94 JEDDAH: The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) has revealed a new archaeological site at Halit Al-Athari in Dawadmi province in Riyadh region. The SCTH has discovered a number of ancient urban traces on the site. The discovery was made during the first season of the excavation project at Halit Al-Athari. The head of the excavation team and director of the National Heritage Department, Ajab Al-Otaibi, said the excavation revealed a mosque in the style of the first Islamic era, and models of houses consisting of yards, storage rooms and work areas containing furnaces to melt metals. He pointed out that a number of inscriptions and Islamic writings were documented around the site, giving a new dimension to the history of the region and its civilization during the early Islamic period. Pottery discovered on the site was studied and classified. It emerged from preliminary results that it could date back to the early Umayyad or Abbasid eras, Al-Otaibi said.