KU researcher uses Arabian rock art to examine prehistoric human-animal relationship

Sandra Olsen, a University of Kansas professor of Museum Studies, talks about discoveries of animals her research team made while examining ancient rock art in the Arabian Peninsula. Olsen recently discovered a depiction of a Scimitar Horned Oryx, "Oryx dammah," in a petroglyph at Bir Hima, in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is adapted to a more steppe-like environment and must have existed there when times were more moist in the region that is now a desert. This is the first documentation of it in Arabia. http://news.ku.edu/rock-art-provides-unique-window-early-human-animal-life-saudi-arabia Olsen has led a research team that documented hundreds of pieces of rock art in Saudi Arabia that included depictions of ancient hunter-herders interacting with different types of animals.