4,000-year-old rock art of boats and cattle unearthed in Sudan paint a picture of a green Sahara

Deep in the Sahara, ancient rock art depicts a fleet of boats and cattle, providing a glimpse of the desert's green past before climate change transformed the region thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists were surprised to discover the out-of-place artworks from 16 new rock sites in the middle of the Eastern Desert (also known as the Atbai), a sandy and barren landscape that is part of the Sahara and stretches across eastern Sudan, according to a study published Nov. 28, 2023, in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 

The site's location is surprising for two reasons: It's far from the nearest body of water, Lake Nubia, which sits more than 60 miles (97 kilometers) away, and the arid landscape is not ideal for raising livestock like the large-horned cattle featured in the drawings, the study authors said.

"The cattle rock art is very significant, as cattle can no longer live in this hyper-arid desert," lead author Julien Cooper, an Egyptologist, Nubiologist and archaeologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, told Live Science in an email. "It tells us that the people that made the art had a close connection to cattle."

However, researchers think the artworks' subject matter — particularly a single drawing of a cow being led by a herder — provides clear evidence that this harsh landscape was once a far more hospitable grassland.

Related: Remains of ancient temple with hieroglyphic inscriptions discovered in Sudan

"This is one of the best classes of evidence for establishing climate change in the region, a period which scientists call the 'African humid period,'" Cooper said. "In this period before 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was much wetter, and cattle herders roamed the deserts in search of pasture. Today only hardier animals like camels and goats can survive in this desert."