Dr. Majeed Khan
The human life in Arabia until 14,000 years from now was based on hunting on food gathering. Man depicted on the rocks his everyday activities such as hunting fighting and other social and religious ideas by painting or engravings all over the country that revealed the cultural entities, human ideology about the life and belief in the metaphysical world of the people living in the land, which is now Saudi Arabia.
Over 1400 rock art sites so far have been documented from various parts of the country. Each site consists of several rock art panels, hundreds and thousands of petroglyphs of human and animal figures, geometrical, non-representational and abstract images were created on the rocks, mountains and caves all over the Arabian Peninsula by the pristine Arabs who are known to us as nomads or Bedouins; they represent a culture the roots of which could be traced far back in the pre-history, but they had or have nothing which may support the Western notion of the Arabian tribes as a vestige of savagery and barbarism. Yet, tribal system still exists in Arabia which maintains strong social and cultural traditions since antiquity.
The occurrence of representational, geometric and abstract motifs in rock art is a universal phenomenon in Saudi Arabia was part of that. What is surprising is the use of identical characters, signs and symbols such as hand and foot prints (figure 1&2) in the rock art of China, American Indians, Australian Aborigines, African Bushmen and Saudi Arabian Bedouins. It appears that there was a corresponding ingenuity and socio-cultural homogeneity in ancient cultures and civilizations that is why we find similar components of images being used in the rock art of different parts of the world. As such the rock art sites of Jubbah and Shuwaymis in the Hail region are registered on the UNESCO’S world heritage list. These are the first rock art sites in the entire Middle East that have become part of World Heritage. When we look at Saudi Arabian rock in the world-wide context, it stands among the richest art regions of the world and is fourth in the world after Australia, Africa and India. Thus, the barren and the so called inhospitable land contain tremendous and most fabulous artistic images of human and animal figures that surpassed both in its beauty and craftsmanship.
The major areas of rock art concentration in the Kingdom are Hail, jubbah and Shuwaymis, Tabuk, al-Ula and Tayma in the north; while Taif, Najran, Himma, Baha, Abha and Wadi Tathlith in the south and southwestern part of the country. These areas are not only rich in the rock art but also in hundred and thousands of ancient Arabian inscriptions such as Thamudic, Lihyanite, Nabatean (figure 3&4) South Arabic and early Arabic inscriptions.
After the last Glaciations, during early Pleistocene, ice gradually melted and several lakes and active rivers developed in several parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The Empty Quarter, the Great Nafud and the Dhana were in the early stages of conversion in to present great deserts of Arabia. At this stage, the Arabian Peninsula was well inhabited by the people about whom we have very little or no knowledge. However, they left behind some stone objects and large number of petroglyphs representing their social, cultural and religious entities.
It is interesting that the rock art of Saudi Arabia represents the same animals with which the local population was aware and which were found in the part of the world such as cattle (figure 5a) camel, deer, gazelles, ostriches, dogs, snakes, lizards and goats. Thus, the artists chose some animals from their environment and depicted them on the rocks and overlooked other animals, which were as good for them and were part of their ecology and environment. It is also a universal phenomenon and everywhere in Europe, Africa, Australia, China or India the same tendency was observed. It means that artists in various parts of the world had the same intellectual, ideology and mental approach.
Large sized anthropomorphic representations with naturalistic bodies ambiguous faces (figure 1 &1a) are attributed to the Neolithic era (c.14000-7500 years before present). These are usually depicted in profile with slightly twisted bodies to show the frontal posture and mostly associated with a bull or a cow are commonly found at Shuwaymis, Jubah and Hanakiya in the north of Saudi Arabia (figure 1). Thus, in this part of Arabia an unknown nation was living with its unique artistic capabilities in which the artists were confines to certain type of image making, such as anthropomorphic representations with naturalistic human like body features (figure 6a), large sized cattle figures with exaggeratedly large horns, and leopard were created by deep pecking and in low relief (Figure 6).
In the following period (c.4,500-2,500 BP), large compositions of human and animal figures associated with a variety of animal species and non-representational and geometric motifs suggest that the rock art gradually changed both its course and purpose. The figures became schematic and for the first time men and women are shown in dancing, fighting and hunting scenes appeared in the rock art compositions (figure 7&8). This marked the beginning of a new trend in rock art in which foot and hand prints along with a variety of animal species such as camels, ibex, deer, lions, dogs, wolves and gazelles became common elements of rock art compositions. Large number of camel and horse figures (12,13) appeared in this period while ox figures totally disappeared suggesting a drastic change in the climate from cool and humid to extremely hot and dry conditions (figure 10).
The last phase of rock art (2,500-1,500BP) is represented by a period preceding the introduction of writing or the literary period in Arabia. Highly schematic, abstract stick like linear human and animal figures, along with geometric and non-representational motifs were depicted as signs and symbols replacing naturalistic and schematized art. With the change in Arabian climate and environmental conditions, from cool and humid in the Neolithic to the extremely hot and dry conditions, camel became the main animal of rock assemblage. However, the tradition of depicting certain geometric and non-representational motifs on camel bodies as animal brand and tribal symbols continued until the present day (figure9, 11).
As a matter of fact, geometric and non-representational motifs suggest a deviation from the normal traditional artistic activities in which artists usually portrayed seen objects of nature like human and animal figures. The creation of signs and symbols for the purpose of showing tribal affinity (figure 9 and 11) animal brands or whatsoever was the intention of the prehistoric artist, was in fact the first step towards the origin of a language of symbolism that ultimately lead the artist towards further simplification of motifs and finally developing a pictographic-cum-symbolic communication system. It is vital to note that how in a non-literate society, certain signs became semantic and symbol language was developed through certain coded characters, which either were in use in the prehistoric rock art or were later created according to the need. Although, rock art practice was ceased in Arabia after the advent of Islam before 1,500 years, and the present Bedouins have absolutely no idea of rock art located in their territories. However, they still use Wusum as tribal symbols (figure 9 and 11) or animal brands.
The rock art of Saudi Arabia manifests outstanding universal values as it represents a masterpiece of human creative genius, bears a unique or at least exceptional testimony to cultural traditions or to civilizations which are although disappeared but represent an outstanding example of human interaction of cultural tradition or civilization and is directly and tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding significance it is why the sites of Shuwaymis and Jubbah are registered on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage.
