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Prehistory

There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago. It is now believed that the first modern humans to spread east across Asia left Africa about 75,000 years ago across the Bab-el-Mandeb connecting Horn of Africa and Arabia. The Arabian peninsula is regarded as a central figure in our understanding of hominin evolution and dispersals. Arabia underwent an extreme environmental fluctuation in the Quaternary that lead to profound evolutionary and demographic changes. Arabia has a rich Lower Paleolithic record, and the quantity of Oldwan-like sites in the region indicate a significant role that Arabia had played in the early hominin colonization of Eurasia

In the Neolithic period, prominent cultures such as al-Magar whose epicenter lay in modern-day southwestern Najd flourished. al-Magar could be considered as a "Neolithic Revolution" in human knowledge and handicraft skills. The culture is characterized as being one of the first culture in the world where widespread domestication of animals occurred, particularly the horse, during the Neolithic period. Aside from horses, animals such as sheep, goats, dogs, in particular of the Saluki race, ostriches, falcons and fish were discovered in the form of stone statues and rock engravings. al-Magar statues were made from local stone, and it seems that the statues were fixed in a central building that might have had a significant role on the social and religious life of the inhabitants.

In November 2017 hunting scenes showing images of most likely domesticated dogs, resembling the Canaan dog, wearing leashes were discovered in Shuwaymis, a hilly region of northwestern Saudi Arabia. These rock engravings date back more than 8000 years, making them the earliest depictions of dogs in the world.

At the end of the 4th millennium BC, Arabia entered the Bronze Age after witnessing drastic transformations; metals were widely used, and the period was characterized by its 2 m high burials which was simultaneously followed by the existence of numerous temples, that included many free-standing sculptures originally painted with red colours.

Anthropomorphic stela (4th millenium BC), sandstone, 57x27 cm, from El-Maakir-Qaryat al-Kaafa (National Museum, Riyadh)

Anthropomorphic stela (4th millenium BC ), sandstone, 100x36 cm, from El-Maakir-Qaryat al-Kaafa (National Museum, Riyadh)

Pre-Islamic

The Worshiping Servant statue (2500 BC)

The earliest sedentary culture in Saudi Arabia dates back to the Ubaid period, upon discovering various pottery shreds at Dosariyah. Initial analysis of the discovery concluded that the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia was the homeland of the earliest settlers of Mesopotamia, and by extension, the likely origin of the Sumerians. However, experts such as Joan Oates had the opportunity to see the Ubaid period shreds in Eastern Arabia and consequently conclude that the shreds dates to the last two phases of Ubaid period (period three and four), while handful examples could be classified roughly as either Ubaid 3 or Ubaid 2. Thus the idea that colonists from Saudi Arabia had emigrated to southern Mesopotamia and foundd the region's first sedentary culture was abandoned.

Climatic change and the onset of aridity may have brought about the end this phase of settlement, as little archaeological evidence exists from the succeeding millennium. The settlement of the region picks up again in the period of Dilmun in the early 3rd millennium. Known records from Uruk refer to a place called Dilmun, associated in several occasions with copper and in later period it was a source of imported woods in southern Mesopotamia. A number of scholars have suggested that Dilmun originally designated the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, notably linked with the major Dilmunite settlements of Umm an-Nussi and Umm ar-Ramadh in the interior and Tarout on the coast. It's likely that Tarout was the main port and even the capital of Dilmun Mesopotamian inscribed clay tablets suggests that, in the early period of Dilmun, a form of hierarchical organized political structure existed. In 1966 an earthworks in Tarout exposed ancient burial field that yielded large impressive statue dating to the Dilmunite (mid 3rd millennium BC) period. The statue was locally made under strong Mesopotamian influence on the artistic principle of Dilmun. Above one metre in height, the statue is much taller than any possible Mesopotamian or Harappan models.

By 2200 BC, the centre of Dilmun shifted for unknown reasons from Tarout and the Saudi Arabian mainland to the island of Bahrain, and a major developed historical settlements appeared in Bahrain for the first time, where an impressive temple complex and thousands of burial mounds that dates to this period were discovered.

Five kings of Midian slain by Israel (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible)

By the Late Bronze Age, a historically recorded people and land (Median and the Medianites) in the north-western portion of Saudi Arabia are well-documented in the Bible. Centered in Tabouk, Median stretched from Wadi Arabah in the north to the area of al-Wejh in the south. The Medianites were depicted in two major events in the Bible that recount Israel's two wars with Median, somewhere in the early 11th century BC. Politically, the Medianite were described as having decentralized structure headed by five kings (Evi, Rekem, Tsur, Hur and Reba) that was toponyms of important Medianite settlements. It is common view that Median designated a confederation of tribes, the sedentary element settled in the Hijaz while its nomadic affiliates pastured, and sometimes pillaged as far away land as Palestine. The nomadic Medianites were one of the earliest exploiters of the domestication of camels that enabled them to navigate through the harsh terrains of the region.