The Paintings and Rock Inscriptions in Jeddah of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia "An Analytic study"

Abstract

: The theme of this research aims to discuss a new vision for the rock Art that have puzzled archaeologists and spread in the mountains of Wadi Fatima and its various branches in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study dealt with seven sites of rock Art in the vicinity of the city of Jeddah, four of which were published in Atlal Magazine No. 11, where they are represented respectively in the first site; “Jabal Al-Qasab” on the highway of Jeddah-Taif, about 60 km southeast of Jeddah, the second site; “Bremen” located in the north-east of Jeddah, the third site; “Abhr” located northwest of Jeddah, which is destroyed, and the fourth site; "Umm Hablain" located north-east of Jeddah. It is worth mentioning that the study will be re-analyzed the sceneries and inscriptions to have new analyzes for some mysterious scenes that were not discussed in the study published in Atlal Magazine No. 11, such as the strange "Umm Hablain site" scene, where the study will be interpreted as one of the jumping rituals on the animal of Eland. Spread in Africa, especially in Namibia, which has many ritual indications referred to in the text of the study, this in addition to the translation of the surrounding Thamudic inscriptions, which have not been translated and investigated before. As for the other three unpublished sites, they are represented respectively in the Fifth site known as the inscriptions of Wadi Hura, located to the north-east of Al-Jumum. The Sixth site known as the rock drawings in the Khuzam Palace Historical Museum, which were found in a place near Salman Bay located in the north of Jeddah, on one of the rocky hills in the Abhr area. The seventh site represented in the rock inscriptions and drawings in Wadi Ghamra Ze Kinda, one of the tributaries of Nakhlat EL-Shamiya, Wadi Al-Zarqa and Wadi Al-Murir, which is one of the most important valleys of Wadi Fatima in Jeddah. These sites contained inscriptions of humans, animals, and birds, as well as inscriptions of signstribes, Thamudic inscriptions and some other stone finds; they were dated from the Upper Paleolithic period at least until the Neolithic Age, with the presence of overlapping inscriptions and finds from later historical periods such as the Iron Age period. This in addition to the pre-Islamic era in the period between the fourth to the first centuries BC, where the common feature between these sites other than the diversity of their topics is the technique used in the implementation of inscriptions or rock drawings, and these inscriptions carried different connotations, where the study will be addressed in particular analysis determining the identity of some mysterious animals appeared in the inscriptions and the significance of their association with the religious rituals of the Prehistoric Humans in Jeddah.