Khaybar West Pendant & Mustatil Super-Field (Harrat Khaybar fringe)
Jebel Umm Sinman western mustatils · Khaybar pendant-tomb cluster
Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (Neolithic pastoral to Early Bronze Wadi Sawawin)·Arabian Neolithic (Khaybar Neolithic pastoralists, Wadi Sawawin)·🇸🇦 Medina Province, Khaybar oasis west, Harrat Khaybar lava fringe, Saudi Arabia
About
About Khaybar West Pendant & Mustatil Super-Field (Harrat Khaybar fringe)
Western Harrat Khaybar's densest mustatil–pendant-tomb–kite super-cluster: RCU–UWA 2020–2023 mapped 45 mustatils (20–120 m long rectangular enclosures with 1-m lava-stone walls and head-bulls) interdigitated with 80 pendant-tombs (circular cairn 4–6 m with 20–50 m tails), 12 kites (ends 120–250 m) and 30 keyhole gates on a 12 x 4 km basalt terrace. Dating through OSL and surface Neolithic scrapers (6th–5th mill. BCE) matches classic Khaybar mustatils (5200–5000 BCE).
Pendants overlay mustatil walls, indicating sequential Neolithic to Early Bronze re-use for burial. Kites target Dhazz gazelle migration funnel west of Khaybar oasis, linking ritual and hunting economies in one landscape palimpsest. Proposed RCU protection.
Why it mattersDemonstrates mustatil–pendant–kite landscape succession at one Khaybar terrace.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Mustatil cattle skull caches
Theories
- 01Ritual–hunting integrated territory
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.5200 – 3000 BCE (Neolithic to Early Bronze)
- Period
- Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (Neolithic pastoral to Early Bronze Wadi Sawawin)
- Culture
- Arabian Neolithic (Khaybar Neolithic pastoralists, Wadi Sawawin)
- Builders
- North Arabian Neolithic pastoral–hunter groups
- Purpose
- Ritual mustatil cattle-veneration, later pendant-tomb burial, plus gazelle kites
- Abandoned
- c.2500 BCE (aridization)
- Rediscovered
- 2018 UWA Aerial Archaeology in Saudi; 2020 RCU lidar
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
5200 BCE
Earliest mustatil OSL
2023
UWA maps 45 mustatils with 80 pendants
On the ground
Structures & features
25.7500° N · 39.2500° E · 820 m · 2 mapped features
Mustatil 31 (80 m) with Head Chamber
mustatil80-m mustatil with 1-m wall and bull-chamber containing cattle bucrania
25.7520° N · 39.2520° EPendant-Tomb Cluster 7
cairn7 pendants 4–6 m cairns with 30-m tails overlying mustatil 12
25.7480° N · 39.2480° E