Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia - New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf

Aug 23, 2026

Archaeological sites with surface hearths are common across arid regions of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert, grinding stone fragments were found in hearth contexts, but their original function remained uncertain due to poor preservation of animal and plant remains. Use-wear analysis of five grinding tools shows Neolithic plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production, with stones often reused for alternative tasks before placement on hearths or disposal. Results link pigment use to painted rock art and suggest wider Neolithic pigment consumption and painted art than surviving images indicate.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages28

Reading Time1 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Neolithic transition and regional environmental context

Hearth-associated sites and unresolved functions of grinding stones

PLOS ONE OPEN ACCESS Citation: Lucarini G, Guagnin M, Shipton C, Radini A, Alsharekh AM, Petraglia M (2023) Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf. PLoS ONE 18(10): e0291085 . [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal). pone.0291085 Editor: Radu Iovita, New York University, UNITED STATES Received: December 19, 2022 Accepted: August 22, 2023 Published: October 4, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Lucarini et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript. Funding: Financial support for field work and research was provided by the Heritage Commission, Saudi Ministry of Culture (MP); the European Research Council (grant number 295719, MP), and the Max Planck Society (MP and MG) . AMA acknowledges the support of the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP- 2023/126), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi RESEARCH ARTICLE Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf Giulio Lucarini1,2☯*, Maria Guagnin3☯*, Ceri Shipton4, Anita Radini5, Abdullah M. Alsharekh6, Michael Petraglia7,8,9 1 Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, Rome, Italy, 2 Department of Asian, African, and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples L’Orientale, Naples, Italy, 3 Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany, 4 Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 5 School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, 6 Department of Archaeology, College of Tourism and Archaeology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 7 Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia, 8 School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia, 9 Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. , United States of America ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. * [guagnin@shh.mpg.de](guagnin@shh.mpg.de) (MG); [giulio.lucarini@cnr.it](giulio.lucarini@cnr.it) (GL) Abstract Archaeological sites with surface hearths are a ubiquitous feature across the arid zones of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf, in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia, numerous grinding stone fragments were found in association with hearths, though the original purpose of these stones was unclear owing to the poor preservation of faunal and botanic remains. Here we describe results from use-wear analysis on five grinding tools at Jebel Oraf, demonstrating that such artefacts were used during the Neolithic for plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production. Grinding stones were often broken up after initial use and fragments were subsequently re-used for alternative purposes, before finally being placed on hearths or discarded. More specifically, plants were ground or prepared and possibly cooked in the hearths, and bones were processed as well. The analyses also highlight the importance of pigment processing at Neolithic sites and provide a link to painted rock art. The frequent use of pigment in the archaeological record suggests that pigment was widely used, and that Neolithic painted art may have been more common than the surviving images suggest. Introduction The Neolithic in Arabia has been characterised by the introduction of domesticated livestock and a transition from hunting to a mixed economy of mobile pastoralism alongside hunting [ 1] . The marginal environment of northern Arabia seems to have led to a more selective Arabia. The funder

FAQs

What question does the study address about Jebel Oraf grinding tools?

The study investigates the original functions of grinding stone fragments found with hearths at Jebel Oraf, which were unclear due to the poor preservation of faunal and botanical remains.

How were the grinding tools investigated in this research?

The authors used use-wear analysis on five grinding tools to infer what materials were processed.

What processing activities are indicated by the results?

The results indicate plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production, with stones often broken after initial use and then reused for other purposes.

Aug 23, 2026

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