What’s the meaning of this Dhofar cave painting?
Throughout Dhofar there are hundreds of caves decorated with ancient cave paintings. Colours commonly used are black and red, but green is occasionally found. Some paintings seem like doodles; while others tell a story from long ago…
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- Dhofar Oman Cave-Painting-#01613 (c) Ross Hayden
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- Dhofar Oman Cave-Painting-#01616 (c) Ross Hayden
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- Dhofar Oman Cave-Painting-#01627 (c) Ross Hayden
The photographs here of this cave painting in the Dhofar Mountains in southern Arabia seem to tell a story. What it looks like is a caravan of laden camels being raided. We see men on horseback with swords and shields. There’s one man upside down falling to the ground. At the bottom of the painting is what looks like a tally – maybe they counted the cost of camels lost or men killed in the raid.
Any suggestions? Any other story this painting might tell?
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I think you are right about the tallies. It does look like the depiction of a battle. The tallies by the camels for how many taken or killed, by the caravans for how many supplies taken or ruined, and by the hand maybe how many spirits taken. Just a guess… so the question is who painted the scene, a survivor or conqueror?