Latest news with #SaudiHeritageCommission
Asharq Al-Awsat
01-07-2025
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi Heritage Commission Launches Campaign to Highlight Importance of Archaeological Preservation
The Saudi Heritage Commission held an awareness campaign in Jeddah from June 27 to 30 to educate the community about the importance of national heritage and strengthen its role in preserving the Kingdom's cultural and historical identity. Hosted at Jeddah Park, the campaign engaged diverse visitors through an interactive pavilion showcasing immersive experiences and inspiring stories centered on archaeological heritage. It sought to foster a deep sense of national belonging and reinforce the principles of protecting the Kingdom's archaeological assets. The campaign utilized innovative interactive tools and digital platforms to reach a broad audience, maximizing the impact of its awareness messages. This initiative is part of the commission's ongoing efforts to safeguard archaeological sites and artifacts, while drawing attention to the key challenges facing their preservation.
Saudi Gazette
22-06-2025
- General
- Saudi Gazette
Nearly 6,000 new urban heritage sites registered in National Urban Heritage Register
Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — The Saudi Heritage Commission announced on Sunday the registration of 5,969 new urban heritage sites in the National Urban Heritage Register, bringing the total number of registered sites to 34,171. This reflects the richness and diversity of architectural heritage in various regions of the Kingdom. The new registration list included several sites across various regions of the Kingdom. The Riyadh Region has 258 sites; Makkah Region: 483 sites; Qassim Region: 761 sites; Asir Region: 3,893 sites; Al-Baha Region: 499 sites; Hail Region: 60 sites; Jazan Region: 8 sites; Al-Jouf Region: 4 sites; and the Eastern Province: three sites. This registration was made in accordance with regulations related to antiquities and urban heritage, and in accordance with the decision of the Heritage Commission's Board of Directors to delegate the authority's CEO to register urban heritage sites. This is intended to enhance the protection of these sites from encroachment or neglect and ensure their preservation for future generations. The commission emphasized that this step is part of its strategic plan to expand the scope of legal protection for heritage sites and enable their rehabilitation in a way that enhances national identity and highlights their cultural and historical value as living testaments to the Kingdom's architectural heritage. The commission called on all members of society to support its efforts to monitor and register heritage sites by reporting them via the "Balagh" service, communicating with the commission through its official social media channels, or by calling the number of the Unified Security Operations Center 911. The commission emphasized that community participation is a key component in preserving and activating the national urban heritage.
The Hindu
17-06-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
Humid phases once turned Arabian desert into a lush paradise: study
The region called Arabia sits at the heart of the earth's driest deserts, stretching from the Sahara in the west to India's Thar Desert in the east. It holds the distinction of being the largest biogeographical barrier on the planet. Over millennia, the arid conditions of the Saharo-Arabian Desert are expected to have prevented hominins and wildlife from migrating between Africa and Eurasia. Research has found that this arid barrier has existed for at least 11 million years. Then again, fossil evidence from the late Miocene and the Pleistocene epochs has suggested that water-dependent animals like crocodiles, hippopotamuses, and horses roamed the region as recently as 74,000 years ago. The two facts raise a curious idea: could Arabia, the formidable wall of dryness, have once been a more nourishing land? Mineral deposits uncovered recently in the caves of central Saudi Arabia have bolstered this possibility: that Arabia was indeed once part of a lush green landscape that, among other things, allowed animals — including our ancestors — to migrate through as they spread out of Africa. According to the researchers who studied the deposits, the cause of this lushness was intermittent phases of humidity the region experienced in the last eight million years, which gradually turned a desiccated landscape into a well-watered grassland. Their findings were recently published in Nature. In search of Green Arabia 'I visited Saudi Arabia as part of a Fulbright award. I was curious why no one was integrating Arabia into the Out of Africa story and wanted to assess the situation firsthand myself. At the time, I was working in India and I had hypothesised that movements out of Africa would have been across the Arabia-India zone,' Michael Petraglia, director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, leader of the 'Green Arabia' project, and a coauthor of the study, said. The research team itself was international and was supported by the Saudi Heritage Commission in the kingdom's Ministry of Culture. For years, researchers believed that the Arabian Peninsula had always been a barren land with a foreboding environment and where humans had only settled a few thousand years ago, especially once they had managed to domesticate animals like camels and goats. This belief kept Arabia firmly out of theories of 'Out of Africa' — a popular model that suggests modern humans originated in Africa and then migrated to the rest of the world. The 'Green Arabia' hypothesis cuts through this belief and suggests that this now-arid land had the occasional humid or rainy phases that transformed it into a wet and verdant terrain, crisscrossed with rivers and lakes and capable of sustaining diverse plant and animal life. From a decade-long quest to accumulate evidence for the 'Green Arabia' idea, Petraglia singled out the Jubbah Oasis, a remnant of an ancient lake in Saudi Arabia. 'As soon as we arrived, we found buried archaeological sites on old lake beds! We have archaeological sites going back 500,000 years now and so we know early human ancestors, and our species, were crossing the area during times of high rainfall. We have now documented a network of rivers and about 10,000 ancient lakes of every age,' he said. The hypothesis is important because the Arabian Peninsula sits at a crossroads between Europe, Africa, and Asia. Researchers have expressed hope that understanding past climate in the region can help answer fundamental questions: How did early humans and their ancestors spread across continents? And how did changing environments shape their evolution? Let it drip When water flows through the ground, it sweeps up minerals in the soil along its path. When this mineral-rich water slowly drips into caves, it forms icicle-like formations that hang from the ceiling and rise up from the cave floor. These formations are called speleothems. The researchers collected 22 speleothems from seven cave systems located in central Saudi Arabia. The mere presence of these formations, they said, was evidence of a wetter past because they form in two conditions: sufficient regional rainfall and enough vegetation and soil carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid (which dissolves limestone and triggers speleothem formation). As a result, they added, any changes in humidity, groundwater, and vegetation would have altered the speleothems' structure. These changes are then preserved as the next mineral layer is deposited. Another advantage of using speleothem archives to reconstruct past climates is that they can be accurately dated using routine radiometric methods, such as uranium-thorium and uranium-lead dating. Uranium is a radioactive element and decays into thorium and lead at a fixed rate. This allows scientists to calculate how old a speleothem is by measuring the ratio of uranium to thorium in a sample. Radiometric dating of the mineral formations revealed that over the last eight million years, central Arabia had gone through cycles of wet and dry periods. The earliest sign of a humid phase was between 7.44 million and 6.25 million years ago, and the most recent ones were between 530,000 and 60,000 years ago. These wet phases were often relatively short-lived, lasting only thousands to tens of thousands of years at a time. 'The findings highlighted that precipitation during humid intervals decreased and became more variable over time, as the monsoon's influence weakened, coinciding with enhanced Northern Hemisphere polar ice cover during the Pleistocene,' Monika Markowska, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. The researchers have proposed that these wetter conditions played a pivotal role in helping mammals and early humans migrate between Africa and Eurasia and that the Arabian Peninsula served as a hub of continent-scale biogeographic exchange. The past and the future Archaeological evidence throughout history has indicated that human populations expanded when the climate was wetter and that during dry periods, they either moved to more hospitable areas, even if they were also geographically restricted or simply went extinct. Will history repeat itself as 21st century humankind faces a climate crisis? This is a hard question to answer because human society today is highly technologised. For example, without air-conditioners, people may have already migrated out of regions suffering extreme heat today. That said, the past is more than just about humans. For the last 15 years, another interdisciplinary team of researchers (also involving Petraglia) has been documenting ancient lakes and archaeological sites from 200,000 years ago to the present to track a changing climate and its effects on ecosystems. 'The past holds many lessons for us, as climate and a warming earth is a serious concern to humanity today,' Petraglia said. Sanjukta Mondal is a chemist-turned-science-writer with experience in writing popular science articles and scripts for STEM YouTube channels.
Leaders
11-06-2025
- Leaders
Eid Al-Adha Brings Influx of Tourists to Haql's Scenic Beaches, Parks
Haql Governorate experienced a notable rise in visitor numbers during the Eid Al-Adha holiday, as tourists flocked to its picturesque beaches and tranquil parks, drawn by the area's pleasant weather. Families, in particular, favored Haql's natural beach pools—renowned for their beauty and recreational appeal. These pools provide an ideal backdrop for swimming, fishing, and soaking in the region's serene landscape. Nearby parks also attracted crowds, offering a calm and relaxing environment for those seeking a peaceful escape in nature. Related Topics: Jazan Celebrates Eid Al-Adha with 100 Entertaining Events Eid Al-Adha 2025: Your Guide to Riyadh Metro Operating Hours Heritage Commission Hosts Eid Al-Fitr Hospitality Initiative at Thee Ain Historical Village IN PHOTOS: Saudi Heritage Commission Hosts Symposium on Al-Faw Archaeological Area Short link : Post Views: 10 Related Stories
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Earliest Evidence of Psychoactive Substance Use Found in Tomb
Archaeologists working in the Tabuk province of Arabia have found the earliest documented evidence of the ritual application of a psychoactive substance, according to a new study published in Communications investigating a tomb comprising several rooms at the oasis settlement of Qurayyah, scientists came across organic residue inside stone burners and fumigation equipment found throughout the crypt. During an analysis, they were able to identify three extremely potent beta-carboline alkaloids—harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine—by using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Those alkaloids were chemical signatures of Peganum harmala, which contains psychoactive and anti-inflammatory properties and is still used throughout the Middle East and Central Asia as a medical remedy. The researchers believe that, in addition to being buried with the deceased, Peganum harmala was smoked as part of visionary or purification rituals, which took place after burials."This is the first direct chemical proof of Syrian rue being used in a funerary context anywhere in the world," said lead author Barbara Huber. "Our results demonstrate that individuals in Iron Age Arabia were already experimenting with sophisticated plant-based pharmacologies, not just for healing, but for ritual and sensory transformation." Marta Luciani, the dig's co-director, agreed. "This totally reworks our perception of early Arabian cultures," she explained. 'It represents a cognitive and cultural level of sophistication, where religious and therapeutic spheres interacted in significant, ritualized contexts."The discovery recontextualizes what many researchers thought about Arabian societies, revealing that they were engaged in similar ritualistic practices to cultures in Central Asia, South America, and the Indus Valley. "We are not preserving artifacts, said Ahmed M. Abualhassan, of the Saudi Heritage Commission. 'We are restoring wisdom that continues to reside in oral traditions, domestic habit, and ancestral rituals.'Earliest Evidence of Psychoactive Substance Use Found in Tomb first appeared on Men's Journal on May 29, 2025
