the tombs formed part of funerary avenues from 4,500 years ago.

(a) A dense funerary avenue with ‘wedge-tailed’ pendants and infilled ringed cairns emanating from Khaybar Oasis. (b) A sparse funerary avenue consisting of various pendant types oriented towards a series of pathways formed over sandstone terrain. Photo: © AAKSAU/AAKSAK and Royal Commission for AlUla.

The highest densities are found on basalt plains or mountain passes, where the avenues are oriented between oases such as Khaybar, AlUla, and Tayma and are located near permanent water sources.

The development of funeral pathways implies that sophisticated social perspectives existed throughout a large stretch of the Arabian Peninsula 4,500 years ago. The discovery adds to the steady progress made by archaeologists working under the aegis of RCU in unraveling the buried tale of north Arabia’s ancient kingdoms and older civilization.

Schematic drawings of pendant morphologies common in AlUla and Khaybar counties
Schematic drawings of pendant morphologies common in AlUla and Khaybar counties. Photo:© AAKSAU/AAKSAK and Royal Commission for AlUla

Dr. Hugh Thomas, project director, said: “The research by the UWA team and our colleagues working across AlUla and Khaybar shows how important the archaeology of this region is for our understanding of the Neolithic and Bronze Age across the Middle East. Our findings demonstrate that these structures linked various populated oases, situated across a vast area and that the funerary avenues were established around 4,500 years ago. They are especially dense around Khaybar, which is one of the densest visible funerary landscapes anywhere in the world.”

The findings were published in the journal The Holocene. The new article is the UWA team’s fourth publication in less than a year in a peer-reviewed scientific journal on research at AlUla and Khaybar.

Dr. Rebecca Foote, Director of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Research for RCU, said: “Projects that have been conducting fieldwork in AlUla and Khaybar for over three years, such as the UWA team, have started publishing their results, and it is terrific to see how analyses of the data are elucidating so many aspects of life from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in north-west Arabia. These articles are just the beginning of the many publications that will advance our knowledge of prehistoric to modern times and have significant implications for the wider region.”

Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU)

Related Articles

Contemporaneous with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia the Indus Valley Civilization city of ‘Mohenjo Daro’: Skilled urban planners with a reverence for the control of water

10 September 2022

10 September 2022

The Indus River Valley (or Harappan) civilization (3300-1300 BCE) lasted 2,000 years and spanned northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest...

1000-year-old Cats and Babies mummies of Turkey’s

30 March 2022

30 March 2022

Cat, baby, and adult mummies in Aksaray, which took its place in history as Cappadocia’s gateway to the west on...

World’s Oldest Place Name Signs

4 February 2021

4 February 2021

Throughout the history of the world, our interest and curiosity in ancient cultures and lives continue to increase day by...

Ancient Celtic Bone Pen Found in Southern Germany

14 December 2024

14 December 2024

From August to October this year, the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (LAD) in the Stuttgart Regional Council...

An engraving on an almost 2,000-year-old knife believed to be the oldest runes ever found in Denmark has been discovered by archaeologists

22 January 2024

22 January 2024

Archaeologists have found a small knife with a completely unique runic inscription that can be dated almost 2000 years ago....

Neo-Assyrian Writing Boards: The Role of Beeswax, Orpiment, and Carbon Black in 7th Century BC Writing Techniques

13 April 2025

13 April 2025

Recent scientific investigations into the writing boards excavated from the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud have shed new light on...

Norwegian Boy in Search of Granddad’s Wedding Ring Finds 1500-year-old Roman Jewellery

11 August 2021

11 August 2021

Sander Magnus Vang (12) needed to find his grandfather’s lost wedding ring. Instead, he found a 1500-year-old ring. The golden...

“Exceptionally rare” gold sword pommel given to Scottish national museums

24 October 2022

24 October 2022

An “exceptionally rare” solid gold sword pommel found by a metal detectorist near Blair Drummond, Stirling, has been acquired by...

Netherlands’s unique treasure finds of medieval gold jewelry and silver coins

12 March 2023

12 March 2023

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (the National Museum of Antiquities) in the Netherlands has announced that a unique treasure of 1000-year-old...

7500-year-old cursed city of Iran

17 March 2023

17 March 2023

Sialk Hills, located in the southwestern part of Kashan city in Iran, was known among the locals as a ‘cursed...

New Study Exposes Origins of Welsh Dragons

7 June 2024

7 June 2024

In a new study conducted by a team from the University of Bristol and published in the Proceedings of the...

Remains of a Submerged Roman Harbor Discovered in Slovenia

7 March 2024

7 March 2024

Archaeologists from the Institute of Underwater Archaeology (ZAPA) have uncovered the remains of a submerged Roman harbor, off the coast...

New ancient ape from Türkiye challenges the story of human origins

2 September 2023

2 September 2023

A recently discovered fossilized ape from a site in Turkey that is 8.7 million years old is inspiring scientists to...

3D printing technology was used for the restored relic restoration of an ancient palace in Liangzhu Archaeological Site

11 July 2021

11 July 2021

Six rebuilt massive wooden pillars of an old palace have been exposed to the public for the first time at...

Saxon ‘London’ was Bigger Than Previously Believed

23 February 2024

23 February 2024

Archaeologists digging at the northern end of Trafalgar Square found evidence that Saxon London’s center was bigger and extended further...