CURRENT FINDS IN ROCK ART RESEARCH OF OMAN: A REVIEW AND UPDATE

Abstract

The petroglyphs and pictographs of Oman are little known, but for the last 9 years I have been involved,

through the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Culture, in a series of surveys of the Jebel Akhdar Mountain

range, that have resulted in the location of several important sites. The recording of these sites, on occasion

in advance of major roadwork modernization projects, has for the first time enabled detailed research of the

rock art in the area. This is being undertaken through the research of: superimpositions; cross-dating with

known artistic expressions elsewhere in the region; the known dates for the introduction of writing systems

in Ancient Arabic and Standard Arabic alphabet; the study of various objects of material culture; and the

presence of certain animals in the rock art (such as turtles, oryxes, goats-like animals, camels and horses). I

propose a preliminary chronology consisting of several major phases spanning the last 7,000 years.