JEBEL ORAF, SAUDI ARABIA—According to a press release from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology a team of archaeologists analyzing Neolithic stone tools from the site of Jebel Oraf in northern Saudi Arabia has found they were used to grind animal bone and pigments. “It is clear grinding tools were important for the Neolithic occupants of Jebel Oraf,” says National Research Council of Italy Giulio Lucarini, who co-led the study. “Many were heavily used, and some even had holes in them that suggest they were transported. That means people carried heavy grinding tools with them and their functionality must have been an important element in daily life.” The researchers suggest the heavy use of the tools to grind pigments in particular suggest that the Neolithic people at the site were painting on a scale much larger than suggested by the number of rock art sites now known to archaeologists. To read about Neolithic artwork found in northern Saudi Arabia go to “Oldest Animal Artt.”