It ’s hard to detect a human culture that does n’t enjoy scribble and carving into the surround around them - and the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula are no different . Found along Qatar ’s northeastern coast , Al Jassasiya is a dozen different careen - carving sites that feature hundreds upon hundreds of carvings .
Al Jassasiyawas first formally discovered by a Danish archeologist in 1957 , but the website was systematically studied in the 1970s when investigator counted a sum of 874 carvings .
One of the recurring images that appears among the Al Jassasiya petroglyphs is foreign ovals with lines coming out , which look a bit like crawling bugs . However , it ’s opine they represent a sauceboat with oar , as see from a bird ’s eye aspect . Researchers havesuggestedthe boats limn pearl craft as pearls were wide export from this part of the human beings in ancient prison term .
It’s not known what some of the symbols and shapes represent or were used for. Image credit: Alizada Studios/Shutterstock.com
Other rough-cut paper are geometric shapes , enigmatic symbols , and animals , include ostriches and fish . There are also a onus of “ cupful and ring marks , ” which are patterns found in prehistoric art from almost every part of the human beings .
The carvings are examples of early petroglyph that escort back to the 15th century cerium . They feel a million miles away from the glitzy Das Kapital of Doha , which is found just an hour ’s driving force south of the area .
The site is sometimes called Jebel Jassassiyeh , which broadly translates from Arabic to mean “ to search , hill . ” The name likely originate from a time when this slightly elevated area was used to look out over the ocean to view incoming ship .
prehistorical artistry is often associated with thecave painting of Europeor the giantNazca Linesof South America , but the Arabian Peninsula is decorated with a wealth of dissimilar styles – peculiarly petroglyphs , which describe images carved into the rock music .
Some of the most impressive were find out near the Sakaka in the al - Jawf Province of Saudi Arabia that feature life - size of it carving of camels . Scientists believe some of these carvings here were created 8,000 year ago , which isexceptionally oldfor this style of artwork .
Researchers have even used carvings in the Saudi-Arabian desert to show that this part of the reality was home to someunexpected wildlife coinage .
The import behind Al Jassasiya is a bit more cryptic than these other sites , but it does show that this part of the Arabian Peninsula was once home to an raiment of bustling and divers cultures .
