Illiteracy did not exist four thousand years ago
and I keep saying it over and over again that the reason behind it is
that the life of the Thamudi in the savanna
Was more luxurious, smoother, more stable and more nutritious.
Crossing to oases and rivers
Everything happened gradually.
The rains decreased, then stopped,
so the dense forests withered until they disappeared
along with the lakes and rivers.
About five thousand years ago
man left the lands where he settled to cross into the great transformation
in the Arabian Peninsula.
At different times, man made his journey in wide migrations
to Mesopotamia
the Levant, Egypt, and other areas outside the Peninsula.
This climate change dragged with it a shift
in the life of man and his conditions.
He lost the stability he once enjoyed after sand storms uprooted everything
except his camel.
Under the weight of desertification, he lost hope of returning to the days of the savanna era.
Man had to make rugged and exhausting paths in the center of the Arabian Peninsula.
He traversed those paths to distant borders
carrying his belongings for the first time
because he was never obliged to do so before.
The Arabian Peninsula became a desert, the savanna era ended
and the lions went extinct. The Arab man started thinking how
to make up for the losses that happened on this land and the drought as well
through trade.
Trade is a need.
It is not easy for them to move out in convoys from south of Yemen
Oman, Rome, and Iraq in Mesopotamia even before Rome
and Egypt easily.
Man prefers to settle if he has a good life.
What obliges him to move?
The sixth trip followed man's life
based on the historical rather than geographical chronology for the first time.
Ala Khota Al-Arab team left with their equipment and tents
leaving the scene to the man of the Arabian Peninsula.
We followed the Thamud
in the savanna grasses between Hail, Tayma, Jubbah, and Al-Ula
where there is stability, luxury, comfortable life,
fresh lakes, where fishing is abundant
and food is always available for camels
as well as water and food.
Therefore, we found thousands of inscriptions and artistic drawings
that are not random with
beautiful alphabetic thamudic writings.
This happened almost eight or seven thousand years ago during the savanna era.
In addition to food, air
wellness, and comfort, there is
a need for a secure and stable life.
He was climbing the mountains in search of rocky facades
filled with drawings, inscriptions, and writings.
He sat there watching the water, sun, and the sky
but, he did not take into account the lean years
that betrayed him with storms coming from far skies.
After that, about four thousand years ago
the man of the Arabian Peninsula was forced to move to the valleys and lowlands.
As a result, his inscriptions changed, and so did his dreams and worries,
and perhaps even his features.
Desertification started and so did the Bronze Age.
Therefore, the Semites and some Thamud displaced. Where to?
They displaced towards the lowland oases where water is abundant.
They dug wells and found water nearby.
Humidity in the Arabian Peninsula exists in low places.
They planted, settled, and started the construction.
They also stopped writing and drawing like before because they got occupied
with agriculture and construction.
The life of the savanna is more luxurious and is better.
Eid Al-Yahya said it more than once and in several occasions.
He connects the evolution of human life to the climatic situation
but, this time, he took a stance in repeating his words.
He sang a song.
Illiteracy did not exist four thousand years ago
and I keep saying it over and over again that the reason behind it is
that weather and climate are very important and so is food
in addition to everything that happened in the Arabian Peninsula
as a result of the meteorological climatic change.
All this changed human life in the Arabian Peninsula.
On the days of prosperity, sustenance, and when food, meat,
and protein were available, when there was no hunger
and need to keep struggling to provide food.
The rock art tell us that life in these areas
was not difficult, and that their animals did not eat sand and stones
and were never thirsty. They did not even have to travel
and this is because the desert was not a desert.
This is what the novelist Eduardo Galeano said.
Eduardo Galeano Novelist and researcher
Man faced drought after luxury
so he had to drill into the ground to find water.
He settled beside water in the shade of a strong tree.
He planted, harvested, and also made oases
which became the meeting point for caravan merchants
and a commercial hub of goods, experiences, and even ideas.
The Thamud passed through several stages including
the savanna era and the days of lakes, grass, and life in tents
and did not have to go searching for water and pasture.
So, they learned and wrote the alphabet and taught their children.
They also drew their camels and animals that lived with them
but after the climate change
and the beginning of the Bronze age and the beginning of trade
they settled beside the oasis.
Not only the Thamud settled beside the oasis
but there were oases all over the Arabian Peninsula in the beginning of the Bronze age
after the era of the savanna because oases are important for life.
After the era of the savanna because they are crucial for water, construction, and food
in once place
because the prairies of the savanna turned into deserts.
As years passed
man came up with a strategy for developing the oases
until he built a kingdom and a civilization.
In the middle of the Arabian Peninsula, the city of Al-Naim was established.
which is the great village of Al-Faw on the outskirts of the Empty Quarter desert
On the way to the north of the Peninsula
the oases of Yathrib, Fadak, and Khaybar appeared
as well as Taima, Al-Ula, Dumat Al-Jandal, Jubbah, and more.
The Semites preferred to sit, so they
built oases, and behind us lies
one of the greatest oases of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the oasis of Wadi Al-Qura.
It is Al-Ula. It is the kingdom of Dedan, Lihyan, and Thamud before.
It is Al-Hijr.
There is the Yathrib oasis, which is the Medina
and the Rakamat oasis, which is Najran, as well as Hajr oasis that is Al-Ahsa.
we have the oasis of Khaybar, not all of them are close together,
There is also the Madyan oasis, as well as Taim oasis.
All of those are places for agricultural stability and are a necessity.
The life of the savanna is more comfortable
and camels during the days of the savanna used to strut
walked, were fed, and milked.
However, now in the oases camels have other uses.
It is the camel that moved them from the savanna and the open prairies
to the oases to inhabit them.
It is the camel that pulled water out of wells.
The camels moved the rocks for construction
and then continued their way to other nations after Thamud.
The Dedanites and the Lihyanites
did a great thing with camels. It is trade.
Some of them dug wells and homes in the mountains
but others chose the long way
out of the Arabian Peninsula.
When it was time for them to cross to the banks of the rivers
they made a pact with their camels to migrate
in search for unknown and lost green lands.
The camel is always the hero.
Humans and conditions due to the climate
are the ones who are changing.
Camels do not care and do not change, but instead human beings are changing.
This valley, this kingdom
in Khraibeh, includes evidence of human settlements
and great kingdoms one above the other.
There is no room to discuss the details.
Therefore, camels started carrying people, milk, and incense
to other nations. The camel still works every time and everywhere
because it adapts to all atmospheres, but humans
are not adapted to all atmospheres.
The trade caravans crossed the Empty Quarter
and drew a global trade route called the Incense trade route.
The island was its centerpiece and meeting place
Accompanied by camels, wells were dug and an irrigation system was
established by constructing canals and dams, so kingdoms and civilizations were built.
On the western end of the Empty Quarter
in front of the great well of Khatma
whose depth is more than one hundred meters. It is buried now.
We will not tackle how it was dug,
and how they were able to reach this huge depth in search for water.
We came here to explain the movement of history
when we apply the three pillars, which are monuments, anthropology
and topography, which is the geography of land and the weather. I have no doubt that the
human movement in the Arabian Peninsula is represented by
God creating Adam in this land and the first house that was created for people was in Bakka.
In addition, Noah lived here along with his sons
who left this Arabian Peninsula in the past
and that the Semites
according to all the archaeologists in the world
left the Arabian Peninsula
and formed very ancient civilizations.
However, also after the Semites
groups of people came
from the descendants of the Semites, who are the people of Aad
and Thamud.
We are tackling the Thamud, because domestication and crossbreeding
are the most important means of transportation in the world.
The first means of transportation in the world
is the camel, and this is our point of interest.
Camels lived with the Thamud in the era of the savanna, and we were able to prove it.
About ten thousand years ago
the cultivation of grain began in the lands of the Fertile Crescent
so man settled around his farms
and sources of his strength
and established the first cities in history
in southern Mesopotamia.
It is Uruk or Warka
and it dates back to nearly six thousand years.
Almost two thousand years after the construction of the epic city of Gilgamesh
migrations began from the Arabian Peninsula
and the first stop was made
at the countries of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Firas Al-Sawah A thinker and researcher in mythology and the history of religions The Syrian researcher Firas Al-Sawah says
that the theatre of lofty migrations in the Fertile Crescent
Year 4900 - 5100 Al-Warqaa - Mesopotamia did not lack a cultural and demographic aspect
before the arrival of the Arabian Peninsula man to it.
The German Max Planck Institute agrees on this point.
In the land of rivers
7000 Years - Tal-Half - Northeast Syria mankind witnessed the first cultural revolution in history
and civilization revolutions followed
8000 - 9000 years Sheer - Western Syria before and after Semitic migrations.
8000 - 9000 years Catal Huyuk - Turkey
Khatma
is one of the deepest wells dug in the Arabian Peninsula.
Eid Al-Yahya arrived to Khatma
documenting a story related to it
but he stayed around the well and on its surface
and did not dig deeper this time.
It is unknown who dug this place
and how old it is because no study was conducted.
We only found numerous flint tools including weapons
pestles and arrowheads
that can be seen scattered and spread in the Khatma wells.
We did not see pottery tools or any other tool.
Therefore, those who dug
after scientific research
these deep amazing wells
that we will examine
and look into their depth and are buried now
indicate that they may have been dug in the modern stone age.
Otherwise, why don't we see any traces
of the Bronze age or even the Iron age?
Even pestels.
Look, I will leave these traces here for the researchers
to examine them later.
What metrics do you use?
Using this monitor, we can control the camera
which moves 360-degrees for the horizontal view.
It can also be used for the vertical view.
Now you will see how we will set our camera.
This is the camera.
The well is nearly one hundred meters deep
or close to one hundred meters, exactly 90.5 meters
from the ground. Our zero from the ground
Ground level, from the surface of the earth
is exactly 93.5 meters.
the region of the Arabian Peninsula
region of the Arabian Peninsula
was described since the beginning of time
as a barren desert, a space for nomads and
sometimes a corridor for trade caravans, just like that.
Perhaps, these prevailing ideas bear the
responsibility of neglecting this area in archaeological research,
when the reality is completely different.