Located together with thousands of stone tombs in the form of a pendant, they would have joined the oases and formed a kind of road network, the researchers explained through a communication to the journalistic medium, who found them outlined with red rock.
However, most “simply formed when the ground was smoothed by the footsteps of ancient peoples, and especially by the hooves of their domestic animals,” said Mat Dalton, an associate scientist at the University of Western Australia.
The network of avenues would have facilitated long-distance travel, he pointed out, while describing that “by following these networks, people could have traveled a distance of at least 530 kilometers. [330 millas] From north to south”.
There are also indications of such avenues in southern Saudi Arabia and in Yemen, he disclosed and assured that these require further study as they could suggest even more time.
Dalton stressed that they don’t know much about the rituals performed in funeral avenues or roadside graves. The human remains inside the graves are in poor condition, and some were stolen, leaving them devoid of artifacts, he said.
Despite the lack of information, he opined that “they were used to remember the dead, especially since the descendants or relatives of those buried would probably have passed through there frequently in the course of their daily lives.”
We could imagine funeral processions along avenues from established oases to tombs, but this is purely hypothetical until we find more evidence, the Classics and Ancient History professor said.
Experts on the subject agreed that at about the same time as these sites were built, Egypt and Mesopotamia built the pyramids.
Despite the flourishing cultures in these territories, Dalton ruled out that the people of Saudi Arabia were inspired by neighbors to build the avenues and burial tombs.
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