In what is now Saudi Arabia, archaeologists uncovered a lost network of highways. This highway is marked by the presence of human tombs that connect one oasis to another.
Thousands of years ago, these roads brought Badawi or Bedouin people and their animals access to water sources, guided by the paths of their ancestors.
"Cemetery roads were the main highway network of their time, and show that the populations that lived on the Arabian Peninsula 4,500 years ago were far more socially and economically connected to each other than we previously thought," said archaeologist Matthew Dalton of the University of Western. , Australia, quoted from Science Alert.
Stone-clad burial chambers such as those found in Saudi Arabia are quite common throughout the Arabian Peninsula. But in the northwestern region of Arabia, these burial chambers were much more concentrated.
Over the past decade, satellite imagery has revealed a region filled with thousands of stone structures shaped like pendants, either flanking ancient desert roads or leading to them.
The image below compares the two road settings created side by side.
On the left, you can see a series of ringed stone mounds and a tailed "pendant" structure that line the ancient path.
Whereas on the right is a more sparse terrain, dotted with various types of suspended structures, all parallel to a series of paths in between, leading to a water source. The closer the road to the oasis, the more concentrated the surrounding structures.
Using satellite imagery and on-the-ground investigations, archaeologists working in Saudi Arabia identified "an extraordinary density of prehistoric burial monuments". Archaeologists say nothing like this has been found anywhere else.
In one area alone, known as Khaybar, the researchers counted nearly 10,000 dry rock burial structures, most of which are located near permanent water sources.
"These oases, especially Khaybar, exhibit some of the densest burial monuments known worldwide," Dalton said.
"The number of Bronze Age tombs built around them suggests that this population had begun to settle more permanently in this favorable location."
Below is an example at al Ha'it Oasis.
When examining the individual oases more closely, the researchers identified a network of smaller pathways radiating outward. They suspect this may have been used to move herds of animals in the season when rainfall is higher.
However, during a drought, longer walks may be more useful. By bouncing from one desert oasis or spring to another, ancient Bedouins were able to traverse much larger areas in search of better soil and climate.
"Indeed, by simply following the network of identified burial roads, it would be possible to traverse about 530 kilometers," the study authors said.
