Prehistoric Pointillism: Rock Art near ‘Amlah, Oman

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Technique and Interpretation in the Archaeology of Rock Art" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Rock art is one of the most ubiquitous archaeological features in southeastern Arabia, yet it remains one of the most poorly understood aspects of the region’s prehistory. Re-occurring motifs of people, weapons, camels, horses, and other animal figures appear in similar forms across the UAE and Oman, and many were produced utilizing similar methods. Though they offer a unique gateway into the symbolic worlds of Arabia’s ancient inhabitants, the study of Arabian rock art is complicated by issues of dating and documentation.

This paper explores the discovery of over two-hundred petroglyphs in the Omani interior near the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat. Documented during a winter 2017 survey, these examples of ancient art are spread over five limestone boulders located near the modern settlement of ‘Amlah, Oman. The various images were impressed on limestone with percussion, in a fashion resembling a prehistoric form of pointillism. Although interpreting these complex and temporally-dynamic features remains difficult, the proximity of these petroglyphs to a nearby Iron Age cemetery offers new insight into their meaning and connections to other rock art sites in the region. The paper concludes by examining new outreach-based strategies for preserving this open-air site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Technique and Interpretation in the Archaeology of Rock Art   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23212