Tales Inscribed on Rockfaces

Jubbah, Saudi Arabia

Dec 30, 2023

Once upon a time, some eight thousand years ago, the oasis of Jubbah was a lake, rich in wildlife. The peoples who inhabited this area left an array images on a massive rock formation. It is these petroglyphs that I wanted to see. As usual, the problem was how to get there.

In the camp at Al Ula, I had met a German couple who are among the most widely traveled that I have ever met. Over a couple of evenings we had happily traded tales – the good, bad and the completely insane adventures we have had. When Robert and Bruni said they too were headed to Jubbah and offered me a ride, I needed no second urging.

They were everywhere it seemed and we only had access to a small section of this massive area. Some are hammered onto the surface, some are deeply etched. Most recognizable and prolific are the camels, the single humped ones. There are ibex with their huge antlers, there are oryx, there are oxen, there are what seems like big cats with long tails and a panel of ostriches. I can even see a dog at the corner of one scene. Like most such areas, this too had been lived in over hundreds if not thousands of years, the images superimposed on previous ones. I wonder which I ages belong to which ages as I look.

There are images of man too. Some with a bow and arrow, some on horseback and some on camelback. One larger image seems to be dancing. There are no signposts or information so we wandered along making up stories as we went.

Some of the rockfaces clearly showed some writing but I cannot relate it to any script I have seen before. Across the border, not very far away had evolved the Sumerian civilization where writing first began.

I had been wandering there just six months ago gawking at the ruins.

Were the Sumerians who had already built the first cities to the north, contemporaries of these peoples? Or did these peoples come later or earlier? Information on these petroglyphs is difficult to come by and I have no answers. But I wonder at possible connections as I wander happily through the rocks.