Preliminary archaeological investigations at the Al Magar site : report prepared for the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage

Abstract

During the Green Arabia conference, held at the University of Oxford, in April, 2014, Professor Ali Ghabban, Vice President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), invited Professor Michael Petraglia to prepare a preliminary field season at the Al-Magar site. Professor Ghabban requested that our team coordinate with the SCTH and our colleague, Dr Abdullah Alsharekh, of King Saud University, who was to organise the forthcoming field season. The purpose of the preliminary field season at Al-Magar was to map the archaeological site in order to provide baseline information that could help prepare the SCTH for future field investigations. Another aim was to provide an interdisciplinary expertise regarding the potential importance of the Al-Magar site, placing it in environmental and cultural context. Petraglia subsequently prepared a small core team of researchers, consisting of experts in remote sensing (mapping) (Dr Paul Breeze), palaeoenvironments (Dr Tom White), archaeology (stone tools) (Dr Huw Groucutt), palaeontology (vertebrate fauna) (Dr Chris Stimpson), and rock art (Dr Maria Guagnin). This interdisciplinary research orientation is consistent with the methods being utilised by the Palaeodeserts team across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and consistent with the aims and plans of the “Green Arabia Research Centre”, announced by HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman at the Green Arabia conference in Oxford. By way of background, in March 2010, a scientific team of archaeologists from the SCTH and the Palaeodeserts team visited Al-Magar. The initial team included Professor Ghabban, Dr Alsharekh, Professor Petraglia and Dr Groucutt. Among the recommendations made during this initial field visit was that the site be radiocarbon dated. Accordingly, samples were collected in the field from a disturbed pit, processed in Riyadh, and sent to Beta Analytic. The radiocarbon results were successful, producing ages of ca. 8,000 years before the present. These initial radiocarbon ages were generally consistent with the artefacts collected from the site and observed at the National Museum (Riyadh), which indicate a Neolithic occupation, as well as later occupations. One of the most interesting aspects of this finding was that it suggests the site was occupied during a “wet phase” (The Early Holocene Wet Phase), known and recorded by palaeoenvironmental experts working in the Arabian Peninsula (see Parton et al., 2015; Jennings et al. 2015). Thus past populations were present in this now hyperarid zone, during a period of time when the area had more favourable environmental conditions (i.e., a “Green Arabia” event). Here we report the preliminary results of a five-day survey of the Al-Magar locality, which was undertaken by our interdisciplinary team in November of 2014.