A team of French archaeologists from the National Center for Scientific Research has identified al-Natah, a 4,400-year-old city, in the Khyber oasis of western Saudi Arabia. The discovery is detailed in a study published in PLOS One. Researchers traced a central core area and a surrounding residential zone enclosed by protective walls. The site yielded substantial quantities of pottery and grinding stones, along with remains of at least fifty dwellings built from clay and mud brick, indicating a compact, organized community with domestic production capabilities.
Two buildings at the heart of al-Natah appear to have served administrative purposes, suggesting some form of local governance or record-keeping. A necropolis lies to the west, where tall round tombs stand, echoing towers that rise from the landscape and hint at a rich ceremonial or ceremonial-administrative tradition. The overall layout points to plans and structures designed to manage both daily life and collective memory.
The city sits in the Khyber oasis and dates back to roughly 4400 years ago. It seems to have been abandoned between 1500 and 1300 BCE for reasons that remain unclear to researchers. This dating places al-Natah within a broader frame of regional change as communities shifted and reorganized in response to environmental and economic pressures.
Scholars say the find demonstrates slower urbanization in the Arabian Peninsula during this era. While major cities were already arising in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Eastern Mediterranean, al-Natah appears to have housed no more than about five hundred residents, reflecting a different pace and scale of urban development in this part of the world.
Earlier excavations have suggested that humanity’s first great cities faced decline due to disease outbreaks transmitted from animals to humans. The al-Natah site contributes to this larger historical narrative by showing how disease ecology, settlement patterns, and resource management intersected in a desert setting. The discovery underscores the variability of early urban life across Southwest Asia and invites deeper exploration of trade links, storage practices, and daily routines that supported a relatively small but enduring community.
In sum, the al-Natah findings, as reported by CNRS researchers and published in PLOS One, add a meaningful chapter to the study of early city formation in the Arabian Peninsula. The evidence points to a slow, regionally nuanced trajectory of urban growth, shaped by local choices and broader connections to neighboring regions across time.