الأكف البشرية في الفنون الصخرية في المملكة العربية السعودية : دراسة تصنيفية للنمط و المكان

Abstract EN

The rock art as inscriptions, prints and drawings is one of the most important features of the ancient civilization of Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom is one of the richest civilizations in the ancient Near East in this type of art, with more than 1, 400 rock art sites and hundreds of thousands of human and animal forms.

This study deals with the phenomenon of the spread of engraving and printing of human hands in the rock art of KSA.

It counted 206 examples of engraving and printing of those human hands that are parts of complete paintings of rock drawings from the Neolithic period until the beginning of the Islamic period.

The study classified these examples according to the geography of KSA and its administrative regions, relied on a typological methodology for the style and site of the human hands.

The study has classified four patterns of the human hand in KSA, where the north and northwest of KSA were distinguished by the pattern of the hand alone and the hand with the forearm, while the south and southwest of KSA were distinguished by the pattern of the entire arm.

The study has also distinguished between three types of hands, namely: the Tabuk hand of a round shape, the hand (the arm) of Asir rectangular in shape with tattoos and straight fingers, and the Najrani hand, which was engraved in the form of an inverted trapezoid.

The Najrani arm differs from Al-Asiri arm that is thin, rectangular, and decorated with tattoos in that Najrani arm is characterized by the roundness of the hand and the fatness of the arm.