The Archaeology of North Arabia. Oases and Landscapes
Proceedings of the International Congress held at the University of Vienna, 5-8 December, 2013
1. Auflage, 2016
The Archaeology of North Arabia: Oases and Landscapes provides us with the proceedings of the namesake international congress organised at the University of Vienna. Its rich list of contributions both on recent results of field activities and new considerations on different settlement patterns and historical and cultural processes within North Arabia makes this volume a state-of-the-art account of the multiple scholarly pursuits in the region.
The innovative topics are connected both to field research and interpretative anthropological approaches: from the oasis formation paradigm, the debate on crops, on local types of agriculture and water management systems in different desert and oases landscapes, and on the date of appearance of date palm cultivation, to funerary and ceremonial landscapes in their transition and transformation from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze and Iron Ages; from the ground-breaking presence of Syro-Levantine metal weapons in early second millennium BCE graveyards of the Northern Hejaz, the phenomenon of large-scale diffusion of oases-produced pottery wares, the attestation of chariots on rock art, and the challenges of modern-day archaeology and cultural resource management, down to the concept of environmental differentiation and identity, between mobility and connectivity.
New data and the multi- and transdisciplinary methodology espoused by the volume dramatically change our understanding of the social and cultural development, especially of social complexity, of an area often neglected in scholarly studies in the past. These proceedings, therefore, contribute substantially in positioning the archaeology of North Arabia into the broader perspective of the archaeology of the Ancient Near East, from the Neolithic to the pre-Islamic period and will hopefully become a standard work for understanding the Arabian Peninsula for years to come.
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1 Mobility, Contacts and the Definition of Culture(s) in New Archaeological Research in Northwest Arabia
In this contribution, mobility is analysed as the basic adaptive strategy in different desert landscapes in view of the most recent palaeoenvironmental, palaeoontological and archaeological discoveries in the Arabian Peninsula. Similarities in material cultural traits in remote areas or the presence of finished artefacts imported from afar indicate long-standing streaks of contacts – though clearly selective in time and type and only comprising specific vectors. The paper will focus on the importance of mobility and this interconnection in relation to the phenomenon of large North Arabian oases during the Bronze Age.
Schlagworte: mobility, urban oases, Bronze Age, North Arabia, Tayma, Qurayyah, linguistic landscapes, Qurayyah Painted Ware, camel, dromedary, Pottery, metallurgical production, oasis water management
Seite 21 - 56
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2 Holocene Vegetation, Climate, Land Use and Plant Cultivation in the Tayma Region, Northwestern Arabia
In today’s (hyper-)arid northern Arabia subsistence strategies changed or were complemented twice during the Holocene: Mobile herding economy is supposed to have been introduced during an Early Holocene period of increased humidity. The onset of oasis agriculture is assumed for the Mid to Late Holocene, either during moisture conditions or aridification. Our radiocarbon-dated palynological record of Tayma evidence for the first time for a short Early Holocene ‘humid period’, providing favoured pastures (grasslands), facilitating the spread of herders. About 8000 calBP these grasslands retreated, triggered by aridification. During the Mid Holocene, around 6000 calBP, recorded grape and fig pollen document the beginning of plant cultivation at the oasis of Tayma. Plant cultivation as another subsistence strategy thus was applied during long-term aridification. The few so far documented cultivated plants may point to a not yet fully established oasis agriculture.
Schlagworte: Holocene vegetation, Holocene climate, northwestern Saudi Arabia, grapes, oasis cultivation, pollen analysis
Seite 57 - 78
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3 The Socio-Hydraulic Foundations of Oasis Life in NW Arabia: The 5th Millennium BCE Shepherd Environs of Rajajil, Rasif and Qulban Beni Murra
Recent archaeological research in the sepulchral landscapes of the 6th and 5th millennia BCE in northwest Arabia encountered mobile, well/trough/dam-based pastoral cultures that were sustained by the moisture episodes of Arabia’s Mid Holocene. These unknown, partly megalithic cultures appear to be characteristic for the land use in today’s arid belt stretching from northwest Africa to Yemen: their sites must have been meeting places for ancestor commemoration, watering flocks and social transaction in the former steppe environments dotted with lakes, water holes and high aquifers, even allowing for a semi-permanent occupation of hydrologically favoured locations. The sepulchral well cultures of Qulban Beni Murra, Rajajil and Rasif (5th millennium BCE) are discussed here in terms of their hydraulic competence and social structures, and in terms of their potential of being the progenitor cultures of Arabia’s earliest oasis socio-economies. These 5th millennium BCE cultures are assumed to have ended in an environmentally forced shift/adaptation to the sustainable sedentarisation of the Arabian Peninsula, gradually taking place from the end of the 5th millennium BCE when the climate became drier. Based on the northwest Arabian evidence, this contribution presents a set of research hypotheses – or a model – on how such a general socio-hydraulic transition from mobile herding to sedentary horticulture during the 5th and 4th millennia BCE may have taken place on the Arabian Peninsula.
Schlagworte: Arabia’s Mid Holocene pastoral well cultures, Arabia’s Mid Holocene environment, early oases’ economies, forced socio-hydraulic subsistence shifts
Seite 79 - 114
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4 Wadi Ghubai and Wadi Mohorak Sites: Protohistoric Burial Fields in the Tabuk Province, Northwestern Arabia
Wadi Ghubai and Wadi Mohorak are large-scale burial or ritual fields located roughly in the centre of the Tabuk Province. Our recent surveys have proven that both sites include multiple clusters of stone-built features and that each cluster comprises three major components: a cylindrical tower tomb, an elongated platform, and a circular openair sanctuary equipped with a rectangular room at its eastern corner. Though still patchy, available evidence suggests that the burial fields were established by Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age pastoral nomads who migrated in the area on a seasonal basis. The sites follow the Neolithic settlement of al-ᶜAynah in the same area and, in this sense, provide a valuable key for tracing the process of pastoral nomadisation in the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula. This paper briefly reviews the investigation results and discusses the date, function, and archaeological implications of these unique burial fields.
Schlagworte: Saudi Arabia, Early Bronze Age, Wadi Ghubai, Wadi Mohorak, tower tomb, pastoral nomadism
Sumio Fujii
Seite 115 - 134
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5 Taymāᵓ in the Bronze Age (c. 2,000 BCE): Settlement and Funerary Landscapes
Salvage excavations at the site of al-Nasīm, located south of the walled oasis settlement of Taymāᵓ, led to the discovery of burial contexts dated at the turn from the 3rd to 2nd millennium BCE, confirming earlier hypotheses of an oasis settlement of this period at Taymāᵓ. These findings are now complemented by evidence from the core of the settlement dating to the same period impacting the interpretation of the oasis and its relation to the burial grounds. Bronze artefacts from the graves suggest far reaching contacts between NW Arabian oases and Syria and the Levant at this time. On the other hand, comparative evidence with the oasis of al-Hāᶜit shows similarities in the possible presence of extended burial sites around oasis settlements, opening new interpretative frameworks on the interaction between groups with mobile and sedentary lifestyles, respectively.
Schlagworte: Taymāᵓ, Bronze Age, Warrior Burials, funerary landscapes
Arnulf Hausleiter
Seite 135 - 174
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6 Qurayyah Painted Ware: A Reassessment of 40 Years of Research on its Origins, Chronology and Distribution
First identified as an autonomous ceramic tradition more than 40 years ago on the basis of the results obtained by the preliminary survey of northwest Arabia, conducted by the University of London and by the Arabah Expedition, the Qurayyah Painted Ware (QPW; originally called ‘Midianite’ pottery) has been, since then, strictly associated with the Hejaz region (known in Biblical and later sources as Midian) in general and with the site of Qurayyah in particular. A date to the 13th–12th centuries BCE was established on the basis of the associated material form the Egyptian sanctuary at Timna (Site 200). Since then, the corpus of QPW has been steadily growing. Even if the eponymous site of Qurayyah from which the majority of the currently known material stems has not been systematically excavated yet, the mass of newly available data deriving from surveys, archaeological excavations and scientific analyses of the sherds allows a fresh look at the characteristics, distribution patterns and chronological framework of this pottery group.
Schlagworte: Qurayyah Painted Ware, QPW, ‘Midianite’ pottery, northern Hejaz, northern Arabia, Late Bronze Age, early Iron Age, Arabah, Timna, Faynan, Qurayyah, Tayma
Seite 175 - 256
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7 Landscape and Settlement Process in al-Kharj Oasis (Province of Riyadh) .
This paper confronts the proto-historical and historical settlement pattern in the oasis of al-Kharj (Central Arabia) with the environmental context by taking into account the results of the recent fieldwork. By superimposing an archaeological map of the oasis on the geomorphological map, different settlement strategies appear at different periods of time. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, the location of the sites – mostly necropolises – is dictated by the geological, topographic and hydrological contexts. Systematically close to a source of water, the necropolises are nevertheless located far enough from the threat of floodwaters, in a dominant position. As striking features in the landscape, they played a role in the appropriation of land by people of the Bronze Age. The settlement pattern drastically changes at the turn of the Christian era. Then, the location of sites – mostly settlements – is dictated by the close proximity of arable lands. At a certain stage of their development that we are inclined to date to the very Late Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic periods local populations started to take benefit of all the water sources available in the oasis for agricultural purposes, including those outside the alluvial plain, by digging monumental hydraulic structures.
Schlagworte: Arabia, Najd, Bronze and Iron Ages, Late Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic periods, settlement pattern, landuse, qanāt
Jérémie Schiettecatte
Seite 257 - 280
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8 Early Hegra: New Insights from the Excavations in Areas 2 and 9 at Madāᵓin Ṣāliḥ (Saudi Arabia)
Madāᵓin Ṣāliḥ (ancient Hegra) was a major Nabataean political and commercial centre on the Incense Road. Since 2008, a joint Saudi-French Project has carried out archaeological excavations at the site, revealing a long occupational history which actually extends far before and beyond the Nabataean period – from the mid-1st millennium BCE to the mid-1st millennium CE. This paper focuses on Areas 2 and 9, which shed particular light on the early history of the settlement. The results from these areas provide evidence for occupation in the period of the Lihyanite kingdom and suggest that the transition from the Lihyanite to the Nabataean phase was a longer and more complex process than previously thought, at least in terms of material culture. These results also illuminate the urban development of Hegra, from a relatively narrow settlement on the bank of a wadi to a considerably expanded city with fortifications, featuring a certain degree of town-planning.
Schlagworte: Lihyan, Nabataeans, Hegra/Madāᵓin Ṣāliḥ, al-ᶜUlā painted pottery, urban development
Jérôme Rohmer
Seite 281 - 298
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9 The Role of Dūmat al-Jandal in Ancient North Arabian Routes from Pre-History to Historical Periods
This paper gives a first picture of the role of Dūmat al-Jandal (ancient Adummatu) and the ‘al-Jawf’ region in the ancient roads system of northern Saudi Arabia. Due to its geographic position in the northern al-Nefūd Desert along the wādī al-Sirhān, the ancient Dūmat al-Jandal played a key role in the trade system of the Arabian Peninsula from prehistory to early Islamic times. Right from the first archaeological era, dating back to the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, the al-Jawf appears to have seen the passage of people from Africa to the east. The Neolithic era accounts for a large number of sites throughout northern Saudi Arabia attesting how the present-day wadis were routes of passage and communication in the Peninsula. And sources from the 1st millennium BCE suggest that the ancient Adummatu was located between the southern and western caravan routes and the Fertile Crescent. During the Nabataean and Roman times, Dūmat al-Jandal seems to have had a direct link with the heart of the Nabataean realm and then with the Roman provinces, as confirmed by the identification of imported wares and military structures by the Saudi-Italian-French archaeological project. Finally, Dūmat al-Jandal experienced a period of rich commercial trading during the Byzantine and early Islamic domination, testified by the Islamic sources describing the role of the Dūmah ‘market’, Ukhaydir ibn ᶜAbd al-Mālik and the relations between Byzantium, the North Arabian Peninsula and the Sassanid Empire.
Schlagworte: Saudi Arabia, Neolithic, Bronze Age, caravan routes, Arabia
Seite 299 - 316
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10 Three Dimensions in Two: Convention and Experiment in the Rock Art of Ancient North Arabia
This paper deals with some of the ways three-dimensional objects are portrayed in the rock art of North Arabia and the attempts by some of the artists to integrate conventions from other artistic traditions in the representation of a discreet group of unusual subjects, namely wheeled vehicles.
Schlagworte: Ancient Arabia, rock art, wheeled vehicles, chariots, artistic conventions
Seite 317 - 336
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11 From South to North in Ancient Arabia
Exhaustive knowledge of the long history of some areas of northern Arabia, as that of the history of the oasis of Taymāᵓ, is important for reflecting on the relationship between the north and south of the Arabian Peninsula in pre-Islamic times. In particular, the relations between the two regions during the most ancient phase of the Ancient South Arabian (ASA) history (i.e. the end of the 2nd and the early 1st millennium BCE) will be presented in the paper. The relationship between South Arabia and the Near East beyond Arabia is more complex than I myself once thought. During the formative phase of ASA culture, movements of peoples from south to north and vice versa, involving temporary settlements, close interactions between these peoples, and the presence of Ancient South Arabian-speaking enclaves for a period in the north of Arabia can be presumed.
Schlagworte: Ancient South Arabian documentation, cultural and commercial relationships, endogenous formation of Ancient South Arabian culture
Seite 337 - 344
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12 ‘Arabs’ in Late First Millennium BCE Babylonia
This contribution discusses the references to Arabs in the Astronomical Diaries, a corpus of chronographic texts from the latest stages of cuneiform documentation. Furthermore, the historical context of the peak of attestations in the 120s BCE is elucidated.
Schlagworte: Arabs, Astronomical Diaries, 2nd century BCE Babylonia
Seite 345 - 354
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13 An Overview of Archaeological Discoveries in Qatar During the Past 60 Years
This contribution very briefly presents the archaeology in Qatar, based on the results of field projects, such as surveys and excavations, undertaken by Qatar Museums jointly with several missions – viz. Copenhagen, Birmingham, Wales Universities and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) – at various sites dated from prehistory to the late Islamic period. The discoveries showed that Qatar clearly was inhabited since the Neolithic, although many questions need to be answered about the importance and nature of the past occupation both from a historical and an environmental perspective. This will be the subject for future research.
Schlagworte: Archaeology, excavation, survey, Prehistory, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Islamic period, Qatar
Seite 355 - 366
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Ausgabe:
978-3-7001-8002-9, Printausgabe, kartoniert, 06.12.2016
Ausgabe:
978-3-7001-8086-9, E-Book, digital, 06.12.2016
Auflage:
1. Auflage
Seitenzahl:
365 Seiten
Format:
29,7x21cm
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI (Link zur Online Edition):