High‐resolution geospatial surveying techniques provide new insights into rock‐art landscapes at Shuwaymis,Saudi Arabia |
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Authors: | Richard Jennings Ash Parton Huw S. Groucutt Laine Clark‐Balzan Paul Breeze Nick A. Drake Abdullah Alsharekh Michael D. Petraglia |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Archaeology, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, , Oxford, OX1 2HU UK;2. Department of Archaeology, College of Tourism and Archaeology, King Saud University, , PO Box 2454 Riyadh, 11451 Saudi Arabia;3. Department of Geography, King's College London, Strand, , London, WC2R 2LS UK |
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Abstract: | Many parts of the Arabian Peninsula contain rock art that has received minimal archaeological attention or has not yet been thoroughly surveyed. In 2001 an extensive rock‐art complex called Shuwaymis, Ha'il Province, Saudi Arabia was brought to the attention of the Saudi General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. This paper sets out the results of the first high‐resolution geospatial mapping and recording of rock art at this remote site. The research saw the innovative use of a differential GPS to record rock‐art panels to within 5 mm of accuracy at the site of Shuwaymis‐2, the first time that such technology has been used to record rock art in the Arabian Peninsula. With such technology it was possible to show which of eighty‐three late prehistoric rock‐art panels surveyed were in their original position and which had fallen, and to demonstrate that there was spatial homogeneity of rock‐art styles and composition across the site. The mapping recorded multiple panels of cattle, ibex, equid, large cat and other animals. The depictions of lions and cattle in particular indicate that the rock art must have been engraved no later than the early Holocene humid phase (c.10–6 ka BP). |
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Keywords: | rock art Shuwaymis Saudi Arabia DGPS GIS late prehistoric landscapes |
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