Rock art on Socotra,Yemen: the discovery of a petroglyph site on the island's south coast. |
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| Authors: | Julian Jansen van Rensburg |
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| Affiliation: | Dahlem Research School, Freie Universit?t, Berlin, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Recent fieldwork on the south coast of the island of Socotra, Yemen, has revealed a hitherto unknown petroglyph site. This site represents the first rock art to have been recorded on the south coast, an area generally regarded as being unpopulated up until the recent past. The corpus of recorded petroglyphs includes feet, cupules, anthropomorphic figures and geometric motifs, whose designs parallel those from known rock‐art sites on the north coast. The importance of this site is that it provides us with the first glimpse into the religious and socio‐political lives of the inhabitants of the previously unknown southern half of Socotra. Placing these petroglyphs within the broader context of rock‐art studies on the island of Socotra has also allowed us to begin to disentangle the skewed view of Socotra's inhabitants. |
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| Keywords: | petroglyphs rock art Socotra Yemen anthropomorphic figures feet motifs ritual |
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