CAMELS' * -DESERT- CARVINGS. : 7,000 YEARS

                                            

Paris : Life- sized carvings of camels and horses hewn into rock faces in Saudi Arabia could be around 7,000 years old, according to new research that suggests that they are significantly older than previously thought.

The 21 reliefs, which were only recently discovered, are heavily eroded and were initially estimated in 2018 to be some 2,000 years old based on similarities with artworks found in Petra in Jordan.

But the new research by Saudi and European institutions used a variety of different methods, including analyzing tool marks and erosion patterns as well as x-ray technology, and suggests the reliefs are around 7,000 to 8,000 years old.

This would mean that the area of carvings, known as the Camel Site, ''is likely home to the oldest surviving large-scale [naturalistic] animal reliefs in the world,'' the study said. [AFP]