Composite drone photograph of the large panel at Jebel Misma (JMI 18) in Saudia Arabia. Engravings traced to show 19 life-sized camels and 3 equids. Naturalistic animals belonging to the middle phase traced in white. More stylised and standardised depictions of the later phase traced in blue. Unidentified lines traced in black. White traced camels: 1.7-1.9m length, blue camels: 2.15-2.6m length. A human figure was added on the far left for scale (1.7m).
Ancient rock art panels depicting life-sized arid species, such as camels and ibex, have been found carved into rock in prominent locations on the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in northern Saudi Arabia.
The petroglyphs stand up to 2.2m in height and 3m in length. Some of the panels were etched onto cliff surfaces in inaccessible but highly visible areas up to 39m above the ground.
Monumental rock art panel at Jebel Misma (JMI18). Credit: Guagnin et al., Nature Communications (2025)
New research has determined they were likely made between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene period and beginning of the Holocene.
“The visual impact of multiple life-sized animal engravings is impressive even today. Freshly engraved … the images would have had considerable visual impact,” write the authors of the study published in Nature Communications.
The more than 60 rock art panels contained 176 engravings depicting mainly camels, ibex, equids (from the horse family), gazelles and an auroch (an extinct species of bovine). Human figures, faces or masks were also included.
Rock art panels at Jebel Arnaan. Tracings highlight the layering of engravings, showing phase 1 in green, phase 2 in yellow, phase 3 in white and phase 4 in shades of blue. Credit: Guagnin et al., Nature Communications (2025)
“The precarious nature of the engraving process is particularly evident in the largest recorded panel … This panel would have been accessed by climbing up a cliff and then engraved while standing on a downward sloping ledge, only [about] ~30 to 50cm in width.
“Today the sandstone is too degraded to reach the ledge safely and the panel was documented using a drone. The friable nature of the substrate and the slope of the narrow ledges suggest the engravers likely risked their lives to create this art. Engraving at close range would have required them to use direct percussion, while also preventing them from being able to see the complete image.”
Excavation of Trench 1 directly beneath a rock art panel at Jebel Arnaan, where an engraving tool was discovered. Credit: Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project
The study’s lead author, Dr Maria Guagnin from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, suggests: “These large engravings are not just rock art – they were probably statements of presence, access and cultural identity.”
The researchers determined approximately when the petroglyphs were created by excavating directly below them. They recovered more than 530 stone tools including 3 with marks which indicate they were likely used to create the art.
“Battering is evident on multiple edges of all 3 tools, indicating they were used extensively,” the authors write.
An ‘El Khiam’ arrowhead uncovered at Jebel Arnaan, Saudi Arabia. This tool type is well known from early Holocene sites in the Levant, highlighting long-distance links. Credit: Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project
“Due to their angular form these tools are not viable as lithic hammerstones in the arced free-hand percussion motion, however, the tapered ends would make good surfaces for the direct end-on percussion required to peck petroglyphs.”
The tools were retrieved from sediment layers which date to around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition when the Earth’s climate changed following the Last Glacial Maximum (25 to 20 thousand years ago) at the end of the last Ice Age.
“How climate and population dynamics during this crucial period in human history unfolded … on the Arabian Peninsula, is poorly understood,” the authors write.
Life-sized, naturalistic camel engraving documented at Jebel Misma, Saudi Arabia. Credit: Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project
According to sediment analysis, the change in climate saw seasonal water bodies reappear in the region following a period of extreme aridity. The authors suggest the landscape was “likely slightly wetter than it is today but too arid to allow the establishment of more permanent lakes”.
“Human groups in northern Arabia began to exploit newly emerging seasonal water bodies in dryland ecosystems soon after they were established,” they add.
These sources of water would likely have allowed humans to survive and expand into the interior of the desert.
Dr Ceri Shipton, co-lead author from the UK’s University College London, says: “The rock art marks water sources and movement routes, possibly signifying territorial rights and intergenerational memory.”