A rare prehistoric rock art site has been discovered in northern Oman. Inscriptions and drawings were found at an archaeological site in the Hajar Al-Sinanat area in the Wilayat ​​Al-Khaboura, North Al-Batinah Governorate. Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has not announced the date of the rock art. These sites were added to over the course of centuries, so further studies will be necessary to determine the stratigraphy of the engravings.

The newly recorded site features a large rock surface densely covered with pecked carvings, a method involving repeated impacts to shape stone. Among the images, archaeologists have identified depictions of animals, abstract geometric shapes, and figures resembling humans. Each mark represents more than simple decoration; they offer a tangible record of how past communities observed their surroundings, encoded ideas, and communicated through visual language. Experts suggest that these carvings may reflect ecological knowledge, ritual practices, or social interactions, though precise meanings remain under study.

What makes this discovery particularly compelling is the density and variety of motifs on a single rock face. Such concentration indicates the site was significant to those who created it, perhaps serving as a communal marker or a symbolic repository for collective memory. Archaeologists emphasize that rock art is a rare medium that captures human thought in a format that survives long after other evidence has vanished.

This site is being recorded as part of a wider program of documentation of rock art in Oman. Rock art is very vulnerable to damage and erosion, and even well-intentioned visitors can cause irreparable harm to fragile rock faces. Documenting the sites in meticulous detail will aid in their preservation and give researchers more information about the context of ancient rock art in the country.

Rock art sites like Hajar Al Sinanat serve as fragile visual records of past lives, providing unique insight into daily practices, symbolic thought, and environmental awareness. Unlike stone buildings or written chronicles, these markings are directly linked to human gesture, each peck, line, and figure representing an intentional act of communication. The ongoing protection of these sites ensures that future generations can engage with Oman’s ancient landscapes in meaningful ways.

An excavation at a gravel extraction site in Belgern-Schildau, Saxony, Germany, has uncovered a settlement from the late Roman/early Migration Period. Inside the dwellings, archaeologists found evidence they were used as homes, stables and for textile production from the 3rd to 5th centuries A.D.

The State Office for Archaeology of Saxony (LfA) surveyed the site before the expansion of the open-pit gravel mine. The area is known to have been settled for millennia, and any archaeological remains would inevitably be destroyed in the extraction of gravel.

Among the numerous finds, such as pits and postholes—structures in the ground created by human intervention—at least four multi-aisled longhouses built using post-and-beam construction and three pit houses can be identified. While the longhouses, up to 20 meters long and five meters wide, were used as dwellings and stables, the small pit houses, dug into the ground and with a floor area of ​​between seven and twelve square meters, served as farm buildings and storage facilities.

One pit house yielded clear evidence of textile production. Thirty flat, round clay loom weights indicate that fabrics were produced here using a loom. The loom weights tensioned the warp threads, which hung vertically on the loom, through which the weft threads were then threaded. During the Roman Imperial period, woven textiles made primarily from sheep’s wool were produced. A clay spindle whorl was also found, which could be used to spin raw wool into thread on a weighted spindle.

Among the finds, mostly fragments of everyday pottery, a large, dark, opaque glass bead decorated with light-colored wave bands stands out. These beads are usually found as ornamental items in women’s graves. The shape and decoration of beads of this type are very durable. They are most commonly found in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Since this large bead was found in a settlement pit, its use as a spindle whorl, for example, cannot be ruled out.

Burned clay and grain indicate the dwelling walls were coated with coat and grain stored in the structures. A fire must have struck to burn the walls and grain. The settlement may have been abandoned in the wake of the fire. Archaeologists will now focus on analyzing the recovered remains, including radiocarbon dating the plant matter and charcoal.

The largest Iron Age hoard of metalwork ever found in the UK is going on display at the Yorkshire Museum. Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard will feature of selection of objects amounting to around 20% of the 800+ objects in the Melsonby Hoard, including weapons, cauldrons, chariot and horse fittings. The star of the show will be “The Block,” an extraordinary mass of 88 artifacts fused together by corrosion materials more than three feet wide and weighing 150kg (331lb) that is being preserved as it is.

The first objects were discovered by a metal detectorist in field near Melsonby in December 2021. Archaeologists from the University of Durham followed up with an excavation of the find site and uncovered two distinct deposits: one massive group of Iron Age metalwork, and nearby a second smaller one of the same materials that had been deliberately destroyed, wrapped in cloth and placed in a separate ditch 2.000 years ago. Both were closely packed with objects fused together. The second had formed a concreted mass and had to be removed in a single block for excavation in the conservation laboratory at Durham University.

Between the on-site excavation and the micro-excavation in the laboratory, archaeologists spend months recovering individual items and cleaning the fused mass that would become known as The Block. They found the remains of dozens of wheeled vehicles, from iron tires to horse harnesses to bridle bits, two large drinking vessels decorated with fish motifs, coral studs and masks of human faces. More than 800 individual objects, in the final tally.

When the excavation was complete, the hoard was assessed by a committee of the British Museum which determined its market value was £254,000 ($328,000). Last year, the York Museums Trust launched a fundraising campaign to secure the hoard for the Yorkshire Museum near where it was found. More than 1,000 people contributed to the crowdfunding initiative raising £54,000. The National Heritage Memorial Fund contributed £192,096 and other institutions pitched up to reach the final goal.

In September 2025, the hoard was moved from Durham University to the Yorkshire Museum. It was a major challenge, requiring specialist movers and customized vehicles and crates to keep the delicate artifacts safe in transportation. The museum created a custom storage facility to house the hoard safely with climate-controlled extra dry air to prevent further corrosion.

Fourteen months after the fundraiser was launched, the Yorkshire Museum’s landmark exhibition of the Melsonby Hoard has opened to visitors.

The size and value of the collection suggests an “amount of wealth” which could only have belonged to a “someone very important”, [Emily North, curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum,] told journalists at a briefing ahead of the public opening.

Items include a mirror and blue glass beads, commonly associated with female power in the Iron Age.

“What we could be looking at are the belongings of a queen.”

The exhibition demonstrates the “incredibly rich” culture of the Brigante tribe which ruled the region. The Brigantes were a Celtic people who attempted to stave off the approaching Roman army at Stanwick St John, near Melsonby.

The exhibition also features a wine-mixing bowl, typically found 2,000 years ago in the Mediterranean, likely to have been brought back to Britain.

“It gives us a hint of how interconnected Iron Age people in North Yorkshire were,” North said.