Analyzing Images from the Jebel Qara Environment: Preserving Painted Rock Art in the Cave Shelters of Southern Arabia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Protected in cave shelters, Dhofar's painted rock art in Oman are well-preserved and give an unprecedented glimpse into Arabia's pre-Islamic history. The pictographs and accompanying South Arabian inscriptions, which extend from the coastal plain to the Rub' Al Khali desert and to the Jebel Qara mountains at the beginning of the incense trail, where the history of frankincense began globally in the first millennium BC. The rock art of the mountains, painted in red and black ink, depict images from the natural environment that are classified as flora and fauna indigenous to the local landscape, including also hunting-battle scenes, ritually dressed figures, dhows and other types of ships, pastoral-life scenes, wadi-maps, alphabetic letters, and hand prints that possibly invoke protection. This paper presents an analysis of scenes and features, including high-resolution photographs curated and photographed as a cultural heritage preservation and conservation project for the Sultanate of Oman. The exhibition under the auspices of the Diwan of the Royal Court has traveled since 2017 in the USA. As a community-based, digital humanities preservation project, it consists of 31 high-resolution photographs, digitized charts, and 3D images from seven archaeological field sites, along with ethnographic and epigraphic research in Dhofar.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38638.0