Today's Edition
RAJEEV CHERIAN (ABU DHABI)
Decoding ancient petroglyphs or rock art remains an onerous endeavour to this day. Still, what they hold in store offers new insights that never cease to enrich the human understanding of past civilisations that once inhabited this land.
The UAE’s mountainous landscape is rich in rock art sites, particularly in Fujairah, which hosts the largest number of recorded rock art sites in the country.
The Hajar Mountain range, stretching some 650km from Ras Al Hadd in Oman, the most easterly point of the Arabian Peninsula, to the Ras Al Jibal, which spans the UAE and Oman at the gateway to the Arabian Gulf, is home to many petroglyph sites.
In an interview with Aletihad, Dr Michele C. Ziolkowski, archaeologist, author and a prominent voice in the UAE’s heritage scene, clarified that rock art is a general term, describing any human-made mark or marks on a rock.
“A petroglyph roughly translates to ‘rock carving.’ It refers to a single rock with images on the surface,” Dr Ziolkowski said. She recorded more than 50 rock art sites, including Wadi Saham, Hassat Al Risoom and Wadi ah-Shanah, as well as the impressive site at Wadi Al Hayl, which is home to a corpus of over 100 petroglyphs.
Cryptic Clues
The large petroglyph at Wadi Saham in Fujairah, is one of the more noticeable examples of rock art in the UAE.
Perched beside a roadside in Wadi Saham, a boulder features ancient motifs carved into its desert-varnished surface across multiple faces. Wadi Saham stone depicts a horse-and-rider motif, cruciform symbols and geometric shapes. The Wadi Saham site was first recorded by a Swiss archaeological team in the 1980s, she said.
Rock art in the area also showcases names and religious inscriptions. Human figures reveal details such as clothing, weaponry and battle scenes while animals include camels, snakes, horses, ibexes, bulls and leopards.
“Many of the motifs have been compared with imagery on dated archaeological artefacts from as early as the Bronze Age (from the 3rd millennium BCE to the 2nd millennium BCE), the Iron Age (circa 1250-300 BCE), and the Late Pre-Islamic Period (300 BCE to the 7th century CE). These comparisons are useful as they offer an earliest possible age for the petroglyphs.”
Context is Everything
“What does it all mean? As humans in general, we like to leave an impression, to make our mark. Rock art is a literal way of leaving your mark. Remember, context is everything. We can learn a lot about a petroglyph by examining the surrounding landscape.
For chronology, I also focus on associated archaeological sites and material found in the immediate vicinity of a rock art site,” Dr Ziolkowski said. Ethnographic information, that is, local knowledge, is extremely useful when studying rock art, she said.
“One example in particular is Hassat Al Risoom, located in the northern mountains of Fujairah. This site was an important landmark in the past. Interviews conducted with the community in the nearby town of Ruwaidah revealed an interpretation of the petroglyph. The site once served as a rest stop and a geographical marker on the journey from the East Coast to the West Coast.
“The route was known as ‘Tareg Al Boshe’ (a road for camels). The site also contains many large trees; the largest was called ‘Siderat Ad Doon’. People would stop and rest under the shade of this sidr and occasionally leave a mark on the large rock.”
Several rock art motifs have also been compared to “wusm” or tribal marks, which denote ownership of property, including land, wells and animals, she added.
“One theory I’m currently exploring is a connection between some of the human motifs, which are comparable with imagery from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. In the past I have compared these to protective figures from the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods.”
“Recently, Dr Peter Magee, Director of Zayed National Museum, has compared this human figure to the star constellation ‘Al Jawza’ (Orion), which signals the cooler weather and aided agricultural pursuits. This would also have marked the onset of the rainy season, with wadis flowing and recharging the aquifers (underground water supply).”
She also has recorded petroglyphs that resemble agricultural garden plots or the outline of the water channels in farmland. “My aim is to merge these theories and propose that these human figures might represent a protective motif specifically related to Southeastern Arabia. Was this figure connected with the land, water, falaj and farming, forming a close connection with the environment? “
From Rock Inscriptions to Children’s Stories
Dr Ziolkowski is the author of many books, including “Fujairah’s Date Palm Gardens: A Preliminary Survey”, which examines the large mounds of earth within the date palm gardens in Fujairah, highlighting the potential that many are archaeological tell sites.
She is a contributing author and co-editor of “The Natural History of Fujairah” (2023), covering a wide range of topics including geology, geography, archaeology, flora and fauna, etc.
She also authored “The Archaeology and History of Fujairah: Human Presence in the Environment”, covering the archaeology and history of Fujairah from the Palaeolithic period up until the 20th century.
These three books were published by the Government of Fujairah, and the second two are part of a book series created by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, and was Published by the Fujairah Environment Authority and the Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Department in conjunction with Motivate Publishing.
“I also have seven children’s books inspired by my son Suhail and the beautiful landscapes and heritage of the UAE.”
Drawn to the Mountains
Dr Ziolkowski arrived in the UAE in 1993 as an archaeology student under the guidance of her professor Dr Dan Potts, who was conducting archaeological fieldwork in the country.
“I returned to work in the UAE every winter season after that, taking part in excavations and surveys in Sharjah, Dubai and Fujairah.”
In the winter of 1995/1996, her field director, Dr Potts, gave her the opportunity to study the rock art at Wadi Al Hayl in Fujairah.
“This was an amazing experience, and the research formed my Honours Thesis, which was subsequently published in the journal “Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy”.
“I was drawn to the mountains, in particular to the dramatic landscape and the many archaeological sites just waiting to be recorded, especially the rock art.”
