Harrat Uwayrid Mustatil Extension — Northern Al-Ula frontier (Uwayrid North)
Uwayrid North mustatils · Al-Ula frontier mustatil field
Neolithic (Late Pottery Neolithic, 5300–5000 BCE)·Northwest Arabian Neolithic (Uwayrid pastoral)·🇸🇦 Tabuk Province / Medina Province, Harrat Uwayrid north terrace, Al-Ula hinterland 40 km north of Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia
About
About Harrat Uwayrid Mustatil Extension — Northern Al-Ula frontier (Uwayrid North)
Northernmost documented mustatil concentration, 40 km north of Al-Ula city on the Uwayrid harrat–sandstone ecotone: Aerial Archaeology in Saudi (UWA–Oxford–RCU) 2019–2024 logged 52 mustatils 18–85 m, tightly clustered on a 14 x 2 km ferruginous sandstone cuesta where harrat basalt interfingers with Al-Ula red sandstone. Morphology identical to Harrat Uwayrid core (chambered long walls, 0.8-m basalt + sandstone wall), but platforms built partly of sandstone slabs — only Saudi mustatils with bichrome stone, proving material choice was symbolic not purely opportunistic. OSL 5320–5070 BCE. Associated with 2021's 'Hegra' Nabatean road reuse as mustatils were robbed for Iron Age cairns.
Why it mattersNorthern frontier and bichrome stone variant expands mustatil cultural geography.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Bichrome symbolism
Theories
- 01Al-Ula ecotone chiefdom
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.5320 – 5070 BCE
- Period
- Neolithic (Late Pottery Neolithic, 5300–5000 BCE)
- Culture
- Northwest Arabian Neolithic (Uwayrid pastoral)
- Builders
- Al-Ula hinterland Neolithic pastoralists
- Purpose
- Cattle-veneration ritual enclosures and clan territory
- Abandoned
- c.4500 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 2019 UWA–RCU Aerial Archaeology
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
5320 BCE
Earliest OSL, Uwayrid north cluster
2024
52 mustatil gazetteer published
On the ground
Structures & features
27.0500° N · 37.4500° E · 720 m · 2 mapped features
Bichrome Mustatil 27 (45 m)
mustatil45-m mustatil with basalt south wall and sandstone north wall
27.0520° N · 37.4520° EBetyl Standing Stone in Mustatil 12
standing stoneBetyl orthostat 1.1 m in head chamber of 38-m mustatil
27.0480° N · 37.4480° E