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Ancient Tombs Reveal 4,500-year-old Highway Network in North-west Arabia

A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of al Wadi Oasis near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia. Photo: RCU
A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of al Wadi Oasis near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia. Photo: RCU
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Ancient Tombs Reveal 4,500-year-old Highway Network in North-west Arabia

A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of al Wadi Oasis near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia. Photo: RCU
A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of al Wadi Oasis near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia. Photo: RCU

Archaeologists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) have determined that the people who lived in ancient north-west Arabia built long-distance “funerary avenues,” major pathways flanked by thousands of burial monuments that linked oases and pastures, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) said in a press release on Friday.

The finding suggests a high degree of social and economic connection between the region's populations in the 3rd millennium BCE.

Publication of the findings in the journal The Holocene caps a year of tremendous progress by the UWA team, working under the RCU, in shedding light on the lives of the ancient inhabitants of Arabia.

“The existence of the funerary avenues suggests that complex social horizons existed 4,500 years ago across a huge swathe of the Arabian Peninsula. The finding adds to the steady progress by archaeologists working under the auspices of RCU in understanding the hidden story of the ancient kingdoms and earlier societies of north Arabia,” said the press release.

The UWA team's work is part of a wider effort that includes 13 archaeological and conservation project teams from around the world collaborating with Saudi experts in AlUla and neighboring Khaybar counties in Saudi Arabia.

"The more we learn about the ancient inhabitants of north-west Arabia, the more we are inspired by the way our mission reflects their mindset: they lived in harmony with nature, honored their predecessors, and reached out to the wider world,” said CEO of RCU Amr AlMadani.

“The work done by our archaeological teams in 2021 demonstrates that Saudi Arabia is a home for top-flight science – and we look forward to hosting more research teams in 2022."

Director of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Research for RCU Dr. Rebecca Foote said: “It is terrific to see how analyses of the data are elucidating so many aspects of life from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in north-west Arabia.”

“These articles are just the beginning of the many publications that will advance our knowledge of prehistoric to modern times and have significant implications for the wider region,” she added.

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An Alaska Brown Bear Has a New Shiny Smile After Getting a Huge Metal Crown for a Canine Tooth

This undated image provided by the Lake Superior Zoo, shows Tundra, an Alaskan brown bear, before undergoing a procedure for a new canine tooth, Monday June 23, 2025, at the zoo in Duluth, Minn. (Lake Superior Zoo via AP)
This undated image provided by the Lake Superior Zoo, shows Tundra, an Alaskan brown bear, before undergoing a procedure for a new canine tooth, Monday June 23, 2025, at the zoo in Duluth, Minn. (Lake Superior Zoo via AP)
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An Alaska Brown Bear Has a New Shiny Smile After Getting a Huge Metal Crown for a Canine Tooth

This undated image provided by the Lake Superior Zoo, shows Tundra, an Alaskan brown bear, before undergoing a procedure for a new canine tooth, Monday June 23, 2025, at the zoo in Duluth, Minn. (Lake Superior Zoo via AP)
This undated image provided by the Lake Superior Zoo, shows Tundra, an Alaskan brown bear, before undergoing a procedure for a new canine tooth, Monday June 23, 2025, at the zoo in Duluth, Minn. (Lake Superior Zoo via AP)

An Alaska brown bear at the Lake Superior Zoo in northeastern Minnesota has a gleaming new silver-colored canine tooth in a first-of-its-kind procedure for a bear.

The 800-pound (360-kilogram) Tundra was put under sedation Monday and fitted with a new crown — the largest dental crown ever created, according to the zoo.

“He's got a little glint in his smile now,” zoo marketing manager Caroline Routley said Wednesday.

The hour-long procedure was done by Dr. Grace Brown, a board-certified veterinary dentist who helped perform a root canal on the same tooth two years ago. When Tundra reinjured the tooth, the decision was made to give him a new, stronger crown. The titanium alloy crown, made by Creature Crowns of Post Falls, Idaho, was created for Tundra from a wax cast of the tooth.

Brown plans to publish a paper on the procedure in the Journal of Veterinary Dentistry later this year.

“This is the largest crown ever created in the world," she said. “It has to be published.”

Tundra and his sibling, Banks, have been at the Duluth zoo since they were 3 months old, after their mother was killed.

Tundra is now 6 years old and, at his full height on his hind legs, stands about 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall. The sheer size of the bear required a member of the zoo's trained armed response team to be present in the room — a gun within arm's reach — in case the animal awoke during the procedure, Routley said. But the procedure went without a hitch, and Tundra is now back in his habitat, behaving and eating normally.

Other veterinary teams have not always been as lucky. In 2009, a zoo veterinarian at Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska, suffered severe injuries to his arm while performing a routine medical exam on a 200-pound (90 kilogram) Malaysian tiger.

The tiger was coming out of sedation when the vet inadvertently brushed its whiskers, causing the tiger to reflexively bite down on the vet's forearm.