Inspiration from Saudi Cultural Heritage of Dadanitic Inscriptions for Developing Contemporary Ceramics Designs

The rock art of drawings and inscriptions in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a cultural heritage and one of the of evidences of civilization that expressed and documented the ideas and life of the ancient societies that settled its lands. The Dadanitic Inscriptions are one of these rock inscriptions located in the Al-Ula Region that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently paid attention to, which drew the researcher's attention to shed light on these inscriptions. Accordingly, the research problem centered on the possibility of drawing inspiration from the Saudi cultural heritage of the Dadanitic Inscriptions in creating contemporary ceramic designs.

The aim of the research was to identify the Dadanitic Inscriptions as a national cultural heritage that reflects the human civilization that extends since ancient times in the land of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to benefit from them in creating contemporary ceramic designs that link the past with the present and benefit from it, based on the historical and analytical approach. The importance of the research was represented in developing knowledge of the Dadanitic Inscriptions and enhancing the national cultural heritage to benefit from them in enriching the field of ceramics by making contemporary designs based on the experimental and descriptive method. The boundaries of the research were limited to cultural heritages, Dadanitic Inscriptions, and contemporary ceramics as objective boundaries, and to Dadanitic Inscriptions from the middle of the first century BC to the first century AD as temporal boundaries, and to Dadan (Al-Khuraiba) in Al-Ula Region in northwestern Saudi Arabia as spatial boundaries. One of the most important results of the researcher is the importance of rock inscriptions in understanding the previous eras, being a cultural heritage that preserved the identity of previous peoples and witnessed their creativity, and that the Dadanitic Inscriptions are among the Saudi cultural riches that the potter can draw inspiration from in creating designs for contemporary pottery that combines the nobility of the past and highlights the development of the present with its artistic concepts that keeps pace with its era. Therefore, one of the recommendations of the research was to further investigate Saudi rock inscriptions and their cultural heritage in order to highlight them in the fields of arts in a way that is commensurate with our current era and reflects its sophistication.