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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
Mon May 3, 2021, 01:37 PM May 2021

These mysterious stone structures in Saudi Arabia are older than the pyramids

Thousands of monumental structures built from walls of rock in Saudi Arabia are older than Egypt's pyramids and the ancient stone circles of Britain, researchers say – making them perhaps the earliest ritual landscape ever identified.

A study published Thursday in the journal Antiquity shows that the mysterious structures dotted around the desert in northwestern Saudi Arabia – called "mustatils" from the Arabic word for "rectangle" – are about 7,000 years old. That’s much older than expected, and about 2,000 years older than either Stonehenge in England or the oldest Egyptian pyramid.

“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. “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.

“They show that this part of the world is far from the eternal empty desert that people often imagine, but rather somewhere that remarkable human cultural developments have taken place” said archaeologist Huw Groucutt of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History at Jena in Germany.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/mysterious-stone-structures-saudi-arabia-are-older-pyramids-rcna805

Researchers are documenting the muscatils and other ancient rock constructions by satellite
photographs, helicopter reconnaissance and ground surveys.

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These mysterious stone structures in Saudi Arabia are older than the pyramids (Original Post) left-of-center2012 May 2021 OP
Astounding. Over 1,000 of them widespread on the landscape. Evolution of culture. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz May 2021 #1
The long lost origins of the iPhone? Ford_Prefect May 2021 #2
nonsensical left-of-center2012 May 2021 #3
Apple has always spun mystery around it's iconography. Ford_Prefect May 2021 #8
Whatever left-of-center2012 May 2021 #9
What was the Saudi climate then? DBoon May 2021 #4
"What was the Saudi climate then?" left-of-center2012 May 2021 #5
Thanks DBoon May 2021 #6
Fascinating. niyad May 2021 #7
Thank you, very interesting PatSeg May 2021 #10
There are 10,000 years between the Ice Age and the invention of writing. Many lost civilizations..nt SylviaD May 2021 #11
I'm not saying "aliens" but... NurseJackie May 2021 #12
Landing Pads...😊 ashredux May 2021 #13
He knows- but, they do look like landing pads packman May 2021 #14
Well, this one sure does (from the link) Worried2020 May 2021 #15

Ford_Prefect

(7,894 posts)
2. The long lost origins of the iPhone?
Mon May 3, 2021, 02:34 PM
May 2021

Could there be more than a little similarity here?

One must ask these questions...

Of course that would mean...........

Ford_Prefect

(7,894 posts)
8. Apple has always spun mystery around it's iconography.
Mon May 3, 2021, 03:17 PM
May 2021

Humans have borrowed symbols across cultures for ages. What makes you so certain there is NO possible link?
Personally I find the possibility encouraging and at the very least amusing.
😀

left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
5. "What was the Saudi climate then?"
Mon May 3, 2021, 02:57 PM
May 2021

Northern Arabia 7,000 years ago was very different to today. Rainfall was higher, so much of the area was covered by grassland and there were scattered lakes.

Pastoralist groups thrived in this environment, yet it would have been a challenging place to live, with droughts a constant risk.

Vast stone monuments constructed in Arabia 7,000 years ago

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200825113618.htm#:~:text=Northern%20Arabia%207%2C000%20years%20ago,with%20droughts%20a%20constant%20risk.

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