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Saudi Heritage Commission Unearths Neolithic Human Activity Traces in Jabal Irf

The results of laboratory analyses of radiocarbon (C14) indicate that the peak of human settlement at the site was during the sixth and early fifth millennium BC. SPA
The results of laboratory analyses of radiocarbon (C14) indicate that the peak of human settlement at the site was during the sixth and early fifth millennium BC. SPA
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Saudi Heritage Commission Unearths Neolithic Human Activity Traces in Jabal Irf

The results of laboratory analyses of radiocarbon (C14) indicate that the peak of human settlement at the site was during the sixth and early fifth millennium BC. SPA
The results of laboratory analyses of radiocarbon (C14) indicate that the peak of human settlement at the site was during the sixth and early fifth millennium BC. SPA

The Saudi Heritage Commission, in cooperation with the German Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Geoanthropology in the Green Arabia Project, revealed one of the most significant sites of the prehistoric period near Jabal Irf in Hail region. The site study was published in an article in PLOS ONE magazine.

A scientific team that participated in the project—including researchers and specialists from the Kingdom, Australia, Britain, Italy, and the United States in various specializations of the prehistoric period—is studying numerous archaeological materials from different sites dating back to the Neolithic period.

Jabal Irf is located in a lake basin within the Jubbah Oasis, north of the city of Hail and south of the Nafud Desert.

The site was found to date back to the Neolithic, through archaeological evidence, the results of laboratory and comparative analyses that showed a little bit about the role of this period and its cultural connotations.

The site is also a unique natural landscape from the Neolithic, containing evidence of stone manufacturing where there was a rock shelter and an open site containing traces of settlement and seasonal human activity dating from the middle and late Holocene era.

The results of laboratory analyses of radiocarbon (C14) indicate that the peak of human settlement at the site was during the sixth and early fifth millennium BC.

Excavation work revealed that humans in this place used stone pestles and mills in daily activities even after they were broken due to frequent use.

A group of them was found inside many fire stoves, covered with small stones and fragments of the broken pestles, which were proven to be used in preparing plants and grinding bones, based on the results of analyzes using microscopic examination of a group of these grinders, to determine the methods of use and dietary habits of humans in that period.

The results of the study of stone mills also showed the dietary habits and economic life of humans in that period, and their uses in preparing plant and animal food, which gave certain indications of the beginnings of economic transformation, from hunting to food production according to the available resources.

Man used these simple stone mills to prepare plants as food and extract marrow from animal bones, which was an important food source in the Neolithic environment, where there were different types of wild animals living in the Arabian Peninsula that humans consumed for food, including cows, deer, sheep, oryx, goats, and ostriches.

The grinding tools were used in the production of pigments for art, as they are a distinctive feature of the colored rock art that was common in the northern Arabian Peninsula in the Neolithic. It is possible that these pigments were also used as cosmetics.
The use of stone grinders formed an important part of the life of human societies in the Arabian Peninsula, and their use has not stopped. Ethno-archaeological studies have shown the presence of stone grinders in many villages in rural areas that depend on agriculture as a main food source.

These distinctive discoveries shed light on some unknown aspects of human activities in prehistoric periods, which preceded the discovery of writing and the emergence of history. They give an indication of human adaptation to this region, and ways of exploitation of available environmental resources.

They also reflect artistic aspects through the use of these tools to produce materials through which these ancient individuals and communities expressed their lifestyle and livelihood during the various prehistoric periods.

This discovery comes within the framework of the Heritage Commission's efforts in the archaeological survey and excavation work that it conducts periodically, and continuing discoveries and scientific studies of national archaeological sites across all the Kingdom's regions that are to be introduced and benefitted from as an important cultural and economic resource within the national strategy for emerging culture from Saudi Vision 2030.

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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

As Iran faces increasing tensions with the West and turmoil at home, a new exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying Western artwork including pieces not seen by the public in at least a decade.
The unveiling of the exhibition “Eye to Eye” has drawn numerous women, their hair uncovered, to the underground galleries of the museum in Tehran's Laleh Park. Their presence, while unacknowledged by authorities, shows the way life has changed inside Iran just in the last few years even as the country's theocracy presses forward with enriching uranium to near-weapons grade levels and launching attacks on Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars, The Associated Press said.
“The first feeling that came to me, and I told my parents, was that I can’t believe I’m seeing these works, which have always been kept far from our eyes,” said Aida Zarrin, a young woman at the museum.
“If such events are held here and we can see artworks like the rest of the world, it’s enough. They are really precious.”
The government of Iran’s Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, the former Empress Farah Pahlavi, built the museum and acquired the vast collection in the late 1970s, when oil boomed and Western economies stagnated. Upon opening, it showed sensational works by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock and other heavyweights, enhancing Iran’s cultural standing on the world stage.
But just two years later, in 1979, Shiite clerics ousted the shah and packed away the art in the museum’s vault. Some paintings — cubist, surrealist, impressionist and even pop art — sat untouched for decades to avoid offending Islamic values and the appearance of catering to Western sensibilities. Nearly everything is believed still to be there, though an Andy Warhol print of the empress was slashed during the revolution.
Today, the collection is likely worth billions of dollars. Even with Iran now cash-strapped under Western sanctions, officials with the museum have been able to advocate for keeping the collection, though there have been occasional trades in the past for items from Persian history. Those sanctions may increase under the next administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
As Iranian politics have thawed, re-frozen and thawed again, the collection resurfaces along with those changes.
Among the over 120 works being shown are ones from Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, along with celebrated Iranian artists. One of the Warhols, “Jacqueline Kennedy II,” is a silkscreen double image of the former US first lady in mourning after the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John Kennedy. Another Warhol portrait of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger also garnered attention from the cellphone photo snappers.
“A lot of these works are important works in the history of art, and that’s why this show distinguishes itself from others,” said Jamal Arabzadeh, the exhibition's curator. ”A lot of people with less exposure to art have discovered the museum for the first time. ... We are seeing a part of the community that are discovering art and the museum and see the potential of this place, and this is something to be proud of.”
The presence of Western art comes as Iran's government has long fought against items like Barbie dolls and depictions of cartoon characters from “The Simpsons.” Such Western influences have been deemed un-Islamic in the past and have been seen as part of a “soft” cultural war against Iran.
With a ticket costing the equivalent of 14 US cents, the exhibition offers a rare government-sanctioned event not involving the country's politics or Shiite religion.
Among the visitors were many women defying the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. Crackdowns over the hijab have slowed down after Iran's presidential election in July that elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, though individual cases of arrest continue to draw anger.
And for many, the cost of tickets to travel abroad given Iran's collapsing rial currency keep foreign museums out of reach.
“This is very attractive for art enthusiasts because not everyone can go and see museums abroad. It’s extremely exciting to see the works here,” said a woman who only gave her last name, Dolatshahi. “I had no idea I could see works by van Gogh and Picasso here.”