NEOM – Bajdah Area, Northwestern Saudi Arabia

Phase 1, 2024–2025 Season

The Context

At the heart of northwestern Saudi Arabia, where caravans, pilgrimage routes and diverse cultures have intersected for millennia, lies the NEOM region: approximately 26,500 square kilometres of landscapes ranging from rocky massifs and vast wadis to desert plateaus. At the crossroads of three continents, the Ḥismā Plateau preserves one of the richest and least explored bodies of rock art and epigraphic heritage in the Arabian Peninsula. It was in this setting that, in October 2024, ES Progetti e Sistemi launched the Petroglyph and Linguistic Study Project, an ambitious interdisciplinary programme focused on the Bajdah area, commissioned by the NEOM Heritage Department.

The Purpose

The project aimed to document, analyse and contribute to the preservation of the region’s rock art, epigraphic and archaeological heritage, revealing its complex cultural and linguistic stratification. The client required not only an inventory of the evidence, but also a replicable methodology combining traditional archaeology, advanced digital technologies and predictive models to guide future conservation and enhancement strategies across the NEOM region.

The Work Carried Out

Between October 2024 and early March 2025, a team of approximately twenty professionals—including eight field staff and additional remote specialists in archaeology, epigraphy, rock art, conservation, GIS and predictive modelling—surveyed around 105 kilometres of territory on foot and visited a total of 24 sites. Nineteen sites were documented through comprehensive archaeological surveys, seven of which were examined in depth; seven sites were newly identified. The approach integrated traditional pedestrian survey with a highly specialised digital workflow, including high-resolution photogrammetric recording, 3D modelling, drone-based aerial mapping—particularly at Jabal al-Safīna (the so-called “Ship Rock”, N00471)—and a predictive model for identifying areas likely to contain previously unknown evidence. All information was incorporated into a geodatabase structured in accordance with international standards.

The Results Achieved

The figures convey the scale of the intervention: 277 structures, 72 artefacts (26 of which were collected for study), 447 panels, 167 petroglyphs and 816 catalogued inscriptions. The Jabal al-Safīna site alone yielded 772 inscriptions—an unprecedented concentration that confirms its role as a strategic hub within trans-Arabian mobility networks. The epigraphic corpus ranges from Proto-Islamic Arabic to Ancient North Arabian (Hismaic, Thamudic B and D), from Nabataean to Ancient South Arabian, and includes an inscription in Greek. This diversity makes Bajdah a true crossroads of civilisations. The chronology of the evidence extends from the Neolithic to the post-medieval period, with probable traces of the Palaeolithic at site N00520. Targeted conservation work was also carried out on particularly vulnerable panels, helping to establish new standards for safeguarding the rock-art heritage of northwestern Arabia.

The project is now a methodological benchmark for archaeological documentation in the region. Rather than an endpoint, it provides a solid foundation for future research, conservation and public engagement with this millennia-old heritage.