Between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, the capital city of Dadan rose to great power in northern Arabia. Reason: the burgeoning trade of frankincense from southern Arabia to Egypt and beyond. Dadan, right in the middle of the trade route, made huge profits from frankincense tolls. During this prosperous era, writing and art developed—the evidence of which is still visible on the mountains today.
“Several stone inscriptions at Jabal Ikmah are about people giving offerings to deities, mostly the Lihyanite deity Dhu Ghaybat, and asking for either prosperity or forgiveness”, Yaseen says. For instance, there are numerous carvings that depict prayers for rain by both men and women who owned agricultural land in Al-Ula.
“In a desert environment rain is vital for sustenance. People often performed a ceremony called the zll for their palm trees and other crops,” write Dr. Munirah Almushawh, Archaeology Survey Manager, RCU. In another example, Minaean traders from Yemen wrote about their offerings to Dhu Ghaybat, asking for profits and prosperity.
It is interesting how traders, musicians, artists, and penitents often poured their hearts onto the red sandstone cliffs of Jabal Ikmah, engraving tales about ceremonies, prayers, offerings and myriad rituals with a purpose to please the deities. However, sometimes these stones were etched without a purpose, as if to simply represent the natural world in art. “There are so many drawings that depict animals like ibexes, deer, cattle, camels and even ostriches,” Yaseen says, pointing to the art on the rock. Hunting and farming tools like spears and urns also make it to the rocky canvas.
