沙烏地阿拉伯現身令人驚嘆的12,000年前岩畫
發現巨大的駱駝和驢子岩畫，以及數百件雕刻工具，暗示該地區在冰河時期之後曾存在複雜的早期定居點。
紅色岩石上蝕刻的真人大小駱駝雕刻。
「這些作品現在可能與西歐洞穴藝術的巔峰時期同時代，」法國國家科學研究中心的考古學家紀堯姆·沙盧說。來源…薩胡特岩畫與考古項目
作者：弗朗茨·利茲
2025年9月30日
2023年春天，在沙烏地阿拉伯北部納夫德沙漠一個偏僻的考古遺址，一位名叫薩利赫·伊德里斯的日工站在一條測試溝旁，等待著下一桶沉積物被篩出。但當他抬頭望向眼前的砂岩峭壁時，眼前的景象讓他震驚：一個從未被記錄下來的秘密。
一塊飽經風霜的二維雕刻被蝕刻在130英尺高的懸崖上，描繪了19頭真人大小的駱駝和3頭驢子。這些雕刻位於傑貝爾米斯瑪山的山腰上，後來被發現創作於11400至12800年前。它們是迄今為止在中東地區發現的最古老的大型自然主義動物藝術，也是世界上最古老的動物藝術之一。
「我們真的很幸運能有這次發現，」德國馬克斯·普朗克地質人類學研究所的考古學家、負責此次實地考察計畫的瑪麗亞·古格寧說道。 「這些雕刻已經褪色，只有在早晨太陽升起，陽光恰好照射到岩畫上時，才能看到大約90分鐘。”
Guagnin 博士是周二發表在《自然通訊》雜誌上的一項研究的主要作者，該研究有助於填補該地區考古記錄的空白。論文認為，水坑和季節性湖泊等淡水來源塑造了冰河時期後沙漠地區早期人類的定居點。
對傑貝勒米斯馬（Jebel Misma）沉積物的分析，以及在半徑 20 英里範圍內的另外兩個此前未發掘的遺址傑貝勒阿爾南（Jebel Arnaan）和傑貝勒姆萊哈（Jebel Mleiha）發現了同一時期的藝術品和類似鑿子的工具，都證實了這一說法。 「發現真正的雕刻工具讓我感到驚訝，」馬克斯普朗克化學研究所的生物地球化學家 Meinrat Andreae 說。 “能夠親手握住新石器時代藝術家使用過的真正工具，這有多酷啊？”
這塊巨大的岩石藝術石板位於傑貝勒米斯馬（Jebel Misma），在懸崖峭壁上130英尺處被發現。石板已透過數位技術繪製成彩色輪廓。圖片來源：Guagnin 等人，《自然通訊》，2025
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Stunning 12,000-Year-Old Rock Art Emerges in Saudi Arabia
The discovery of huge petroglyphs of camels and donkeys, as well as hundreds of engraving tools, hints at complex early settlement in the region following the Ice Age.
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“These representations are now potentially contemporary with the peak of cave art in Western Europe,” said Guillaume Charloux, an archaeologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris.Credit...Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology ProjectBy Franz Lidz
Sept. 30, 2025
In the spring of 2023, at an isolated archaeological site in the Nafud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia, a day laborer named Saleh Idris stood beside a test trench, awaiting the next bucket of sediment to be sieved. But when he glanced up at the sandstone cliff before him, he was stunned by what he saw: a secret that had never been documented.
A panel of weathered, two-dimensional carvings depicting 19 life-size camels and three donkeys was etched into the escarpment 130 feet above. The engravings, on the side of a mountain known as Jebel Misma, were later found to have been created between 11,400 and 12,800 years ago. They are the oldest large-scale naturalistic animal art ever found in the Middle East and are among the oldest in the world.
“We got really lucky with this discovery,” said Maria Guagnin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany who directed the field project. “The engravings are so faded that they are only visible for about 90 minutes in the morning, when the sun rises over the mountain and the light hits the rock art at just the right moment.”
Dr. Guagnin is the lead author of a study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications that helps to close a gap in the archaeological record for this region. The paper argues that freshwater sources like water holes and seasonal lakes shaped early human settlement in the desert after the Ice Age.
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Corroboration for this claim includes an analysis of the sediment at Jebel Misma and the discovery of artwork and chisel-like tools from the same era at two other previously unexcavated sites, Jebel Arnaan and Jebel Mleiha, within a 20-mile radius. “I was amazed at the find of actual engraving tools,” said Meinrat Andreae, a biogeochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. “How cool is it that you can hold the actual tools in your hand, which the Neolithic artists used?”
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The monumental rock art panel at Jebel Misma, which was discovered 130 feet up along the face of the escarpment. The engravings have been digitally outlined in color.Credit...Guagnin et al., Nature Communications, 2025圖片
三張刻有駱駝圖案的懸崖照片組成的網格圖。第三塊石板包含真人大小的雕刻輪廓和人物比例的疊加輪廓。
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An arrowhead uncovered at nearby Jebel Arnaan.Credit...特寫鏡頭：某人手指間握著的一件小型石器。在附近的傑貝勒阿爾南（Jebel Arnaan）發現的箭頭。圖片來源：
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