Rock Art discovered in Har Karkom survey

A total number of 218 rock art sites with about 1300 rocks engraved by more than 40,000 petroglyphs have been found on the Har Karkom plateau, in the Paran desert and in the surrounding valleys. This is the highest petroglyph concentration in the Negev and Sinai peninsula. It has been produced during 12,000 years from the end of Pleistocene to the Islamic period.

The presence of a Palaeolithic sanctuary, geoglyphs, megaliths, bronze age temples, menhirs, barrows, stone ranges and circles on the Har Karkom plateau and in its surroundings seems to indicate that the area has been a very important worshipping place during very ancient times.

According to the typology, the rock art has been divided in ten different styles [Anati 1979:28, 1993:71, 1996:20]. The presence of engraved images belonging to more than one style was a common finding. A relative chronology among the shades of styles was allowed by examining the stratigraphy (superimposition of figures) and the different patina on the same rock.