Determining the age of Qatari Jabal Jassasiyah Petroglyphs

Abstract

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.