12,000-year-old rock art hints at the Arabian Desert’s lush past

Researchers discovered 12,000-year-old rock art in Saudi Arabia's Nefud Desert, featuring life-size camels and other animals carved into clifftops that reveal the region's dramatically different past. The 150 newly documented petroglyphs at three remote sites are 4,000 years older than previously known Arabian rock art and were created when the now-barren desert was lush and green. Nomadic hunters carved these monumental engravings in four phases to mark territory and water sources as they followed wild herds into the verdant landscape. The discovery provides new evidence of how prehistoric humans adapted to climate changes and establishes the origins of a previously unknown artistic tradition in the region.