Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs

The petroglyph site in Jabal Jassasiyah Qatar is located approximately 60 km northeast of the capital city of Doha and has over 900 different types of petroglyphs. The most commonly found petroglyphs are cupules, which are almost always arranged in geometric patterns. A number of petroglyphs of boat...

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Main Authors: Raid Hassiba, Gerald Benjamin Cieslinski, Brandon Chance, Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi, Michael Pilant, Marvin W. Rowe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press 2012-04-01
Series:QScience Connect
Online Access:http://www.qscience.com/doi/pdf/10.5339/connect.2012.4
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author Raid Hassiba
Gerald Benjamin Cieslinski
Brandon Chance
Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi
Michael Pilant
Marvin W. Rowe
author_facet Raid Hassiba
Gerald Benjamin Cieslinski
Brandon Chance
Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi
Michael Pilant
Marvin W. Rowe
author_sort Raid Hassiba
collection DOAJ
description The petroglyph site in Jabal Jassasiyah Qatar is located approximately 60 km northeast of the capital city of Doha and has over 900 different types of petroglyphs. The most commonly found petroglyphs are cupules, which are almost always arranged in geometric patterns. A number of petroglyphs of boats are also found, usually seen from above, with a few seen in profile. As there is little evidence of what age to assign to these petroglyphs, samples of the calcium oxalate containing layers covering the petroglyphs were sent for radiocarbon dating to determine the minimum age they were created. The minimum ages of nine samples taken for analysis were found to be very short, the oldest minimum age being only 235 years BP (before present). No evidence was found for the petroglyphs dating back a few millennia as was previously postulated. Due to the lack of chronological data for Qatar’s archaeological past, the study data cannot completely rule out the petroglyphs dating back to ancient times.
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spelling doaj.art-a77acaf717f3419ea712103a30c2fd8b2023-01-02T10:10:01ZengHamad Bin Khalifa University PressQScience Connect2223-506X2012-04-012012110.5339/connect.2012.4Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah PetroglyphsRaid HassibaGerald Benjamin CieslinskiBrandon ChanceFaisal Abdulla Al-NaimiMichael PilantMarvin W. RoweThe petroglyph site in Jabal Jassasiyah Qatar is located approximately 60 km northeast of the capital city of Doha and has over 900 different types of petroglyphs. The most commonly found petroglyphs are cupules, which are almost always arranged in geometric patterns. A number of petroglyphs of boats are also found, usually seen from above, with a few seen in profile. As there is little evidence of what age to assign to these petroglyphs, samples of the calcium oxalate containing layers covering the petroglyphs were sent for radiocarbon dating to determine the minimum age they were created. The minimum ages of nine samples taken for analysis were found to be very short, the oldest minimum age being only 235 years BP (before present). No evidence was found for the petroglyphs dating back a few millennia as was previously postulated. Due to the lack of chronological data for Qatar’s archaeological past, the study data cannot completely rule out the petroglyphs dating back to ancient times.http://www.qscience.com/doi/pdf/10.5339/connect.2012.4
spellingShingle Raid Hassiba
Gerald Benjamin Cieslinski
Brandon Chance
Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi
Michael Pilant
Marvin W. Rowe
Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs
QScience Connect
title Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs
title_full Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs
title_fullStr Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs
title_full_unstemmed Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs
title_short Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs
title_sort determining the age of qatari jabal jassasiyah petroglyphs
url http://www.qscience.com/doi/pdf/10.5339/connect.2012.4
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