Archaeologists have revealed a vast fortification structure around a desert oasis in northwestern Arabia that dates back to around 4,000 years ago.
A study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports found that Saudi Arabia's Khaybar oasis was entirely enclosed by a rampart in pre-Islamic times. A rampart is a type of fortification that usually consists of a length of embankment or wall.
The oasis is one of the natural wonders of northwestern Saudi Arabia and supports an abundance of native plant and animal life. A source of freshwater, it has long been the site of human activity.
Using field surveys and remote sensing data combined with architectural studies, the scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Royal Commission for AlUla have revealed that the rampart was originally around 9 miles long, although less than half of it is preserved today.
The scientists also estimate that the rampart measured between around 5 and 8 feet in thickness and was approximately 16 feet in height. The vast fortification enclosed an area of nearly 1,100 hectares (2,718 acres).
The fortification structure had never been detected before because of the profound reworking of the local desert landscape over time. (A notable fortress, built much later during the medieval period, is clearly visible within the area of the oasis.)
The researchers estimate that the rampart dates back to the Bronze Age, between 2250 and 1950 B.C.
The Khaybar site bears similarities to other walled oases dating back to the Bronze Age that have been documented in this region. Evidence suggests that the oases of the North Arabian Desert were inhabited by sedentary populations as far back as the fourth and third millennia B.C.
The latest discovery sheds new light on human occupation in the region and provides new information on social complexity during the pre-Islamic period.
While the Khaybar oasis clearly belonged to a network of walled oases in northwestern Arabia, the discovery of the rampart raises questions about why it was built, as well as the nature of the populations who constructed the fortifications.
"The purpose was probably mainly protective" and designed to delimit an agricultural area and sedentary population," CNRS researcher Guillaume Charloux, an author of the paper, told Newsweek. "Protection was not operated by an army, but it was a passive defense."
Last year, archaeologists discovered a giant hand ax thought to be more than 200,000 years old in northwestern Saudi Arabia. An international team of research researchers uncovered the prehistoric stone artifact during an archaeological survey conducted in a desert landscape known as the Qurh Plain.
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