Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered a town from the Bronze Age in the Khaybar Oasis, located in the northwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
According to the scientific journal PLOS ONE, the discovered town called Al-Natah was proof of a clear division within forts and cities of residential and funerary areas.
The site, which had an area of 2.6 hectares, was inhabited by 500 individuals between 2400 and 2000 BC until 1500 and 1300 BC.
Thanks to the 15-km-long stone wall surrounding the Khaybar Oasis, the site was protected from external factors. The site, buried beneath layers of basalt rock for thousands of years, is also located on the edge of the Harrat Khaybar volcanic field, formed at the meeting point of three valleys in a highly arid area.
The discovery of the ancient town shows the transition from a mobile pastoral life to a settled urban life in the region during the second half of the third millennium BC.
The change challenged the previous notion that pastoral and nomadic society was the dominant socio-economic model in northwestern Arabia during the early and middle Bronze Age.
The study was conducted by the Royal Commission for AlUla in partnership with the French Agency for the Development of AlUla (AFALULA) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
