Resource Manager Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Thread: Saudi Arabia Archaeological News News items relating to recent discoveries in Bible Lands and including up-dates of past discoveries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Saudi Eases Access to Long-Hidden Ancient Ruins By Assaad Abboud (AFP) – 1 day ago "AL-HIJR, Saudi Arabia — Fully draped in a black veil, Irish blonde Angela Miskelly stares out in awe as she strolls through Al-Hijr, the ancient Saudi city of tombs carved into rose-coloured sandstone mountains. "Spectacular... wonderful... breathtaking," she says. "But where are the tourists? If we had a site like this in my country, we would have millions of tourists!" Dating back to the second century BC, the Nabataean archaeological site, also known as Madain Saleh, has long been hidden from foreign visitors in this ultra-conservative kingdom that rarely opens up to tourists. Saudi Arabia is thought to have been wary of archaeologists and scientists seeking to study its ancient ruins for fear their findings could shine the spotlight on pre-Islamic civilisations that once thrived there. In recent years, however, Saudis have increasingly ventured to these sites and the authorities are more tolerant of their curiosity. Described as the largest and best preserved site of the Nabataean civilisation south of Petra in Jordan, Madain Saleh is the first Saudi archaeological site to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List." Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted November 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 November 15, 2012 “Roads of Arabia” Presents Hundreds of Recent Finds That Recast the Region’s History "Art exhibits rarely come with their own diplomatic entourage, but the new groundbreaking show at the Sackler, “Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” does. The show’s 314 objects that traveled from the Saudi peninsula were joined by both Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, and the Commission’s vice president of antiquities and museums and the show’s curator Ali al-Ghabban. “Today we hear that Arabia is a desert and petrol wealth. This is not true,” al-Ghabban says. Instead, he argues, it is a land with a deep and textured past, fundamentally intertwined with the cultures around it from the Greco-Romans to the Mesopotamians to the Persians. Dividing the region’s history into three epochs, the show moves from the area’s ancient trade routes at the heart of the incense trade to the rise of Islam and eventual establishment of the Saudi kingdom. “We are not closed,” says al-Ghabban. “We were always open. We are open today.” Many of the pieces in the show are being seen for the first time in North America, after the show toured Paris, Barcelona, St. Petersburg and Berlin. The Sackler has partnered with the Commission to organize a North American tour, tentatively beginning in Pittsburgh before moving to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts and San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum." Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted February 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 Saudi Arabia Reopens Archaeological Gem Hidden Almost a CenturyCaracas,MondayFebruary 18,2013"RIYADH – Saudi Arabia has opened to tourism an ancient archaeological treasure to which entry has been strictly limited for almost a century for religious reasons, and which is very similar to the nearby ruins of Petra, Jordan.The construction of Madain Saleh – “the cities of Saleh” – was started 5,000 years ago not far from the city of Tabuk.Access to the area has been largely banned since the Al Saud dynasty took control of the country in 1932, in strict obedience to an order of the prophet Mohammed not to enter that city except weeping and fasting, because of the tragic fate of the people who had lived there."Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted March 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2013 26 February 2013 Last updated at 01:59 GMTDesert finds challenge horse taming ideasBy Sylvia SmithBBC News"Recent archaeological discoveries on the Arabian Peninsula have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown civilisation based in the now arid areas in the middle of the desert.The artefacts unearthed are providing proof of a civilisation that flourished thousands of years ago and have renewed scientific interest in man and the evolution of his relationship with animals.The 300-odd stone objects so far found in the remote Al Magar area of Saudi Arabia include traces of stone tools, arrow heads, small scrapers and various animal statues including sheep, goats and ostriches.But the object that has engendered the most intense interest from within the country and around the world is a large, stone carving of an "equid" - an animal belonging to the horse family."Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted July 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2014 Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The file (22.2 MB) can be downloaded from the website of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities using the last link on this page Website Link Direct Link to .pdf (22.2 Mb) H/t: BiblePlacesBlog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted April 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2017 BBC - Travel Saudi Arabia's Silent Desert City Madain Saleh isn’t as well-known as Petra, but the Nabateans’ second-largest city played a crucial role in their mysterious empire. By Marjory Woodfield 21 April 2017 "As always, our Saudia Airline flight from Riyadh to Medina started with prayer. “Ladies and gentlemen,” the flight attendant said over the intercom. “The text that you are about to hear is a supplication that the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, used to pray before travelling.”The rest was in Arabic. I listened to the record voice, low and ponderous, as I looked out the small window at the unending desert below. I was travelling with friends to Saudi Arabia’s hidden desert city of Madain Saleh. While many people have heard of Nabatean capital Petra in Jordan, Madain Saleh, the Nabateans’ second-largest city and a Unesco World Heritage Site, remains relatively unknown. Once a thriving city along the ancient spice route, it played a crucial role in building a trade empire. But today its monumental stone-hewn tombs are some of the last, and best preserved, remains of a lost kingdom."Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted November 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2017 400 Mysterious Ancient Stone Structures Discovered in Saudi Arabia By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | October 17, 2017 07:02am ET "Almost 400 mysterious stone structures dating back thousands of years have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, with a few of these wall-like formations draping across old lava domes, archaeologists report. Many of the stone walls, which archaeologists call "gates" because they resemble field gates from above, were found in clusters in a region in west-central Saudi Arabia called Harrat Khaybar."Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted December 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2017 Photos: Aerial Views of Ancient Stone Structures in Saudi Arabia By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | December 15, 2017 06:31am ET Saudi Arabia from Above "Between Oct. 27 and Oct. 29, 2017, an archaeological team took nearly 6,000 photographs of ancient stone structures and other types of archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia. In this photo gallery, Live Science takes a look at a batch of newly released photos." Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted February 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2018 PUBLIC RELEASE: 13-FEB-2018 Rock Art: Life-Sized Sculptures of Dromedaries Found in Saudi Arabia CNRS "At a remarkable site in northwest Saudi Arabia, a CNRS archaeologist[1] and colleagues from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) have discovered camelid sculptures unlike any others in the region. They are thought to date back to the first centuries BC or AD.[2] The find sheds new light on the evolution of rock art in the Arabian Peninsula and is the subject of an article published in Antiquity (February 2018)."Continued Also @:Life-Sized Sculptures Of Dromedaries Found In Saudi Arabia 2/13/2018 06:00:00 PM Continued Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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