How old are Dhofari inscriptions and cave drawings?

I have seen examples of cave drawings, cave writings and some more formal inscriptions in Dhofar. For example, the photo to the right of a rider on a horse was taken in a cave about 30 km west of Thumrait in a desert area!

Does anyone know how old they are? Has anyone done any dating tests on them?

Inscriptions in known Hadrami script have been found at Khor Rori, Hanun and Wadi Andhur. However, it wasn’t until relatively recently that further inscriptions, this time in a previously unknown script, were discovered. Since about 1988 many of these inscriptions have been documented by local historian, Ali Ahmed Al-Shahri*. He has documented more than 250 sites containing  this language. The texts are painted on the walls of caves in the Dhofar mountains or pecked onto rocks further north in the Nejd. While the language remains undeciphered it is clearly related to the South Semitic script.

Some think that this undeciphered script is the written form of the language that is spoken in the Dhofar Mountains to this day – Shehri, more commonly known as Jibbali.

© Ross Hayden. Cave painting in Wadi Darbat.

As well as the inscriptions, there are many cave paintings of domesticated animals (camels, cows, goats, horses) as well as wild animals (ibex, wolves, leopards, foxes).

© Ross Hayden. Cave painting in Wadi Darbat.

Al-Shahri reached the following conclusions about the incidence of inscriptions and drawings in Dhofar: the largest number of inscriptions and drawings were found in areas distant from well-worn mountain passes and routes taken by caravans. The inscriptions were, in fact, mostly found in areas heavily used by herders and their animals. Inscriptions and drawings were only found in caves which would have been suitable for human habitation. Often the subject of the drawings varies with locality – for example, ibex in the high dry plateaux; palm trees and boats near the coastal plains. However, the techniques, style of inscriptions and drawings, and the materials used are very similar wherever they occur throughout the region.

* Al-Shahri, A. A. (1991). Recent Epigraphic Discoveries in Dhofar. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 21, 173-191.

Flying snakes…

From ancient times stories about flying snakes in southern Arabia have abounded. Most of these stories were connected with frankincense trees.  In ancient days it was believed that flying snakes inhabited the groves of frankincense trees, protecting them from intruders but also making it much more difficult for the owners of the trees to harvest the precious resin.

Recorded stories have come down to us from Greek historians like Herodotus (430 BC), Strabo, and others. However Pliny the Elder considered such stories to be fantasy.

However, it is interesting to note that even today there are people in the area who believe in flying snakes.

Oral traditions like these that have survived to today are largely independent of written sources, thus strengthening the argument that perhaps there is, or once was, a basis for the existence of such creatures.