L’arte rupestre nelle montagne dell’al-Hajar, penisola arabica. Temi, cronologia, interpretazione

Thousands of engraved and painted figures have afways intrigued visitors to the wadis of Af-Hajar Mountains in the Peninsula of Oman. Who created these enigmatic figures and when were they made? What are their hidden meanings? In the last decade the rock art of AI-Hajar Mountains has benefited from extensive research over a number of projects with a primary focus on engraved and painted efements. The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman and the Sharjah Archaeology Authority initiated a series of surveys, some carried out by the present author, that have resulted in focating several important sites covering an extensive period of aver 7000 years and in offering a first chronological proposaf ofthe rock art. The themes in AI-Hajar Mountains rock art can be separated into five distinct categories: animafs, humans, abstract figures, objects, and inscriptions. These can be divided into six chronologicaf phases based on styfe, superimpositions between figures, comparison of different levels of re-varnishing, and the presence of certain animals and weaponry.