Tabuk Plateau Mustatil Field
Tabuk Mustatils · Hisma Mustatils North
Late Neolithic (Arabian Humid Period)·Northwest Arabian Neolithic pastoralists·🇸🇦 Tabuk Region, Tabuk Plateau south of Wadi Dam, Saudi Arabia
About
About Tabuk Plateau Mustatil Field
An extensive mustatil field of 52 rectangular stone platforms on the Tabuk Plateau, each 20–140 m long with a narrow courtyard flanked by parallel short walls and terminal heads with orthostats. Dated by OSL of underlying sand sheets to 5000–4500 BCE (Late Neolithic), the platforms cluster around sandstone jebels and prehistoric lake beds. Excavation 2021–2023 by RCU–University of Western Australia uncovered cattle horn cores and feasting hearths at platform heads, indicating communal cattle-cult ritual preceding later massive Dumat and AlUla fields. The Tabuk plateau extends the known mustatil province 300 km north.
Why it mattersNorthernmost mustatil field extending province to Tabuk, bridging Jordan Badia and AlUla.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01North–south cultural transmission
Theories
- 01Cattle-cult communal ritual
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.5000 – 4500 BCE
- Period
- Late Neolithic (Arabian Humid Period)
- Culture
- Northwest Arabian Neolithic pastoralists
- Builders
- Tabuk plateau pastoralists
- Purpose
- Communal cattle ritual and feasting platforms
- Abandoned
- c.4000 BCE aridification
- Rediscovered
- 2018 NEOM satellite survey; 2021 UWA excavation
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
5000 BCE
Initial platform construction
2021
UWA uncovers cattle horn cores
On the ground
Structures & features
28.2500° N · 36.6500° E · 870 m · 2 mapped features
Mustatil T-18 Main Platform
earthwork120-m platform with orthostat head
28.2510° N · 36.6510° EJebel Fringe Mustatil T-33
earthwork68-m platform against sandstone jebel
28.2470° N · 36.6470° E