Saudi Arabia uncovers ritual platform that houses Egyptian Artifacts

CAIRO - 13 June 2020: A huge ritual platform and Egyptian artifacts were discovered in northern Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Olivia Munoz, a researcher at France’s Nationwide Center for Scientific Analysis headed a team of international archaeologists from France, Saudi Arabia and Italy who discovered a vast 35-meter-long triangular ritual platform buried at the oasis settlement of Dûmat al-Jandal in northern Saudi Arabia.

The archaeologists uncovered as well monumental ruins on the oasis settlement of Dûmat al-Jandal.



The discovery which was performed in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Culture housed a big surprise in a looted tomb, among decaying ancient bodies, which is the discovery of ancient Egyptian artifacts .

Antiquity journal published a new paper that presents a scientific study that includes artifacts and human remains from deposits that were discovered in and around the platform, in two side niches and in nearby tombs.

The team of archaeologists discovered tombs spanning from the mid sixth millennium BC until about 50 AD near the vast triangular platform.

According to an article published in PHYS , the archaeologists found irregular stones inside the huge triangular platform in addition to dry-stone exterior partitions, one of which contained two niches.

The paper declared how the uncovered ritual platform was built from about 8,000-years-ago in several phases.

Researchers concluded that the area was symbolically important because beneath the stones, a number of human bodies were discovered.



The second phase of burials shows that the monumental edifice was used for a ritual or funerary function, it was mostly an area of collective commemoration and social ritual.

The research performed and published in Antiquity indicated that the platform was used as a ceremonial place tailor made for social and ritual activities.

The third burial phase which dates back to about 5,400 to 5,000 years ago houses looted tombs that contain thirteen beads: two cylindrical shell beads, three cylindrical stone beads, three flat beads of whitish stone and five carnelian beads.

Furthermore the archaeologists discovered seashells from the Pink Sea, a faience bead with Egyptian glaze and a scarab beetle amulet from ancient Egypt.

An Egyptian blue glaze is covering the stone scarab and is inscribed with a stylized pharaoh wearing his traditional headdress and extended pleated skirt, which is detailed with cobras protruding from it.

The discovery of these Egyptian artifacts reveals that there were old trading relations between the inhabitants of Dûmat al-Jandal and ancient Egyptian New Kingdom , which dominated from the 16th to the 11th century BC.

On how did these artifacts transferred from Egypt to a sacred Arabian oasis platform
the paper stated that this is because the site is near Sinai and to the Southern Levant.

It will be never known exactly how these artifacts were transferred ancient Egypt to Saudi Arabia, but maybe further future excavations at the ritual platform will help accurately understand how this happened.