Consequentiality Conference:

Mythology , Theology , Ontology=

Section: (Visual Arts)

11-13 July 2005-04-23 Sydney, Australia

With the cooperation=

Expanding Human Consciousness, = Inc.

Expanding org.

Analysis of the first “short-hand" writing in hum= an history

Author:

Dr Ali El-Ghul

Department and affiliation:

Department of Architecture

University of Jordan

The first “short-hand" writing in human history

Author:

Dr Ali El-Ghul

Department of Architecture

University of Jordan

Abstract

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Perception is the process of obtaining informat= ion from and about one’s surroundings. Thinking calls for images and imag= es contain thought (1). Perceptual beliefs about the external world are reason= able because they can be inferred from foundational introspective by means of a warranted general world-experience. A person knows how he is right about the way things are around him on the basis of perception, because firstly “the way things appear to him is ‘given’ in experience; a= nd [secondly] he knows that appearance is a reliable indicator that the world = is as he believes it to be” (2).

Every period in human culture has developed spa= tial conception. Such space conceptions were utilized not only for shelter but a= lso for playing, dancing, fighting, in fact, in the domination of life in every detail. “One forgets that in real life, the cultural model is more important to people than the architectural envelope” (3).<= /span>

A reliability account is one on which true perc= eptual beliefs constitute knowledge just in case the appropriate relations between world, experience, and belief are reliable. First it expressed man’s perception of the surrounding and life through his senses. At this stage environment dictated man and became taught by the environment (perception). Second, by exchanging symbols with other human beings, man has created a language by inventing a certain dictionary of meanings agreed upon among a group of human beings. Each sign reflects Referent, Reference= and Symbol (4). In other words the Object, the Thought and= the Symbol. This reflects the stage of man acting upon man, or man acting upon himself, as George Butterworth called it “Language Situated Cognition” (5). Third, man acting upon his environment, by creating a realistic thought such as painting. At this stage man had invented new instruments and objects to be circulated in the environment as Stefano Bian= ca put it (6).

The art of calligraphy is based on a high level= of ideology and philosophy. Writing became a new expression realized by human process, which developed through history to express human needs and spiritually. The case study i= n this research is the ancient writing of Wade-Rum (4500-200 BC) located in the so= uth desert of Jordan near the Red Sea that was discovered between 1980-2000 by = the Italian researchers of the University of Florence directed by Professor Borzatti (7).

They discovered, at the start, hundreds of draw= ings which were carved on the surfaces of stones and mountains in different locations of the Wadi. Ideogramtic signs came to be explored as the oldest writing in history of the area. These signs respected the perception= of the people at that time of the world: earth and sky, life and eternity (the= end and endless), that reflect the mental and spiritual image expressed by sign= s.

These signs seem to be the first “short-hand" writing in human history. The ideograms had two forms, = the arch form and square form. Borzatti thought that the arch form was the writ= ing of the settled people and the square shape is the writing of Nomads (caravan merchant people).

This paper is to set another theory that:<= /o:p>

1-The sky line reflected the “Arch":= what is above is the Divine space and what is below is the man environment. This type of sky line is the typical perception of people living in open space desert.

2-The rectangular (or square) geometrical space= represents the perception of people living in mountainous areas.

This the= ory is based on perceptional analysis.

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1. Introduction

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Plastic Arts such as architecture, sculpture and drawing are making a considerable portion of people’s culture and daily behavior. It is forming one of the communication means between the society and the surround= ing environment. Art is usually seen as a high level of culture. Art succeeds in finding one universal language for communication between people through tim= es and places.

The author of this article came into contact with this subject during his studies in architecture at Florence University duri= ng lectures by Giovanni Klaus Koenig, an Italian from German origins, the author of “Analisi del Linguaggio Architettonico”, 1964. As the author remembers the theories were base= d on Charles Morris’s book “Sign Language and Behavior”, 1946. Four years later, in 1968, Umberto Eco who was teaching in different facult= ies of architecture in Italy at the same time (Milano, Florence and Rome), published his book “La Struttura Assente”, which was used by his students as a textbook. It has been more than fifty years since the birth of this theory and it is still developing in different languages and cultures,= to the extent that each scholar, most of which are architects, finds in art and architecture a possibility of it being a global language.=

Art by definition is a beautiful environmental re= presentation, spiritually, socially and physically. First it expressed man’s percep= tion of the surrounding and life through his senses. At this stage environment dictated man and became taught by the environment (perception). Second, by exchanging symbols (sounds, signs, images, and imprints) with other human beings, man has created a language by inventing a certain dictionary of meanings agreed upon between a group of human beings. Each sign reflects Referent, Reference and Symbol (Umberto Eco, 1980, p.16). In other words the Object, the Thought and the Symbol. This reflects = the stage of man acting upon man, or man acting upon himself, as George Butterw= orth called it “Language Situated Cognition”. Third, man acting upon= his environment, by creating a realistic thought such as painting, sculpture, poetry, or discourse. At this stage man had invented new instruments and objects to be circulated in the environment as Stefano Bianca, 1982, put it= , or reflecting the primary function as Eco put it. Gibson stated it as “Meaning of Instrument Machines’ and George Butterworth stated = it as “Defining Context”. These first three stages explain the pro= cess of creativity and self-expression within the individuals, that is the birth= of the artistic work or the birth of the architectural plan. Fourth, once the works of man change the environment by adding his opera, we have a new environment acting on people with forces shared by nature and man. Umberto = Eco called it “Secondary Function”, and Gibson called it “Emotional Meaning Value”, which deduct a new sensation and impression. Fifth, once this new environment is born it will impose its characters and styles (Law and Order). Gibson called it “Level of Sign” and Eco called it “Ideology”. It reflects the thoug= ht of people upon themselves and reflects the social environment within a cert= ain group which gives them their identity and beliefs. Sixth, once this new environment i= s established, the environment is fully acted upon by men as society and it becomes a real= ism (Butterworth), or a “Typology” as Umberto Eco put it, this refl= ects the culture of the people.

1.1 Perception: ENV / MAN

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Christian Norberg-Schulz said, “[p]ercept= ion is the immediate awareness of the phenomenal world is given through perception= . It is to understand or judge the things to make them serviceable to us… = Perception is the process of obtaining information from and about one’s surround= ings” (Norberg-Schulz, pp. 22-51).

“It is where cognition and reality meet&#= 8221; (Lang, 1987, p.83). “Nature is present in the poetry of the poets, an= d it is certainly present in the poetry of any poetics. It has lent its name (“natural”, “naturalistic”) to everything that appe= ars “real”; it is the source of emotions, moods, and the aura of sp= ace and time…” (Lang, 1987, p.83).

Orhan Hacihasanoglu said that “people sel= ect and keep in mind the knowledge obtained from the environment. Environmental= characteristics include not only geographical formations, but also cultural and social characteristics of man-made formations… (Socio-cultural factors; historical and folkloric characteristics, population and density, cultural characteristics. The original story of a city or a building could not be defined only by its physical structures: People, equipment, actions, music, light and colors, odors may also affect the environmental identity of a sys= tem or a place” (Hacihasanoglu, 1998).

“The ecological approach to perception is= a radical one. It contradicts the Gestalt concept of isomorphism and the transactional interpretation of the role of experience in perception. Inste= ad of considering the senses as channels of sensation, it regards the senses as perceptual systems” (Lang, p.90). Most of us agree that art is relate= d to pleasure even though they did not agree on the same level and degree.<= /o:p>

Perception happens through senses “becaus= e it is by way of the senses that the mind has experience of external world̶= 1; (Boring, p.4). “Therefore sensation is in the primary source of knowledge.” Christian Norberg-Schulz asserts by saying, “no perception is in reality completely free from an emotional content” (Norberg-Schulz, 1980). Almost all agree that art is a gift by nature. R= 20;Any situation in which we have to participate is perceived in relation to our previous experiences” (Norberg-Schulz, 1980). “We have different ‘attitude’ (orientation) to the ‘same’ things…= ;the same thing may change according to our attitude…The attitude is often= dictated by the situation…We may change the phenomena by changing our attitude… Perception, therefore, is anything but a passive reception = of impressions” (Norberg-Schulz, 1980).

Presentation is the way things are in the exter= nal world around the perceiver, but which of the ways things are such as might = be open to direct perceptual knowledge? My speculation is that this varies, bo= th between people and within people over time, depending upon what we might ca= ll their “conceptual-recognition sophistication” (Brewer, 1997).

Perceptual beliefs about the external world are reasonable, in the required sense, because they can be inferred from foundational introspective by means of a warranted general experience-world linking principle.

A person knows how he is right about the way th= ings are around him on the basis of perception, because:

1) The way things appear to him is ‘given’ in experience; and

2) He knows that appearance is reliable indicat= or that the world is as he believes it to be” (Brewer, 1997).=

We conclude from this that art is misunderstood. Most of us see it a= s a value by itself; it is a gift by nature, independent from the environment a= nd is ambiguous value. The conclusion of perception reminds us of the same conclusion of Jon Lang when he said; “the coexistence of contradictory theories of perception shows the conjectural nature of our understanding of= the perceptual process. There are, however, a number of matters on which there = is agreement. Perception is multimodal; movement plays a major part in environmental perception” (Lang, 1987).

1.2 Cognition : MAN / MAN=

(Mental Cognition, Symbolization)

“Cognitive Psychology deals with acquisit= ion, organization, and storage of knowledge. It focuses on issues of thinking, learning, remembering, feeling, and mental development. Its affect deals wi= th emotion and concerned with likes and dislikes. It involves an understanding= of values and attitude formation. An understanding of the process of cognition= and affect can make a major contribution to the understanding of environmental aesthetics and the choices people make in the use of the environment” (Lang, p. 93).

At this stage people build a hidden theoretical mental image, which is the basic frame of their environmental and space structure of thoughts and images. This hidden mental image is shared between the children from the same age as it becomes shared by people of the same surrounding. This it will be seen in their Expression.

We find general ignorance and illiteracy, a dangerous phenomenon; because it’s relate= d to thought as well as Imagination (which Jon Lang called Schemata). A schema provides us with algorithms for perceiving, learning, and behaving. = We do not know what a schema is like in biological terms. We assume its existe= nce to explain much about learning and behavior. Schemata can be considered to = act like templates for action. Extensive schemata have lesser ones buried in th= em. This explains how we can act, make plans about where we are going, and appreciate the world around us all at the same time (Lang, 1987).

The images that people have of the environment around them are a type of schemata. These im= ages can be iconic images (cognitive maps) as discussed by Kevin Lynch in The Image of the City (1960), or associational images (more properly, symbo= lic meanings), as discussed by Anselm Strauss in Images of the American City= (1961) (Lang, p. 94).

As we know = Cognition links Perception with Creativity. It is not an educational problem, it is more behavioral and it respects the culture of the people. T= his phenomenon might have been influenced by the dominance of media of modern times, such as television, internet, and so on, that people have no interes= t in reading books anymore.

“When as= ked what the specific books related to art that he currently reads, a local architect said: Right now I do not read but write, speculate, research and paint. Reading has many kinds: There is the reading of nature, ruins and tr= ees; the reading of personalities, eyes and movements; and the reading of events, history and the present. The reading of the soul, understanding it and analyzing ones personality is my favorite kind of reading, for in it there = is self-criticism” (Al-Rai, 27/12/1998)

1.3 Expression: MAN / ENV=

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Preliminary mental images are gathered from a confluence of the information gathered, personal experiences and mental ima= ges of similar known projects. These mental images are converted to rough sketc= hes, diagrams, or working models which are reviewed with other effected persons = (Mazumdar, 1991).

Thinking calls for images, and images contain t= hought (Arnheim, p.254). To treat art as a form of visual thinking may seem undoubtedly one-sided. Art fulfills other functions, which are often consid= ered primary. It creates beauty, perfection, harmony, and order. It gives vent to pleasure or discontent (Arnheim, p.254).

Beauty, perfection, harmony, orders do serve to= give a sense of well being by presenting a world congenial to human needs: but t= hey are also indispensable conditions for making a cognitive statement, clear, coherent, comprehensible (Arnheim, p.254).

Representation, it may be said, is as old as civilization. It may even be possible to postulate that civilization is synonymous with man’s ability to create icons, the letters of the alp= habet, or scribbling on cave walls (Ajlouni, p. 13).

The majority of people lost interest in manipulating art and obtaini= ng art appreciation at their old age, referring to art as a talent that grows = with people or can be taught to children at an early age. Some have argued in the past that creativity cannot be adequately defined because all the aspects of creativity are in fact more special than it is itself. This notion had been stated by Whitehead, and it may have been one of the reasons why architects= in the past have argued that creativity cannot be taught (Antoniadis, 1990).

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1.4 Impression: ENV / MEN=

It is quite true that our arrival at a point of= no decision in the arts and sciences, more or less simultaneously at this R= 20;moment” is in itself another illusion… (Lippold, 1972) In this way, the scientist, the artist, and the prophet are one, for it is the general acceptance of a particular illusion which motivates and unifies mankind at = any given time. To abandon this illusion to chaos or to embrace previous illusi= ons is to die. Creativity, like life and like love, depends on a man’s ability to accept an illusion, to be aware of it, and to sustain it. Only in this way can he find a structure for his life and for his work. Illusion= is structure. (Lippold, 1972)

No one will deny the profound inter-relation of artist and community. The artist depends on the community – takes his tone, his tempo, and his intensity from the society of which he is a member, but the individual character of the artist’s work depends on more than this. It depends on the definite will-to-form which is the reflection of the artists’ personality, and there is no significant art without this ac= t of creative will (Read, p.196).

“What we really expect in a work of art i= s a certain personal element – we expect the artist to have, if not a distinguished mind, at least a distinguished sensibility. We expect him to reveal something to us that is original – a unique and private vision= of the world (Read, 1967).

As seen from the results of questions 3, 4 and 5, we notice architec= ts and architectural students do not believe in the liberty of art and the fre= edom of the artist, and think it should be monitored and controlled. An unexplai= ned phenomenon.

By creativity we should understand for preliminary introductory purp= oses all the processes, the state of mind and the “agony”, perhaps t= he uneasiness and turmoil, the state of total emergence and the birth of unsta= ring mechanisms, through which the creator has to go during the stage of intelle= ctual and design conception (Antoniadis, 1990).

1.5 Semantic Forms: MEN / MEN=

(Order, Style, Rules)

People mostly agree that art has a role to play= in the social life of a community. Every period in human culture has developed spatial conception. Such space conception was utilized not only for shelter= but also for play, dancing, fighting, in fact, for the domination of life in ev= ery detail. A new space conception originated mainly through materials and we c= an say that this new space conception is the legitimate successor of a space tradition giving such poor results at present. In this way architecture (mentioned here as the most easily recognizable spatial expression) is more= a juxtaposition of rooms than an articulation of space (Nagy, 1972).

Landscapes, towns and buildings are part of each person’s daily visual experience; they are not reserved for specialis= ts. Of course the impressions of the public remain most often intuitive and haz= y. Its views are, however, governed by a combination of visual laws, acquired cultural values that have been imposed or accepted, by the memory of one’s own experience and by particular objectives that one is pursuin= g at the moment of confrontation with the environment in question (Von Meiss, 19= 92).

The creation of “new traditional environments” is a very complex process. These new environments are places of cultural encounter and dissonance where past meets present, ideas germinate, ferment, and possibly develop into new ways of dealing with social and environmental problems (Ma= zumdar, 1991).

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1.6- Culture: MEN / ENV

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C= ulture is something which is not just received but which is also revised and re-created by children. It remains a source of meaningful representations of objects and actions, representations which are socio–historical becau= se they emerge from the historical experience of a social group.

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A reliability account is one on which true perceptual beliefs consti= tute knowledge just in case the appropriate relations between world, experience,= and belief are reliable… Satisfaction of the reliability condition would = be external to the subject’s mind in the following sense. The need have = no recognition whatsoever that the condition obtains: no idea whether, how, or= why he is right in believing what he does (Brewer, 1997). The modern artistic movement now lives a state of social siege. The society, which has been away from exhibition halls, considers art is for those who have been educated wi= th western culture. The reason for this is that many artists offer artistic wo= rks that do not suit the majority of tastes, for many are still infatuated by traditional crafts that express the art of the society, which manages to combine usage and beauty. A situation that has been avoided by the western schools by differentiating between Plastic Art and Practical Art.

One of the main aims of the artist is to search for beauty, the beauty that can= not be identified but felt. The artist affects and is affected from reality, and society is the main part of reality. Therefore, for the artist to disassoci= ate himself from his surroundings needs a deep study of tradition for him to ma= ke a developed civilized step.

2- Concepts of   space:=

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B= eing capable of seeing what few others perceive straight away. The architect bea= rs a great responsibility. We can build what others are hardly capable of seeing… We can speculate on the fact that one-day the public will discover at least part of our intentions by incorporating them in its memor= y. His “didactic” role can help others to perceive and enjoy the b= uilt environment with greater subtlety (Von Meiss, 1992).

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The symbolic meaning of the built environment must be perceived with= in the broad set of values about people and the universe that constitutes a culture (Lang, 1987).

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There are no physiological differences between people, therefore the= ir perceptions and cognitions must be one. But the surrounding circumstances l= ead to the change of perceptions and cognitions .That is why it found differenc= es between perceptions and cognitions of man in neighboring regions and found similarity in regions far away from each other. Maybe the reason behind thi= s is the environmental resemblance that leads to a coinciding perception.

It was noticed that the perception concept and then the cognition in human growth develop through his steps of being a baby, toddler and walker = then as adult. Also it has been noticed that the same characteristics in human a= rt history process during time and place these similarities are seen in these comparis= ons:

A-   &n= bsp;            = ;     Motherhood Period :

It is the time of beginning of a baby and the beginning of a human b= eing, or similar conditions such as primitive surrounding and primitive civilizat= ion or culture. It is the period remembering the bosom of motherhood Man being = and babies used to live in the semi-nude with direct contact with the mother or nature, directly with body and breath. Where they were taking food and protection from this intimate surrounding and sharing: heat, humidity, pres= sure, protection, refuge, etc.

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At this point the concept of space took the logic image of fullness = and solidarity with the individual being. Which means he has a hidden illusion = of materialistic image which he can elaborate. In children’s psychology = it is called the Magic Space. Babies cannot express solely by sounds and movement which express their feelings and perception, keep in mind that this perception develops with the development of senses, which are the major fac= tor at this stage. Children can self express this perception by dreams. These d= reams remain and continue with children in the following stages. Many of us still remember our far dreams, and remember that first dreams were formed from abstract images of colored lines, points and stars in mixed movement and different combination. Those dreams respect the memories of the surrounding= . Those pictures are almost not a defined shape.

All this can be seen it in primitive art and architecture, they use = nude body models and they draw on irregular shapes of area almost on any thing available and they don’t care to define a geometrical shape. Magic is= a common theme well as lovely colors, keeping in mind it is a reflection and copying of the surrounding with natural feelings and innocence.<= /span>

Different examples of this type of drawings have been found in Valle= y of Rum in southern Jordan, drawn on stones with different subjects like animal= s or human behavior like women delivery or hanging and fighting or images of Gods and Goddesses with huge sexual organs (See Borzatti articles).

B-Crawling period:

For a baby, this is the time that he starts to take freedom of movem= ent and discovers his direct surrounding in a larger area. The perception is li= nked with baby movement: once he looks in front of him and he then stores his information about distances, orientations, obstacles. Then he crawls watchi= ng where he puts his hands while at the same time using stored information. He= then repeats this process going time after time in high speed and frequency whic= h an adult may not notice. This influences his cognition of space in an image of= stratums, or as said in geometry in plans: frontal plan (vertical) and ground plan (h= orizontal). Precisely as in descriptive geometry which is based on projection: we perce= ive perpendicular elements but we draw them overlapping.

The desert people lack usually natural elements to sit and sleep; so they sit and sleep on ground; this gives them the opportunity to share the = same horizon (lack of perspective), having always the same view level. Also beca= use of the high heat and strong sun they cannot look to the sky and frequently = the dust cancels the vision of vanishing points on the horizon, which gives the sphere image of space strong presence in memory. At this point the cognitio= n of the space is: very huge, very large very wide and empty.<= /p>

The dilemma now in expression is how to fill this space. Experimenti= ng with children by giving them peaches, they always try to build hills and pyramids, that also happened with the archaic civilizations. The paintings = and drawings in this kind of perception are very transparent with amalgamation = of space. The best example to understand what it meant here is by putting a dr= op of ink in a cup of water, and then what happens is that the color will flow= smoothly in the water in circular movements until it fills all the space. The childr= en dreams are of sphere and the filling of flying and lack of gravity.

But architectural drawings toke another path: they draw the vertical element unfold with the ground that the vertical and horizontal figures can= be seen in the same moment. The form of image in this kind of space is empty t= o be filled from spherical volumes (domes) or curved forms like a circle, arch, = loop or spiral. This is similar to= filling all empty spaces which is called vacuum fear.

C - Walking steps:

This stage is the very beginning of walking, a period of standing an= d falling or walking step by step. The best explanations for this stage is walking on straight roads as opposed to climbing. No matter what age the child is, is = the memory is more important? Some people conserve in art expressions periods belonging to childhood even if they are sixty years of age (different examp= les have been researched). Expression needs to develop the ability of the expressive tools.

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The most impressive feature in this stage is awareness and fear, and= the awareness sense of gravity. This is reflected in children’s dreams as= a space of semi-spherical space with a plate of ground like a stage on which things= happen and the dreamer exercises both walking and flying.

The most appropriate architectural examples for this case is the Mortuary Temple of Hat-shep-sut, Deir Albahri –Egypt; c.1450B.C., and Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, 1257 B.C.in Egypt, and Petra 330 B.C. This kind of perception become represented in isometric methods as three dimensi= onal representations. It is still within the nature of empty space that people of this concept find courage to cut in mountains but they are still afraid to affront the real empty space: as we see in Petra where hey cut the mountain= s in huge facades but they built very small and week columns, bearing in mind th= ey were living under Hellenistic domain and culture as their works show. It is important to notice that even in Egypt and in Jordan when they did cut in massive rocks they drew a clear frame in square shape to contain their work= s of sculpturing the mountains.

D - Climbing:

When children and people reach this stage, we can say that they reac= hed the final step experimented until now (future can save the surprises with human development and changes of spaces). It is when the third axes of space (vol= ume and perspective) develop. It is the hidden axes of gravity that pass throug= h a person from their feet to their head. When people can feel balance, they can stand even over the top of mountains. This almost includes adults and athle= tic people (like the Greek) or people living in mountains like settlers of Yemen –South of Arabia – which are both built over high places. Yemen= is built high rise buildings since the early times and the Greek built on the highest places in their cities; not forgetting that Greek created the Helle= nic style of architecture.

In this perception they are not afraid from vacuum because space is = in their mind; it is even transparent but it is full even of nothing, but, sti= ll full and not empty. When they build an image they carve it in sky as like t= he Egyptians when they tried to cut in mountains. So the difference between the pyramids and Acropolis of Athens is that pyramids were built on stratum principle a layer over another from bigger to smaller until they formed the pyramid, like the stepped Pyramid of King Zoserc.2610 B.C. also Ziggurat at= Ur 2100 B.C. in Mesopotamia.

3-The Case Study

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The basin of Hisma is located in the southern d= esert of Jordan and is furrowed by deep valleys which are characteristic of this = area. Among these, Wadi Rum, about 10 km long and 1.5 km wide, presents some of t= he area's most evocative scenery. Wadi Rum is enclosed between two bastions of= red sandstone dating back to the Cambrian era which lean on a granite Precambri= an base. They rise vertiginously to a height of 600/700 m above the plain of s= ands that cover the bottom of the valley to reach the considerable height of 1,7= 65 m above sea level with the peak of Jabal Rum.

For almost thirty years the Italian mission led= by Professor E. Borzatti von Lowenstern has been operating in this area, its permanent supply base located in the nearby village of Aeiddeese.

The majestic beauty of the landscape is accompa= nied by an unusual abundance of water due to the presence of over thirteen peren= nial springs generating from the area of contact between the overhanging permeab= le sandstones and the impermeable granite banks. For this reason Wadi Rum has always been favored as a transit and halting area on the natural route betw= een Arabia west and the Mediterranean east (Fig. 1).

A long period of human presence has left many t= races, some of them ancient:

•Paintings in red ochre with black marks,= occasionally white, dating back to the Calcolithic (Fig. 2).

•Engraved or scratched figures from various peri= ods, representing mostly hunting, dwelling or war scenes, and animals, almost exclusively present on the smooth faces of sandstone boulders that have bro= ken away from the wall of the mountains (Fig. 3).

•Inscriptions in various languages such as Thamudic, Nabatean and, less frequently, late Arabic.

•Prehistoric villages, present in great n= umber in the north and only sporadically in the south of the valley, that accordi= ng to the evidence found, date to the Neolithic and Calcolithic world; the 'ma= p' of Giabal Amood also indicates the absence of settlements in the central pa= rt of the valley.(fig. 4 )

•Icons of a sacred nature dedicated to the goddess Allat, sculpted in the Nabatean period close to the spring of Ain S= hellaleh, famous in the west thanks to T.F. Lawrence's book "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom".

•The Nabatean temple constructed on a pre= vious Thamudic sanctuary built by the 'Aad was dedicated to goddess Allat, and its remains can be seen in the large recess on the western side of the valley, opposite the present village of Rum.

A further anthropic proof of a peculi= ar and enigmatic nature is the presence of a great number of enclosures that are located, one after the other, almost uninterrupted for a long stretch on bo= th slopes of the valley; they are found exclusively in this valley and are the subject of the article. These structures have already been observed with curiosity and identified as an unusual characteristic of this area (Cattari= n, 2003).

The radiocarbon dates of the paleonto= logical remains Of Wadi Judayid suggest an age of ca. 11 .000-10.500 B.C. (Henry &a= mp; Tumbull, 1985). During the time that the wild sheep specimens were deposited, pollen remains indicate that southern Jordan was somewhat less a= rid than at present, indicating a savannah grassland setting. It is possible th= at during this period, before the later aridity set in, wild sheep could have moved into the western highland, which would have held sufficient vegetation and water for far more varied fauna than is seen today (Borzatti & Mass= etti 1994).

Not a long time ago, Borzatti publish= ed some articles about the characteristics of old drawings and carvings from t= he Stone Age that could be classified as abstract (non figurative) (Borzatti, 1984, 1998, 2000). That is because the idea of an abstract art in prehistor= ic time was always of little logic, or convincing.

Basically the hypothesis was influenc= ed by the standardization of the executed motives on the rocks, also from the obs= essive repetition on vast region. The signs noticed in Wadi Rum were observed to be clearly chronologically old belonging to 4500-4000 B.C. Around one thousand= or more of these drawings were found on surfaces of rocky mountains , caves, u= nder rocks or on rolling stones most of which were hidden by the passage of time= .

=

The supposed idea of those signs whether painted or carved could be explained a= s an expression of symbolized ideograms, related to religious or magical rituals= , or even cosmological thinking. Belmonte is one of the researchers in the Itali= an group in 1999 who read these signs as:

a- Abstract: universe, night, sk= y, God, prayer, fertility, friendship, giving, abundance, etc.

b- Realistic: moon, sun, wind, ox, animal, man, hand, water, etc.

=

By th= inking practically, they came to suppose that these sings resemble real and proper proto-scripts. Basic signs have two shapes:

1- Fo= rm of arch: some times has a closed bottom (fig     ).

2- Sq= uare form: mostly open at the bottom, but some times it found open (Fig    ).
=

These= two shapes (formal) constitute the basic idea of “Idogram“or “= ;Idograph”. Each shape constitutes a complete system of the basic figure with the addit= ion of smaller lines or signs (like cross sign schematic figure of man) added inside and outside the basic shape of arch or square. Although these additi= ons are almost similar in both cases; this led the researcher to put into consideration the following points.

=

=

=

=

=

3.1- First Hypotheses:

=

These= signs are similar to scratches that should be symbolizing writing for the followi= ng reasons (Borzatti, article; Archeological Viva, May-1999):

(a)   &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;   The monotonous and repetitive schematic motives do not recall artistic interest with every talented and creative person who would try to express personal a= nd original sensations; meanwhile these works look more or less like a stamp. = They are not decorative elements because they are located in isolation and occup= y a very small portion of a large surface of a wall, almost found on refuge or = on small rocks.

(b)   &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;   The basic elements of the figures are signs that seem to isolate or confine external or internal spaces of the element.

(c)   &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;    There are accessory smaller signs that explicit the demarked differences between ideograms.

(d)   &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;   It can be definite to report that these signs represent coded messages.

(e)   &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;   Some of these ideograms are found to be identical in different places with very = long distances between them.

3.2- Second Hypothesis:

=

This = theory states that there were two kinds of people living together at the same time= : a people of settlers and another of nomads. The settlers were working in agriculture and mining (found mines of copper very near the area: Petra, Wa= di Araba and Dead Sea areas). The Nomads were living on pasturing and traveling according to seasons and who were also experts in hunting and using horses = and camels as seen from drawings on walls of mountains and stones near water or above mountains. The hypothesis of Borzatti literally is as written in his Italian language:

“All nostro avviso, questi nuovi simboli possono essere ricondotti per la maggior parte ai tempi calcoliticie di poco posteriori, a= nche se non tutti al mondo sedentario: a suo tempo avevamo ipotizzato che u= na certa produzione potesse essere appartenuta ai pastori nomadi che viss= ero contemporaneamente agli agricoltori stessi. Al momento non ci pare importante afrontare una discriminazione fra i tipi di segni poiche` l= 'ipotesi che i segni ad arco, piu' antichi, siano da ricondursi a popolazioni sedent= arie, mentre quelli quadrangolari siano da riferirsi ai pastori, e`ancora tatta da verificare, anche se per alcone ragioni, come avremo modo di vedere, p= ossa essere estremamente probabile.”

(Borzatti von Lowe= nstem, 2000).

He meant to say: that the square form of signs was used by the nomads andthe arch form was used by settlers. At this point the author of this paper thinks the opposite: I state that the arch f= orm belongs to the people who lived in plain areas and sandy desert while the square form is used by people who lived in highlands and rocky mountains similar to Wadi Rum, Petra and Yem in south Arabia.

4-Conclusion:=

Today Art is a kind of message as it = was in times of the past. If we take in consideration the artistic production in "prehistoric or proto historic" times; it will not reflect the aesthetic enjoyment as much the religious morals or/and the magic motivatio= ns of some important activity. Still Art express the links of man with his nat= ural and social environment (Borzatti, in Archeologia Viva).

Similar ideographs were found between= Egyptian, Sumerian and Chinese ideographs (Borzatti, Studi per L`Ecologia, 1999). It = is important to note that these signs belong to the beginning of the fifth millennium before Christ, which coincides with Copper Age.

Therefore, I conclude as follows:

1- We are confronted with a form of w= riting well structured, that communicates between archaic and primitive people dedicated and developed within ethnic groups that have certain cultural dimension. We can say that it worked as short-hand writing for international coded messages. This code transferred by the nomads of camels= traveling in caravans with their goods and animals searching for water and markets. A= ll this happened before the fall-down of Babylon Tower -if the legend is corre= ct- when people used to talk the same language.

2- The Arch form is used by Nomads (p= eople of the desert and plain areas), and the square form is used by the settlers= (people of mountains) working on cultivating the valleys and cutting in mountains f= or the mines.

<= span style=3D'font-family:Arial'>

Sinai , Palestine,Jordan ,Dead Sea and Wadi Rum=

= <= !--[if mso & !supportInlineShapes & supportFields]> SHAPE \* MERGEFORMAT = <= span style=3D'font-family:Arial'>

Rectangular shape and Arch shape of Signs found= at Wadi Rumm

South of Jordan near Red Sea belongs to 4000-4500 BC.

<= span style=3D'font-family:Arial'>

The two types of ideograms

= <= span style=3D'font-family:Arial'>

Similer artistic expression reflects similler perception of the same environment –mind the differences of time : le= ft ( Petra around 330 B.C. ) right ( Wadi Rumm ideogram around 4000 B.C.)

Abstract Notes

(1) Arnheim,Rudolf (1969) Visual Thinking, University of California Press, p.254.

(2) Brewer, Bill (1997) ‘Formation of Perceptual Knowledge’ in American Philosophical Quarterly Journ= al, no 01, pp.41-54.

(3) Belkacem, Yusef (1982) ‘Bio= climatic Patterns and Human Aspects of Urban Form in the Islamic City’ in T= he Arab City: Its Character and Islamic Cultural Heritage, Ismail Serageld= in & Samir El-Sadek (eds.), The Arab Urban Development Institute, Medina, Saudi Arabia, pp. 2-21.

(4) Eco, Umberto (1980) ‘Functi= on & Sign: The Semiotic of Architecture’ in Signs, Symbols & Architecture, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, U.S.A., pp. 11-69.

(5) Butterworth, George B. (1992) ‘Context &Cognit= ion in Models of Cognitive Growth’ in Context & Cognition, Paul L= ight & G. Butterworth (eds.), Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, U.S.A., pp. 1-= 13.

(6 ) Bianca, Stefano (1982) ‘Traditional Muslim Cities and Western Planning Ideology’ in The Arab City: Its Character and Islamic Cultural Heritage, Ismail Serageld= in & Samir El-Sadek (eds.), The Arab Urban Development Institute, Medina, Saudi A= rabia, pp. 36-52.

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(7) Bo= rzatti von Lowenstern, Edoardo (2003) ‘Dagli Ideogrammi alle Scritture Alfab= etiche: Le testimonianze nel deserto delle Giordania Merididionale’, in St= udi Per L’Ecologia Del Quaternario (Periodico del Laboratorio di Ecol= ogia del Quaternale Universita` degli Studi di Firenze – Itlaia) no.25, pp. 61-86.

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