Story by Ray petersen
Photos by lena petersen
“Fossils and geology,” one could say, paraphrasing the eminent Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, “work almost the same way as photography as a record of history.” The accumulation of time and history forming the negative aspect and the fossil the positive, in the same way, that traditional photography is processed. Thus, we are encouraged to see geology, the study of the Earth, its rock structures, their composition, and their changes over time. Fossils within those rock structures in many ways bring to life the dynamic nature of what appears to be a somewhat tedious science or interest. Fossils draw the story, the romance, the myriad of questions that we of today have of yesterday, and we unwittingly draw on them throughout life, as did noted French author Pierre Loti (1850-1923), who explained that through his study of fossils he” was initiated into the mysteries of prehistoric creation.” An outstanding writer of his day, termed ‘descriptive, with delicate exactitude,’ by his peers, with a moral sensitivity that spoke only of nature, refinement and charm, he was greatly stimulated by his travels in the Middle East, and his collection of Islamic artefacts and fossils, many collected while writing his collection of essays, ‘Figures et Choses qui Passaient’ (Passing Figures and Things).
Fossils, from the Latin ‘fossilis’ (from digging), or ‘fossus,’ (having been dug up), may be any form of preserved remains of a ‘once-living’ thing from an earlier geological age, including endoskeletons (internal), exoskeletons (external), seashells, uncharacteristic mineral deposits, imprints, microbes, or even DNA, usually preserved in sediment-laden lava, stone, wood, amber, coal, or oil. In other words, plainly speaking, they are animal and plant remains from the Archaeaean Eon, a staggering four billion years ago, to the Holocene Epoch, which continues today. To offer some perspective, it should be noted that fossilised teeth of the Great Wooly Mammoth, some of the planets more ‘recent’ fossils, could originate from 400,000 years ago to 100,000 years ago, with preservation of any organisms, occurring across an estimated 10,000 years from their ‘internment.’
In his ‘Field Guide to the Sultanate of Oman,’ Samir S Hanna’s first words are, “Even the most casual visitor to Oman cannot fail to be impressed by the mountains,” and goes on to laud the exposure of the passage of time, in contrast to much of the world where the past lies hidden from view, beneath billions of tonnes of soil and vegetation. The diversity is amazing, from glacial deposits in the interior to coal deposits suggesting ancient forests, to dinosaur bones in Fanja, some of the world’s oldest caves near Tiwi, 600 million-year-old rocks discovered in desert salt domes, geodes filled with quartz near Salalah, rare vertebrate bones in the Northern mountains of Musandam, all part of an endless historic dialogue reinforced by the regional proximity of the Turkish, African, Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, identified by PDO Geophysicist, Dr Ali Ibrahim Al Lazki, PhD, in his 2003 dissertation on the Sultanates crust and upper mantle structure. Hanna explains that this richness of scientific and academic natural resource ensures, “Oman has a geological heritage so unique and accessible that it is almost unrivalled anywhere on Earth.” What we can see is the stunning Hajar mountains, the cliffs, chasms and fiords of Musandam, and the enduring greenery of Dhofar offering a contrast to the arid hinterland, which of course has its own gifts. Taking Hanna’s advice that most of their field trips concentrated on Al Jabal Al Akdhar with Wadis Mistal, Bani Kharous, Bani Awf, and Sahtan to the North and Wadis Muayden, Tanuf, Ghul, and Nakhr to the South taking you on’ “a trip through half a billion years of geological time.” Your journey need be neither physically demanding, nor stressful.
Take a day, a 4WD vehicle, and take yourself up to Al Jabal Al Akdhar, where you can either ask around, or even better… Just explore… look down… look around… and let your imagination run wild as you see and discover your own narrative… rewrite history through your own mind’s eye. It does not get much better! Check out some of our ‘discoveries,’ as photographed by Lena, across a decade in the Sultanate… and then make your own.
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