SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS INTO SAUDI ARABIAN ROCK ART: A REVIEW

The principal findings of a project begun in 2001, of introducing scientific methodology into the study of the rock art of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are briefly summarised in this paper. They include the first scientific and direct rock art datings reported from the Middle East. The project, commenced by the Deputy Ministry of Antiquities and Museums, is continuing under the auspices of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. It has led to the discovery of large rock art site complexes numbering tens of thousands of motifs, and to the successful nomination of major rock art properties to the UNESCO World Heritage List. More specifically, the work of this project has also resulted in a preliminary chronological sequence of Arabian Peninsula rock art, the basis of which is briefly presented in this review paper. All petroglyphs analysed so far in Saudi Arabia have been shown to be of the Holocene, with specimens dating from the PrePottery Neolithic (PPN) up to the historical period.