Harrat Uwayrid Mustatil Field
Uwayrid Harrat Mustatils
Late Neolithic, Arabian Mustatil horizon·Northwest Arabian Neolithic pastoralists·🇸🇦 Tabuk Province, Harrat Uwayrid, Saudi Arabia
About
About Harrat Uwayrid Mustatil Field
Dense high-altitude mustatil field of 19 enclosures at 1320 m on the Harrat Uwayrid basalt plateau, the northernmost verified mustatil concentration at 27 N. 0-m thick basalt walls and prominent head-cells with horned orthostats, dated by two C14 assays on sealed hearth under platform to 5300-5000 BCE. Unlike Khaybar's sandstone, Uwayrid walls use dense columnar basalt with kerb-edging, 30% narrower than southern fields, reflecting material constraint at altitude.
The field occupies a wind-sheltered collapsed lava tube basin with internal drainage lakebed, suggesting ritual aggregation around seasonal water. Horned orthostat motif matches AlUla but with added cup-marks on platform slabs, linking to earlier Jubbah cupule tradition 150 km east.
Why it mattersNorthernmost mustatil field extends ritual horizon 250 km north, proving highland basalt adaptation and lake-basin aggregation model.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why narrow walls at altitude
Theories
- 01Highland seasonal lake aggregation
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.5300-5000 BCE
- Period
- Late Neolithic, Arabian Mustatil horizon
- Culture
- Northwest Arabian Neolithic pastoralists
- Builders
- Uwayrid Neolithic highland foragers
- Purpose
- Ritual feasting and aggregation at highland lake basin
- Abandoned
- c.5000 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 2018 Abu-Azizeh volcanic survey; 2022 C14 dating
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
5300 BCE
Earliest mustatil foundations on basalt
2022
C14 places at 5300 BCE, northernmost confirmation
On the ground
Structures & features
26.9000° N · 37.9000° E · 1320 m · 2 mapped features
Mustatil UW-04 Head-Cell
mustatilHorned orthostat with cup-marks on basalt platform
26.8980° N · 37.9020° ELakebed Gathering Area
natural featureSeasonal lakebed basin central to mustatil cluster
26.9020° N · 37.8980° E