4,000-Year-Old Fort City Identified in Saudi Arabian Oasis

The ancient Bronze Age town al-Natah was identified by archaeologists under a Saudi Arabian oasis in the Madinah province, according to a recent study published in the journal PLoS ONE.

The remains are hidden by the walled oasis Khaybar, which is comprised of fertile land surrounded by desert area. Slowly occupied from 2400 BCE until 1500 BCE (at the latest, 1300 BCE), the ancient town was built as the area pivoted from nomadic cattle-herding to permanent settlements.

The town would have been home to roughly 500 residents across 3.7 acres. It contained a central district and nearby residential settlement protected by ramparts. Building foundations at the site were strong enough to support one to two-story dwellings. The city seems to have been abandoned about 1,000 years after it was initially inhabited.

A cluster of graves containing metal weapons such as axes and daggers along with stones like agate were also found near the town. The quality of these finds as well as the implementation of burial practices are indicative of a certain level of advancement among those who lived there.

Until recently, it has been hard to study northern Arabia as there are few well-preserved archaeological sites. Sites like al-Natah provide greater insight into early urbanization efforts among the region.

“By comparison with neighboring oasis centers, we suggest that Northwestern Arabia during the Bronze Age−largely dominated by pastoral nomadic groups and already integrated into long-distance trade networks,” the team wrote.

During the Early-Middle Bronze Age, the region appears to have favored small fortified towns that may have established an early trade network for spices, frankincense, and myrrh between southern Arabia to the Mediterranean.