A secret etched in stone

A photo provided by Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project showing the excavation of Trench 1 directly beneath a rock art panel at Jebel Arnaan, where an engraving tool was discovered. — Sahout Rock Art and Archaeology Project/The New York Times

IN the spring of 2023, at an isolated archaeological site in the Nafud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia, a day labourer named Saleh Idris stood beside a test trench, awaiting the next bucket of sediment to be sieved.

But when he glanced up at the sandstone cliff before him, he was stunned by what he saw: a secret that had never been documented.