proceedings of the eighth seminar for arabian studies held at the oriental institute, oxford on...

ROCK ART IN THE OMAN MOUNTAINSAuthor(s): Christopher ClarkeSource: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 5, Proceedings of the EighthSEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at The Oriental Institute, Oxford on 3rd-5th July,1974 (1975), pp. 13-19Published by: ArchaeopressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223286 .

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HOCK ABT IN THE OMAN MOUNTAINS

Christopher Clarke

Present Records

The first published record of rock art in Qnan is by Bertram Thomas (1931)? in which he reported the two sites Khatma Milaha [no. 5 on the map], and Wadi Ghaf [6] near the. frontier post at Aswad. There were rough pict- ures of mounted camels, less recognisable markings, and a religious Arabic inscription. Four sites to the West of the Oman mountains were added by J. Lees and R. King (196*0. These sites were the rock paintings at Khatma Shakhia [8] and Hamrat ad Duru [1*0 , and stone carvings at Natih [15], and Hili [10] near Buraimi. The stone carvings on the Third Millennium tomb at Hili [10] were published by Karen Frifelt (1968), when she also reported a site in Wadi Hatta [7] i and mentioned in a per- sonal communication that she had been told of other sites further North. She also found cup marks in the Buraimi area on a Northern spur of Jebel Hafit [11], and paintings and carvings on the rock face and in the caves of the Qarn Bint Sa'ud rock [9]. Beatrice de Cardi extended the distribution of known sites to the North, with a report (1969) of a site at As Shams [*+] in Ras Al Khaimah; and on the Royal Geographical Society Expedition of 1971-2 she added sites at Qabal [1], and Wadi Qidah [2, 3] •

By this time several sites near Muscat and around the Jebel Akhdar had become known, and several people including Professor Glob of the Danish Expedition had some records, mostly of the more prominent art in Wadi Uday [3*+], the nearest site to Muscat. These sites appeared to consist of concentrations of figures on a few prominent rock surfaces visible from the road. I came to Oman in 1972 after assisting in a survey of the Palaeolithic art in the cave 'Hornos de la Peña1 in North Spain, which had demonstrated the surprising extent of the art, besides that on the obvious panels, that can be revealed by a systematic search. I was interested in applying this approach to the rather different rock art sites in Oman, and in the summer of 1973 I found myself free, with the approval and support of the then Directorate General of Information and Tourism, to begin a systematic search of the ground surface, lower flanks and side wadis of Wadi Uday [3^]- Although not completed, this revealed that the art extended in fact fairly continuously for k km. and covered, besides the main panels, whole boulder fields, stretches of more obscure wadi flank, the mouths of side wadis, and many isolated pockets. It revealed an enormous amount of art displaying a range of

13



14

<ßJJE ROCK ART SITES IN ш!к THE OMAN MOUNTAINS

f/ CjC ^žk^ ABOVE 500 METRES

J _,^ INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY

' 9 50 100 Km

fy¿0^ ' Sohar



Site List

1 Qabal

2 Wadi Qidah

3 Wadi Qidah

k As Sham

5 Khatma Milaha

6 Wadi Ghaf

7 Wadi Hatta

8 Khatma Shakhia

9 Qarn Bint Safud

10 Hili

11 Jebel Hafit

12 Wadi Hawasina

13 Ibri

1^ Hamrat ad Duru

15 Natih

16 Wadi Bani Ghafir

17 Wadi Sahtan

18 Small Wadi South of Rostaq

19 Between Wadi Farah and Rostaq

15

20 Wadi Farah

21 Wadi Bani Kharus

22 Wadi above Ghul

23 Bilad Sait

2k Hasat bin Salt

25 Wadi Tanuf

26 Wadi Kamah

27 Wadi Myadin

28 Wadi Halfayn

29 Wadi Bani Ruwaha

30 Wadi Eajim

31 Wadi Kuri

32 Ghabra Bowl

33 Wutayyah

3k Wadi Uday

35 Wadi Mayh

36 Wadi Dayqah

37 Wadi Swee



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styles, and different states of preservation, some art so faint it was almost invisible even at close quarters, perhaps indicating age, and would certainly have escaped notice except for deliberate search. Besides the art, grave fields, rock shelters, cairns, camp sites, stone walls and sangers came to light, adding further evidence of human activity in the wadi.

Encouraged by the emerging extent and complexity of the material, and with the invaluable assistance of Mr. Rudi Jackli who shared my interest but commanded rather more impressive resources (I had been working on foot and from a motorcycle), a list of known sites was compiled and visits made to those within our reach to gauge their true extent. We visited Wadi Sahtan [17] near Rostaq, which later proved an area rich in sites; Wadi Raj im [30] in the Sumail Gap, also a rich area; Wutayyah [33] and Wadi Mayh [35] in the Muscat area, and Wadi Dayqah [36] below Quryat. These all proved extensive, and added further to the range of known styles and techniques. They also produced many inscriptions, including a short Old South Arabian inscription from Wadi Sahtan [17].

There was now a sizeable body of material, displaying a range of styles and states of apparent preservation, and a wide distribution across the Oman mountains. It seemed worthwhile to attempt a correlation of these factors, to see whether the mass of material would resolve into separ- able stylistic types with distinct patterns of chronology and distribution. I left Oman to see whether the material would be acceptable for research, and to seek advice before returning to continue fieldwork. I registered at the University of London Institute of Archaeology, sought the advice of Professor Anati, who is working on similar material from Saudi Arabia, and was awarded a Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to return for further fieldwork in 197^-75- I received king assistance from the Directorate General of Information and Tour- ism for writing this report, and attended the Seminar for Arabian Studies and the Val Camonica Symposium on Schematic Art.

Meanwhile Mr. Rudi Jackli continued to explore and to gather and encourage reports. He added many sites around the Jebel Akhdar, and collected reports of sites around Ibri [I3] and in the Wadi Hawasina [12] from the Durham University Group, and of bas relief carvings at Hasat bin Salt [24 and red ochre painting in Wadi Swee [37] from the U.S. Geological Survey. Mr. Jackli provided a display of photographs for the new Oman Museum, and kindly kept me up to date with photographs and reports of new sites.

Content and S ryl e

In common with most rock art, the subject matter is mostly human and animal forms, but there are also a few representations of other things such as boats and vehicles, decorative motifs, and unidentified forms. Styles range from stick representations to various stylised and naturalistic outlined forms, showing different degrees of detail. Some are barely identifiable, others show details of sex, dress, weapons or other associated objects. But apart from exceptions such as the



17

depiction of a battle axe, and a possible harp in Wadi Tanuf [25] * there is not much pictorial information that would allow the identif- ication of artifacts or provide ethnographic clues.

In the human figures, apparent differences in dress style between waisted bi- triangular figures, 'kilted1 figures, and square-bodied figures may really only be different conventions for representing the same thing. There is a variety of projections from the waist, some of which appear to be daggers with curved or straight blades and pommels, others with less detail could be phallic. There is one .instance of figures with breasts. There are bows, swords, small round shields, a battle-axe, and mounted figures with lances. There are figures on seats. Human forms with large hands are common. A large proportion of the human forms are stick figures, either stiff and angular, or animated, showing little detail. Some such as the common 'mushroom '- form figures, and the three-legged figures from Wadi Kamah [26] and Wadi Bani Ruwaha [29]» are only arguably anthropomorphic at all. In Wadi Bani Kharus [21], there is a pair of humans embracing, possibly sexually, bearing a certain resemblance to a more explicit scene from the tomb carvings at Hili [10] .

Men mounted on camels and horses or donkeys are common, often in scenes of fighting, hunting or herding and caravanning. Sometimes the position of the reins and riding position over the hump or the back legs is shown. Some riders appear to be standing. Riders standing apparently on bulls occur in Wadi Uday [3^J» and Wadi Mayh [35Ji and also in Wadi Farah [20] where the bull rider appears to be holding an animal seated on the end of a possibly phallic projection from his waist. This distinctive figure has a very close parallel in Wadi Halfayn [28] . Most riders are stick representations, but some are naturalistic or have stylised mounts with bi-triangular bodies or fat tapering legs. Some stick riders have been made symmetrical, to face either way, and some have additional lines joining the legs, or elaborating the rider to produce a lattice-like figure, only identifiable as a rider by inter- pretation from less elaborated forms.

Many animals are only depicted as a backline with four legs, but among those that are identifiable are the camel, horse, donkey, bull, goat, oryx, ibex, lion, leopard or generalised feline, possible baboon, des- ert fox, snake, scorpion, possible ant, and elephant and ostrich. Eepresentation of species no longer native is of particular interest, but it must be remembered that Onan has had long contact with regions where they are still native. There are stick representations, and stylised or naturalistic figures with bodies outlined, infilled, shaded with dots or bearing markings. Some styles are quite distinctive, like the delicate round-ended, stumpy-tailed and shaded ibex from Wutayyah [ЗЗ] and Wadi Uday ijMl. Some animals appear in scenes of pursuit, and some associated with loops, wavy lines or cobweb forms, which might be interpreted as traps or hobbles. Some animals are shown in aggressive poses, or even devouring men, e.g. Wadi Karaah [26]. In the Small Wadi south of Rostaq [l8], there are distinctive stylised stick animals with spiral heads and angular limbs enclosing dots.



18

Apart from human and animal figures, there are boats, some little more than inverted stick animals, others more distinctly formed. There are also vehicles, some from Wadi Sah tan [17] rather charming with the driver sitting with the steering wheel in the engine compartment. These of course prove that some of the art is very recent, and may be useful for dating to the same recent period other figures in the same technique. This can be done with the black painted vehicles, and human and animal figures in Wadi Bani Kharus [21]. There is a possible representation of a games board in Wadi Rajim [30]* where less regular groups of actual cup marks are also found. There are designs, apparently flower or rosette motifs, purely geometric designs and meandering space filling designs. There are many unidentifiable forms, some apparently deliberate and meaningful, others obscure or badly executed. There are areas of concentrations of dots, sometimes only from bullet marks around target holes.

Technique

The most common technique is pecking, with a variety of effects derived from the same basic technique. The darkly patinated surface of the rock is struck with a hard instrument, which either removes a chip of stone, or crushes the surface leaving a depression and revealing the lighter inner rock or fracturing the surface without leaving any relief. Depressions may be worn smooth or left jagged and rough. Micro- fractures sometimes produce a frosting effect, sometimes with encrust- ations apparently developing, producing a very white positive relief. Blows vary in their strenth, density and direction, sometimes sparse, sometimes concentrated to form lines or mark whole areas. It will be a task of the coming fieldwork season to examine the factors of technique more fully, to see how far similarity in technique, or the effects of weathering can be used to identify stylistic types or periods.

There is also carving in relief, both flat relief by removal of the entire surface of a figure to a uniform shallow depth, and also bas- relief carving with smooth rounded surfaces and a depth of 8-9 cm. at Hasat bin Salt [24.

There are a number of painted sites, some modern painting in black in Wadi Bani Kharus ]2J], and charcoal drawings in Wadi Mayh [35] i modern- looking painting in Wadi Uday [33]i painting in red ochre in Wadi Swee [37] i and sites described as painted at Khatma ShakKia [8], Qarn Bint Sa'ud [9] and Hamrat ad Duru [22].

In Wadi Uday [3*f] there is a boulder with natural markings resembling a head, which has been set in position on supporting stones overlooking the Wadi from a terrace.

Distribution

The distribution map so far compiled shows sites scattered widely over most parts of the Qnan Mountains, with clusters of sites in particular areas. These clusters probably represent areas of close search rather than the real pattern of concentration of sites, and the distribution



pattern is likely to alter as selective exploration spreads the net more evenly. The strongest concentration appears to be in the wadis aroung Jebel Akhdar, the area that has received most exploration specifically for rock art. Other concentrations of sites reflect areas of interest in other things, for example the Ruus Al Jibal group [1-Л], and the Buraimi group [9-11] result from archaeological surveys, and many out- lying sites were discovered by geologists.

I do not yet have first hand knowledge of the material from all sites, and materials would have to be more fully collected, and a stylistic typology completed before a correlation between art types and distribution emerges. There are distributional differences, but the picture is too complex for any immediate conclusions to be drawn.

Chronology

The same applies to the problem of chronology, the evidence, slight as it is, has not yet been gathered and assessed. Factors of patination and erosion, to establish a relative chronology, will be examined this coming season. Inscriptions will be subject to the same examination to see whether rock art might in some cases be dated tentatively by similarity of technique and preservation. Superpositioning will also be examined. One can hope for more art like Hili [10] with dateable deposits, and evaluate the sparse evidence from items of content, or analogy with art styles of known date.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DE CARDI, В., 1969i "A Preliminary Report of Field Survey in the Northern Trucial States", KUML, 1969.

FRIFELT, K., I968, "Archaeological Investigations in the Oman Peninsula", KUML, 1968.

LEES, J. and KING, R., 1964, Archaeology Notes, Dohar Geological Group Map of the Eastern Arabian Peninsula.

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THOMAS, В., 1931 i Alarms and Excursions in Arabia. London.



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