More than 5,000 pieces of ancient rock art have been uncovered in Jordan's Black Desert.
The 2,000-year-old markings are in Safaitic, an alphabet used by ancient nomads in Syria, Jordan and Arabia.
The findings suggest that the now barren landscape was once teeming with greenery, wildlife and a human population.
Along with ancient script, the rock markings, also known as petroglyphs, show various animals including lions, gazelles, horses and what appear to be ostriches and were found during an extensive search between 2012 and 2016.
The find was made in the Jebel Qurma region of Jordan's Black Desert by the Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project, which seeks to study Jordan's extensive basalt-strewn northeastern desert.
The area is one of the least explored in the region, partly due to the inhospitable habitat.
The Project includes an international team of researchers, led by Professor Peter Akkermans of Leiden University in the Netherlands.
'There are literally many thousands of Safaitic inscriptions and petroglyphs in the Jebel Qurma region, which suggests that people intensively used the area,' Professor Akkermans told LiveScience.
Much of the text represents names of people, while some gives more detailed hints of how the ancient population spent their time.
'We have systematically documented more than 5,000 petroglyphs and inscriptions in the Jebel Qurma region, something which has never been done before in this structural, systematic way,' Professor Akkermans told MailOnline.
The research team is currently examining all of the inscriptions to gain a better understanding of the area's history.
One of the inscriptions reads 'I am on the lookout for the Nabataeans,' reports LiveScience, suggesting that the ancient nomads may have engaged in conflicts with the Nabataeans, who constructed the city of Petra.
As well as the rock art, the archaeologists also found evidence of camps, shelter and tombs.
The team is combing the area for more evidence of the ancient settlement to find out how it transformed into the barren landscape that it is today.
The researchers expect to find thousands more petroglyphs in the region in the coming years, as they have not yet surveyed the entire area, Professor Akkermans told MailOnline.
A study detailing the find is published in the American Journal of Archaeology.
