PETROGLYPHS WITHIN THE WĀDĪ RAGHWĀN, MA’RIB GOVERNATE, REPUBLIC OF YEMEN: LOCATIONS, PECULIAR ICONOGRAPHY AND INTERPRETATIONS

Abstract

During the 2006 field season of the Wadi Raghwan Archaeological Project (WRAP) over a hundred examples

of petroglyphs were encountered by the survey team in the Wādī Raghwān drainage basin within the Ma‟rib

Governate, Republic of Yemen. While most of the petroglyphs exhibit iconography that is common

throughout Arabia, four specific genres, each in different locations, stand out as particularly striking among

the repertoire of rock art known in the Yemen and adjacent countries. Three of the genres have parallels

elsewhere within Arabia, although the details of their rendering are rather different. The locations and

contexts of all four suggest specific landscape relationships and symbolism; one seems to represent person

to-person combat, another seems to have a special symbolic or “cultic” value, and two locations seem to

have likely associations with camel caravans. The fourth genre belongs to a genre best described as a

“cognitive map”, and its parallels are rare within Arabia.