Artefacts dating back to thousands of years found in Oman

Muscat: Czech scientists have found archaeological remains in the Sultanate of Oman dating back to thousands of years.

A team, led by Czech archaeologists, has made exciting discoveries in eastern Yemen and along the entire coast of Oman, reported Czech Radio.

The international mission, led by Czech archaeologists, found ritual sites, ancient burial tombs, rock carvings in an unknown script, artefacts and tools dating back to thousands of years.

It is not yet clear who built the more than 2,000-year-old sites, or what kind of rituals used to be performed there, the report says.

Roman Garba, one of the Czech archaeologists leading the team, explained that the ruins look like a row of standing stones in the form of a pyramid. These structures are called trilithon or trilith. The stones are 50 to 80 centimetres long, standing on platforms, having square boulders that run in parallel rows. He pointed out that more than 1,000 of these structures have been found with the help of satellite images, which enabled them to search for a much larger area than the excavation site, located in central Oman.

Czech Radio said that in the Navon region, as well as in central Oman, archaeologists also discovered a unique Neolithic tomb ranging between 5000 BC and 4600 BC, having many skeletal remains of people.

The radio added that the nearby rock engravings could be up to 7,000 years old.

Roman Garia said that the rocks are covered with more than 500 images of camels, horses, donkeys and turtles as well, and there are more than 200 inscriptions in southern Arabic script that have not been deciphered.

In southern Oman, the mission discovered stone tools that could help reveal how early humans migrated out of Africa.