You ’re no doubt familiar withStonehenge , themoai endocarp headsof Easter Island , and theNazca Linesof southerly Peru . But one good example of prehistoric monumentalarchitecturethat ’s remain unco unknown is the colossal rectangle shapes plant inthe Arabian Peninsula .
A new study has radiocarbon dated a act of these monuments and found some date back to around 7,000 years ago , making them among the oldest known large - scale monuments link up with rituals on Earth . However , aged examples of rock constructions do survive , for example " kite " in the Middle East .
account in the journalHolocene , the research worker from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany evoke the structures were likely used in ancient rituals that come out as cultures in northern Arabia lead off to look at with radical environmental change and the emergence of pastoralism in the region .
A total of 104 of these immense stone structures have been document in the Nefud Desert of northwest Saudi Arabia . Called “ mustatil ” after the Arabic word for “ rectangle , ” the structures consist of long , thin bulwark less than half a beat high-pitched that stretch along the rocky landscape . Typically , the rectangle - form structures are between 100 ? meters and 200?meters ( 328 to 656 feet ) in length , although they can vary in sizing from 26 meters to 616?meters ( 85 to 2,021 foot ) .
Between 8,000 BCE and 4,000 BCE , the Arabian Peninsula was a rainy grassland covered in lakes and river . This big environment change appears to have led to a reduction in roving life style and edge hoi polloi towards the espousal of pastoralism .
Considering the mustatils were built around this time , the researchers suggest they had some relation to the development of pastoralism and a more sedentary life-style . However , the wall do not seem marvelous enough to service as a justificative structure . The absence of object , such as fireplace fireplace , inside the structure also evoke they were only temporarily used and not for good settled within .
While they might denote some territorial limit , the research worker say they also probably have a ritualistic value .
“ The want of obvious useful functions for mustatils suggests a ritual interpretation . In fact , mustatils on the face of it represent one of the former exercise eff anywhere of large - scale ritual conduct encoded in the practice of monolithic structure and function , ” the subject area author write .
The nature of this ritual stay unclear , especially since the structures remain so unique . But the researchers conceive it might have something to do with ritual slaughter and " conspicuous economic consumption , " such as a feast , in response to the rise of pastoralism in the area .
" Our reading of mustatils is that they are ritual site , where groups of hoi polloi met to do some sort of presently unknown social activity , " Dr Huw Groucutt , lead study author and group leader of the Extreme Events Research Group at Max Planck , said in astatement . " Perhaps they were site of brute sacrifice or banquet . "
