Risa TOKUNAGA

Before the diffusion of paper, desert rocks were one of the most popular recording media on which, unlike costly papyri and parchments, anyone could draw and inscribe to perpetuate their memories. In Western Asia a large number of such graffiti remain undocumented on the rock walls of mountains and wadis distant from inhabited areas. Through field surveys in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt in the early 2000s, I started the documentation of Ancient South Arabian, Ancient North Arabian, and Early Islamic Arabic graffiti and, based on these materials, carried out researches on some topics related to ancient trade routes, as well as the development of ancient scripts and religions in the Arabian Peninsula. Since 2017, I have participated in Saudi Japanese archaeological missions in Tabuk Province, Saudi Arabia, to clarify the old inland networks of the Hijaz where the ancient incense trade caravans and Muslim pilgrims passed through.

My study in this project focuses on the materials curved on desert rocks that are possibly related to nomadism such as Ancient North Arabian graffiti left by nomads, petroglyphs of various periods depicting animals, and wus?m (tribal symbols). The research aims to clarify the development of nomadic life and tribal society in light of the documentation of new materials and their analysis.

Selected publications
・Fujii, S. and R. Tokunaga (2007), “A Brief Report on Hismaic Inscriptions from Rus Abu Tulayha in the Jafr Basin, Southern Jordan.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 51, pp. 361-372.
・Hasegawa, S. & R. Tokunaga (2018), “Preliminary Report of the First Season of the Saudi-Japanese Archaeological Mission at al-Hawra’, Umluj and its Hinterland: March 2018,” Archaeological Research at al-Hawra’: Medieval Port Site on the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia 1, Tokyo: Saudi-Japanese Archaeological Mission at al-Hawra’ Research Office.
・Kawatoko, M and R. Tokunaga (2006), “Arabic Rock Inscriptions of South Sinai,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 36, pp. 217-227. ・Tokunaga, R. (2019) “Early Islamic Arabic graffiti of W?d? al-Khirqah: Tracing the development of formulae by generation.” In: Decades in Deserts: Essays on Near Eastern Archaeology in Honour of Sumio Fujii, edited by S. Nakamura, T. Adachi, and M. Abe, pp. 231-242. Tokyo: Rokuichi Syobou.
・Tokunaga, R., S. Fujii & T. Adachi (2019) “Early Islamic and Ancient North Arabian Graffiti and Petroglyphs in Tab?k Province: Saudi-Japanese al-Jawf/Tab?k Archaeological Project (JTAP), March 2017 Field Season.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 49, pp. 275-282.