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INSET: © HERITAGE COMMISSION AND MARTA LUCIANI, QURAYYAH ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT

TOWERING FIGURE. Likely dating to the late fifth or fourth millennium BCE, this finely carved stela attests to Qurayyah’s early ceremonial significance. The figure, which wears a diadem on the head (not visible in photo) and a double-bladed dagger suspended from a wide belt, represents a high-ranking person, possibly a deified ancestor or some other prehistoric deity. Standing 6.5 feet tall, this stela is among the tallest anthropomorphic statues found in North Arabia, where such carved stones are often found in ceremonial, ritual, and funerary contexts.