Seminar for Arabian Studies

Abstracts - 2003 Seminar

Recording Oman's archaeological resource:
towards an Omani national record of sites and Monuments

Mohammed Al-Belushi ( Department of Archaeology , Sultan Qaboos University , Sultanate of Oman)

Despite the fact that the Omani antiquity law, which was issued in 1980, dictated clearly the importance of recording the Omani archaeological resources, there is no cohesive attempt yet to quantify the national archaeological resource in Oman in a complete and consistent way. Most of the very few attempts made to survey and quantify the archaeological resource of Oman in a consistent and standard way were limited to some geographical regions and most of them were achieved to reach certain research purposes.

With the accelerating pace of modernization that Oman has been witnessing since the early years of the 1970s, parts of the Omani archaeological resources became exposed to a number of threats that led in some cases to destroy or at least alter parts of its archaeological record. Thus the establishment of a national record for the Omani archaeology became an urgent need. This paper is an attempt to highlight the neglected role of the sites and monuments records in the practices of both the archaeological research and management in Oman. It will review the present practices of the Omani archaeological organizations in compiling, verifying, storing, managing and exploiting the information related to the archaeological resources of Oman. It will also try to survey the existing records in term of their aims, scopes, development, usage, limitations and their adequacy. The paper will conclude by suggesting a number of ways to enhance the current records and to establish a national record for the archaeological resource of Oman.

Archaeological site management in the Sultanate of Oman Bahla Fort as a case study

Yaqoub Albusaidi ( Department of Archaeology , Sultan Qaboos University , Sultanate of Oman)

This paper presents a case study of archaeological heritage management using the fort at Bahla as the example. I will briefly describe and summarize the current Omani legislation relating to cultural heritage. I also describe some recent restoration projects carried out at historic sites and supervised by the MONHC. I will present an overview of Bahla Fort and Bahla Oasis, describing the history of fort, its importance to Omani heritage, and its status as a World Heritage Site. I describe the inscription of Bahla Fort as a World Heritage Site. I also describe the restoration work and the international standards at Bahla Fort and the surrounding "buffer zone." Finally I present some of the opportunities to be considered at Bahla Fort. In addition, I will briefly summarize the main problematic issues that face MONHC in their efforts to preserve and manage Oman's cultural heritage. I conclude this by presenting a set of recommendations which, I think, will be helpful in managing Oman heritage generally.

Privacy versus hospitality: impact of women on formation of the Arab house in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Nada Al-Nafea' ( King Abdulaziz University , Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Privacy and hospitality are considered to be the two main values in Arabic culture. Arabs are known for their generosity and this was strongly reflected in the spatial organization of their houses. Spaces allocated specifically for men, such as the men's majles and guestrooms, ended up as a house within a house and characterised Arab houses up to our time. However, the position of women in the society was strongly seen through the value of privacy that is mainly reflected in the house as a clear separation between male and female spaces.

This paper aims to illustrate and understand this dialectic of privacy and hospitality practised by people in their home environment and how it influenced the formation of Riyadh houses over a period of time. What this paper will show is that women in Riyadh had great influence over the layout of their houses because of mens' attitudes towards them. This is seen through the development of family spaces to contain the woman and keep her away from men's eyes. In this sense, we can see two spaces, guest and family, competing with each other and usually keeping the house in continuous tension and full of 'red borders'. This situation shaped the house layout over time and worked as a design regulator for the spatial layout. This is not to say that house form was similar at all times, but to say that there is a clear rule that governed house formation in Riyadh, which is reflected in reproducing similar spaces characterised by a clear demarcation between guest and family spaces.

Dynamism of a traditional Arab town: the case of Hofuf, Saudi Arabia

Mashary A. Al-Naim (College of Architecture and Planning, King Faisal University , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

A traditional Arab town needs to be seen from its external and internal domains. The external domain, on the one hand, deals with overall organization, which is usually organic in form. On the other hand, the internal domain deals with the immediate interaction between people and their built environment. At the external level a clear order can be noticed from the hierarchy of streets from wide to narrow and cul de sac. However, the internal level can be noticed in the depth of the Arab towns when the dead ends appear and disappear due to the divisions and reconnections of the houses. This mechanism emerged because of the patrimony, easement right, and 'Suf'ah which is "…the right of the co-owner to substitute himself for the purchaser if the other CO-owner(s) decide to sell his or their share. The pre-emptor stands in the shoes of the purchaser and takes the property subject to prior equities, thus reducing the number of owners in the owning party."

This paper aims to study the physical dynamism of the traditional city of Hofuf (Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia). The interest here is to understand the mechanisms by which the shared socio-cultural values of the people of Hofuf worked to construct the particular identified physical environment in the past. By understanding how people in Hofuf established their identity in their traditional built environment, a base can be found to evaluate the growth and re-growth of the traditional Arab town. This paper tries mainly to analyze the concept of fereej (this concept expresses the intimate relationship between people and their physical environment. It also expresses their collective identity as well as their individual membership of a group and the whole society), and its social and physical impact on the traditional built environment in Hofuf. A special concern is given to the question of how this concept existed and why and how it contributed to the dynamism of the traditional Arab town of Hofuf.

Thumamah re-considered: the results of a new research campaign

Abdullah Alsharekh (Department of Archaeology & Museology, King Saud University , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Thumamah site in NW Riyadh, central Saudi Arabia, has been one of the many important sites discovered and partly excavated by the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in the early 1980's. The initial results published about Thumamah in Atlal Journal pointed to significant cultural marks in the cultural history of the Arabian Peninsula, specifically associating the site with the Neolithic Period.

A project was planned with the purpose of understanding the nature of archaeological remains present in the site of Thumamah, and particularly to understand the cultural sequence of the study area.

This paper will hopefully present details of the fieldwork undertaken in Thumamah, and will also show new archaeological evidence about the site of Thumamah. It is also hoped that this paper will shed some light on the stone structures' phenomenon in Arabia, and the methodological problems usually associated with it.

'Asabiyya and dawla . Yemen as a case study of Ibn Khaldun's approach to the history and society of the islamic world

Xavier Ballestin Navarro ( Department Història Medieval Paleografia i Diplomàtica , Universitat de Barcelona , Spain)

The purpose of this paper is to study if Ibn Khaldun's ideas about state formation from the tribal 'Asabiyya, deducted from his life and political experience in Magreb, would be useful as a conceptual framework for Middle Ages Yemen. No-one should disregard either Ibn Khaldun's work or his value for understanding history and society in the field of Western Islam but an appraisal of Kitab al-ibar chapters concerning Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula and the so called qabail yamaniyya is to be done and would give some new insights on state building, history and change in Yemeni lands.

This aim would be achieved by the critical analysis of Ibn Khaldun's work which will be read and compared with the main historical and genealogical eastern source, al-Hamdani, as well as with other scholars.

New archaeological investigations at Abu Dhabi Airport, United Arab Emirates

Mark Beech and Peter Hellyer ( Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey , Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

The archaeological site at Abu Dhabi Airport was first discovered in February 1995. A systematic surface collection of pottery, lithics and other finds was made by ADIAS during July 1995. Subsequently the pottery from the site was examined and published by Beatrice de Cardi in 1997 ("Third-Millennium and Later Pottery from Abu Dhabi Airport". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 8: 161-173). This suggested sporadic occupation from the Hafit period, c. 3100-2700 BC, with maximum settlement during the second half of the third millennium BC. Sherds from the coastal Umm an-Nar culture included wares of probably Mesopotamian and Eastern Arabian origin. The site was apparently unused throughout most of the second millennium and Iron age. Pottery dating to the 1st century BC - 2nd century AD suggested that the site was again occupied at that period. Strategic access to the important site of Umm an-Nar may have been an important factor in the development of the site, as well as proximity to sweet water. The site is located only about 4km from the modern day coastline.

Further archaeological work was undertaken by ADIAS at the Abu Dhabi Airport site during April and December 2002. This work revealed that archaeological material was spread over a much wider area than was initially realized. Systematic surface pick-ups, as well as excavation on a newly discovered part of the site (ADA-7), revealed that almost all the archaeological finds occurred in the top 10cm of sand. Below that were outcrops of aeolianite, representing ancient Pleistocene dunes. New erosion episodes since 1995 have exposed large quantities of archaeological material on the surface of the site. The pottery sherds collected appear similar to those studied earlier by de Cardi from the main site. Important new finds from the site include an interesting assortment of lithics including small crescent shaped microliths. A detailed investigation of ground water was also conducted across the site. The two ca. 2000 year old wells found at the site originally tapped the highly porous aeolianite sand aquifer, being recharged by local rainfall events, which were probably more frequent and of greater magnitude than today.

The Iron Age in Bithnah : two campaigns of excavation

Anne Benoist ( Archéorient , CNRS , Lyon, France)

Archaeological research has been carried out since February 2002 in the region of Bithnah (Emirate of Fujairah, U.A.E.), in order to uncover the organisation of an Iron Age territory in a region of mountains, an environment still badly known. Two Iron Age sites were excavated in the valley of Bithnah, during the two first campaigns : Bithnah-24, a fortress established in the southern end of the valley, and probably used as a control post and a refuge, and Bithnah-44, a public building located on the other side of the wadi, which probably had a religious purpose. The pottery and the objects collected in each area point to an Iron Age II date, suggesting an evolution comparable to the one recorded in other environments (foothills of the mountains, coastal regions). Geological and archaeological surveys around Bithnah suggest the role played in the local economy by the exploitation of copper. The purpose of this communication is to present these first results and to discuss the organisation of the valley of Bithnah during the Iron Age in relation to other Iron Age territories (al Aïn, al Madam, Hamriyah, etc).

Archaeological evidence for pearling in the Arabian Gulf

Robert A. Carter ( Institute of Archaeology , UCL , London, U.K.)

Despite the abundance of historical evidence for the pearling in the Arabian Gulf, archaeological evidence has rarely been used to examine this ancient industry. This paper will examines such evidence, from the Neolithic to the Late Islamic period. The possibility that settlement patterns on the islands and littoral of the Arabian Gulf were affected by fluctuations in the pearling industry will also be raised. An apparent increase in the number of settlements during the 18th and 19th centuries AD, for example, may correlate with a boom in the pearling industry at that time. This raises questions regarding the extent to which settlement patterns in the Arabian Gulf are determined by factors which are not directly related to food production.

Exploitation of the coastal environment at Ra's al-Hadd in the 3rd millennium BC

Caroline R. Cartwright ( Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science , The British Museum , London, U.K.)

Study of the coastal environment at Ra=s al-Hadd has revealed many diverse micro-environments, each with its own distinctive character based on a number of features and resources. Human and animal interaction with these diverse environments can be charted in the archaeological record through the study of environmental material. Fish, mollusca, turtles, crustacea and mammals characterise the lagoonal, mangrove and marine types. Charcoal, plant macro-remains and pollen are the main sources of evidence for the natural and humanly-modified vegetational communities; they, too, contain characteristic kinds of fauna.

A clear dependence on marine resources can be demonstrated from the archaeological record at Ra’s al-Hadd. Reef and deep water fish predominate and there is extensive use of green turtles, a wide range of marine shells and an interesting exploitation of dolphins. Sheep, goat and cattle were kept and grazed on the local scrub plants. Different types of fuelwood and other useful timber could be obtained from each local vegetational community, although sometimes only in restricted quantities. This paper illustrates these main aspects of the coastal environment at Ra’s al-Hadd and how its diverse resources have been used in the past.

Neolithic triedal arrowheads and the Arabian bifacial tradition.

Vincent Charpentier ( Inrap / CNRS UMR 7041, Paris, France)

Cette conférence sera l'occasion de présenter un type de pointe de jet dont une de ses principales caractéristiques est sa section trièdrique. Présent dans les assemblages néolithique d'Arabie orientale, il a été reconnu dans des sites bien stratifiés du Sultatant d'Oman et du Yémen tandis que ce type d'armature veient d'être identifiée dans de nombreux habitats côtiers ou de l'intérieur des terres des Emirats arabes unis. La chronologie et la répartition géographique de ce type de pointe de flèche seront discutées, une occasion de remettre en cause la notion de tradition bifaciale d'Arabie, définie voici maintenant une vingtaine d'années et largement acceptée dans la communauté des préhistoriens travaillant dans cette partie du monde.

Prehistory in Oriental Hadramawt (Yemen): new perspectives

Remy Crassard ( University de Paris 1, CNRS / UMR 70-1 ArScAn, France) and Pierre Bodu (CNRS, UMR 7041 ArScAn , équipe ‘Ethnologie préhistorique, Nanterre, France)

Part of the "French Archaeological Mission in Jawf-Hadramawt", the Prehistory program started its work with success in October and November 2002. After several surveys, the team found quantitatively and qualitatively exceptional concentrations of flint industries, mostly unknown, from late Pleistocene to middle Holocene.

The main work was oriented on the Wadi Wa'sha, about 100 km north-east of Tarim. We worked on site HDOR 419 which we had registered in February 2002 during a short survey. A test trench revealed a large number of flakes and tools using bifacial technique in deep sand deposits. Samples of obsidian artefacts and worked shell were also found in layers with carbons associated.

Found directly on the ground, the site HDOR 538 gave us foliated points workshops over a surface area of more than 6000 square meters. The observation of a selection of 5280 pieces collected there constitutes the first corpus of reference for the Holocene bifacial technology and reveals the spatial organisation of the site.

Many sites were excavated or prospected and we will be able to make connexions between types, techniques and dates after the deeper study of 20,000 selected pieces we collected.

Another part of the project consists in the future elaboration of a GIS model aimed at a better understanding of prehistoric habits and cultures, firstly in Hadramawt, and rapidly thereafter, we hope, in all Yemen.

Who were the QSD and what did they do? An analysis of social titles within ESA graffiti from the Central Highlands of Yemen

Joseph Daniels ( University of Chicago , USA)

This paper seeks to analyze the titles of a few different social positions (qsd, Mh`ll, et al.) attested within the epigraphic South Arabian [ESA] material, particularly focusing on graffiti and inscriptions from the central highlands of Yemen. Although recent scholarship has made substantial contributions in our understanding of the various social classes within middle and late Sabaean society, the paucity of data has inhibited detailed studies of the various components within the more rural central highlands. However, within this general context, it is known that a rich vocabulary detailing the full variety of land function, husbandry, and agricultural regimes developed. Recent graffiti surveyed and analyzed by the Oriental Institute Dhamar Survey Project as well as the corresponding archaeological evidence offer new possible insights in which we might view the role and function of certain persons within this rural society.

New data on the commercial trade of the harbour of Kanè through the typological and petrological study of the pottery

Barbara Davidde and Roberto Petriaggi ( Istituto Centrale per il Restauro , Rome, Italy)

In January 1998 the second underwater survey in the North Bay of Kanè (Republic of Yemen) was begun. A new area, measuring 560 square metres, was defined. The site appeared very rich in archaeological finds.

Besides the Roman amphorae Dressel 2/4 type made in Italy, Spain and Egypt and amphorae Pelichet 47 type similis, the discovery of a fragment of a dish of terra sigillata was quite interesting. Egyptian amphorae dating back to IV century AD, a neck of amphora Dressel 43 type, a Nubian oil lamp (IV century AD), jugs, jars and vessels coming from Egypt and probably from India were also discovered.

Finally, just in front of the beach of the North bay, a fragment of a stone anchor made by the local volcanic black stone was collected. Thanks to the petrological analysis made on some ceramic samples by Dr. D. F. Williams and to the typological studies, new data was made available about the production areas.

The analysis of these materials could allow us to contribute to the study of the nature, intensity and quality of the Mediterranean trade with the East.

The myth of the lost city of the Arabian sands

H. Stewart Edgell (Canberra, ACT 2603, Australia)

In 1930-31, Bertram Thomas became the first westerner to cross the 650,000 km2 Rub' al Khali Desert and was shown wide tracks between dunes by accompanying Bedouin. They said "There is the road to Ubar. It was a great city, rich in treasures with date gardens and a fort of red silver [?Gold]. It now lies buried beneath the sands of the Ramlat Shu'ait," in northwestern Dhofar. Thomas published this statement in 1931-32, leading to a search for Ubar by Philby (1933-34), Phillips (1953-55) and Clapp, Fiennes, Hedges, and Zarins (1990-1996), although Thomas (1933) denied Ubar was a 'Lost City.' Fiennes (1992) and Clapp (1998) claim discovery of the lost city of Ubar, at the once walled sinkhole at Shisur in interior Dhofar. NASA has satellite images and online articles about 'Ubar' since 1994, showing the sinkhole at Shisur, but this is 175 km southeast of Ramlat Shu'ait and is the stony desert (najd) not in the sands. This sinkhole exposes the Middle Eocene Dammam limestone aquifer and is an isolated waterhole. There is no evidence that Shisur was once a city called Ubar, although it was probably a caravanserai on overland frankincense trade routes. Arab historians state that Ubar, or Wabar, refers to a wide land in southern Arabia.

Traditional goat management in Oman: an indirect reference to prehistoric practices

Ali Tigani Elmahi ( Department of Archaeology , Sultan Qaboos University , Sultanate of Oman)

The goat was first domesticated in the Iranian plateau around 8000 B.C. and possibly in the Fertile Crescent. By the 4th millennium B.C., the domestic goat Capra hircus had spread over a large geographical part of the Old World. The routes or route by which the domestic goat was introduced into Oman remain unidentified. Possible routes can be across different regions such as Rub Al Khali or southern Iraq or via the Gulf or southern Arabia. Indeed, the goat had allowed early human groups to break up and scatter in new directions some of which are of inhospitable environmental conditions. The goat became a necessity for survival in the Arabian Peninsula and other arid environments.

Given the environmental conditions of Oman, it becomes indisputable that the goat has played a perpetual significant role in human endurance from prehistoric times. The economy of human subsistence strategies in various environmental regions in Oman must have been dependent on the goat to a large extent. In return, the ecological diversity in Oman must have demanded certain adaptive managerial strategies for any profitable investment in goats. Goat managerial strategies being complex and resourceful must have evolved in the passage of time in response to a variety of ecological conditions, value and economic orientation and cultural values. Consequently, goat management can possibly render valuable information about the ecology, societies, economy, etc.

Yet, the archaeological evidence has limits. It is seldom that the nature and character of human practices in the past were fully brought to light by unearthed material evidence from archaeological sites. As a result, many aspects related to human organization in terms of economic or cultural values remain uncomprehended and out off reach. In Oman, the management of this ancient indispensable mobile capital remains unknown.

A field study has looked into the traditional goat management in two areas in Oman: Dhofar and the desert region. The study anticipates establishing reasonable analogies that can cast light on the practices of early goat herders and goat managerial strategies practiced in Oman during prehistoric times. It also considers traditional goat management as a possible expedient source of information in explaining some of the pictorial evidence in the rock art of Oman. The study concludes that the goat is an indispensable animal for any traditional or prehistoric subsistence economy. Although, traditional goat herders in the study areas have a significant input in the economy, they leave no material evidence behind. Similarly, the study proposes that prehistoric goat herders, who had economically influenced large areas, left no evidence to contribute in the archaeological records. It seems there were many industrious human groups that archaeological records cannot account for them.

A Latin inscription from South Arabia

William Facey (London), Carl Phillips (CNRS, UMR 7041 , Nanterre, France) and Francois Villeneuve ( Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris , France)

In the course of compiling an account of all the South Arabian and Classical texts referring to the Tihamah, the existence of a previously overlooked Latin inscription from South Arabia came to light. Subsequent enquiries suggested that the inscription was found in-situ and was not imported in antiquity from elsewhere. This has now been confirmed since the place of its provenance is mentioned in the text.

The inscription probably dates form AD. 144 (definitely between AD 140 and AD 145) and attests to the presence of a vexillation of a Roman Legion in South Arabia. Until now the only other Latin inscription from south Arabia has been the short bilingual inscription found near to Baraqish which has been discussed at the Seminar for Arabian Studies on several occasions. Writing about the latter inscription, and referring to the expedition of Aelius Gallus in 26 BC, Bowersock mentions "the unique presence of a Graeco-Roman army in Yemen", The information provided in the "new" inscription shows clearly that this was not the case, and opens up a whole new chapter in terms of Roman contact with South Arabia which is not referred to by any of the Classical authors.

In the proposed presentation the geographical and archaeological context of the inscription will be considered. The contents of the inscription will be discussed and its significance assessed alongside other relevant textual and archaeological evidence.

The results of the 2002 season and sand removal at the Mahram Bilqis, Marib by the American Foundation for the Study of Man

Abdu Othman Ghaleb ( University of Sana’a , Republic of Sana’a, Republic of Yemen)

This paper will present the results of the excavations and sand removal of the AFSM' 2002 field season at Mahram Bilqis.

During October and November 2002, The American Foundation for the Study of Man continued excavating and evaluating of the walls and features in the "A" area to the north of the Peristyle Hall and started the sand removal from the interior of the Peristyle Hall. The "A" area was first revealed with the aid of mechanized excavation in the AFSM 2000 field season and was greatly expanded in the 2001 field season. Numerous previously unreported inscriptions and a fragment of a Sabean frieze recovered during the excavations enhance our understanding of the site, but the design and function of the "A" area were unclear at the end of 2001.

The excavation accomplished in the Fall 2002 field season revealed a massive Main Gate at the southwest corner of Building "A" opening to an entry area. The passageway leads to a pair of limestone stairways that are separated by a masonry wall. At the base of the stairs the passageway opens into a courtyard outside the northwest corner of the Peristyle Hall. Doors installed at the top of each stairway were available to control foot traffic. The masonry walls are of particular importance with both numerous in-situ inscriptions (to be reported in another paper) and several re-used masonry bearing older inscriptions, some of which appear to have been partially erased. Significant artifacts discovered include a pair of massive statue bases decorated with Ibex, tools variously of stone, bone, and bronze, and jewelry items including several delicate bracelets and stone amulets.

The deposits burying the "A" area reveal several sequences of burial. Fans of coarse rubble and masonry blocks from a collapse period are interspersed with wind-deposited sand intervals in the 6 to 8 meters of sediment that covered the site and dramatically demonstrate the geometry of time-stratigraphic units.

Sand excavation began in the interior of the Peristyle Hall using both wheelbarrows and small 4-wheel drive tractors with trailers. The light tractors were on site only a few days at the end of the 2002 season but they proved to be well suited to this work and greatly increased the rate of sand removal compared to wheelbarrow crews.

A notable discovery from the newly excavated north wall is the evidence that the Peristyle Hall incorporated two rows of false windows. Two masonry courses are partially preserved above the prominent lintel vourse capping the false windows. Notches cut into these upper courses are aligned vertically with and duplicate the structure of the intact false windows. The second row of false windows would probably raise the wall height to that of the interior pillars.

Beyond their borders: a common potting tradition and ceramic horizon within South Arabia during the 1st millennium BC

William D. Glanzman ( Department of Archaeology , University of Calgary , Canada)

Ceramic studies in South Arabia so far have demonstrated two major time blocks during which pottery traditions were common and widespread: one spanning roughly 1500-1200 BC, and the other during the early first millennium BC. This paper proposes a third, represented by the Wavy Rim Bowl. Its technological features, distribution and chronology enable the South Arabian kingdoms to be linked together by a "Ceramic Horizon" beginning around the 3rd century BC and lasting for several centuries, at a time when the geopolitical landscape was less than stable. This paper explores those relationships and demonstrates the necessity of undertaking a more comprehensive view of ceramic studies and the information they can yield.

Archaeological survey at Tiwi and its hinterland (Central Oman)

Jutta Häser and Jürgen Schreiber ( Deutsches Archäologisches Institut , Berlin, Germany)

Within the context of the German-Omani co-operation project about "Transformation processes in oasis settlements in Oman", the second phase of archaeological investigations started in February 2002. The area under study is located on the east coast of Oman between Tiwi and ash-Shab as well as Wadi Tiwi. It was surveyed during two seasons. Archaeological remains of all periods from the early third millennium B.C. to recent times were found. The most interesting discovery is represented by a large cemetery with about 1000 overground graves of the Samad period and a settlement from the same time. This gives new insight into the appearance of the Samad culture and the occupation of the coastal zone. The survey of Wadi Tiwi showed that the hinterland of the coastal area was first inhabited around the ninth century A.D., and habitation has continued almost uninterruptedly since then. At this time all oases now existing along the wadi were established. This is also the period during which the early to middle Islamic coastal site of Tiwi/Jurayf flourished, which is manifested in the numerous pottery imports from Iran and China.

Lithics from the Emirates: new finds from the Abu Dhabi Airport site and the Peter Rothfels collection

Heiko Kallweit (Honorary Research Fellow, Freiburg University , Germany)

New lithic finds, so far not reported from the Gulf region, are studied in the course of a re-examination of finds from previous excavations at the Abu Dhabi Airport sites. Additionally, new diagnostic stone tools were recorded during recent field work. Crescent shaped microliths are reported from two different sub-sites (ADA 1 and ADA 7) of the Abu Dhabi Airport site. They seem to be similar with finds from the Tihama, Saudi Arabia. The microliths are likely to be part of a Bronze Age technology.

A first scientific examination of the "Peter Rothfels collection", a large private collection of archaeological finds from the Emirates Eastern Province, revealed new perspective on the UAE Neolithic as well as indications of more technical and typological similarities to finds from the western part of the Arabian Peninsula and central Saudi Arabia. A study of arrowheads resembling the "Fasad-points" shed new light on the Arabian Bifacial Tradition (ABT).

Tree-core sampling in Ras Al-Khaimah

William Lancaster (Hoy, Scotland) and Martin Bridge ( Institute of Archaeology , UCL , London, U.K.)

The mountains and wadis of Ras Al-Khaimah are rich in abandoned settlements. In any study of economic or population change it becomes important to be able to date such abandonments. Pottery typology is not yet sufficiently detailed to provide a guide, building styles are unchanging and not diagnostic, and there is no documentation. Oral testimony, when available, is imprecise and subjective.

However, there are trees in abundance growing on terrace-fields, on top of walls and inside now-roofless structures, while many abandoned buildings still contain the remains of beams. Would it be possible to obtain dates of abandonment by determining the age of specific trees, e.g. those growing inside old buildings? Which species would provide the best tree-ring evidence? Could the rings be translated into a more general chronology? Would the nature of the rings show evidence of changing climatic conditions? With the exception of a limited study of Juniperus sp. I n the Jabal Akhdar in Oman, there is, as yet, no such data available in the area.

Some 50 cores of various species were collected as well as a dozen cross-sections. These samples are currently under study by Martin Bridge and the preliminary results will be presented in this paper.

The 2002-03 research at Muweilah, Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Peter Magee ( Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology , Bryn Mawr College , Pennsylvania, USA)

A summer study season and a winter excavation have provided new evidence on the Iron Age II settlement of Muweilah. During the summer study season we focused on the issue of ceramic assemblage formation and evidence for behavioural patterning throughout the settlement. A short winter season provided insights into the layout of the settlement, in particularly the multiple stone-constructed gateways and the spatial arrangement of Building I. Using this new data, we will present to the Seminar some initial interpretations of the role of the settlement within Iron Age II settlement dynamics in southeast Arabia.

The processional road between the Old City of Marib and the Awam Temple in the light of a recently discovered inscription from Mahram Bilqis

Mohammed Maraqten ( Seminar für Semitistik der Philipps Universität , Marburg, Germany)

This paper will present a newly discovered inscription from Mahram Bilqis which provides information on "The Road of Awam", which connected the old city of Marib with Mahram Bilqis. In the last season (October/November 2002) of the American Foundation for the Study of Man's excavations at Mahram Bilqis (Awam-Temple) several long Sabaic inscriptions were discovered. Among them was a four-line inscription found in situ engraved on the external wall of the Peristyle Hall of the Awam temple, at its north-west corner. This inscription is a decree dealing with the protection of pilgrims and visitors while they were at the Awam-Temple. It can be dated to the Middle Sabaaen period about the second century AD and provides the first accurate data about this road. Other inscriptions suggest that Mahram Bilqis was the main centre of pigrimage in the Sabaean kingdom and scholars such as E. Glaser suspected that there was a road between the old city of Marib and Mahram Bilqis, which is located about 3.5 km to the south. Our inscription refers to this Processional Road as "the Road of Awam" and even its beginning, namely the Harunum temple, and its end are mentione

Pots and tombs in Ibra/Oman: investigations into the ceramic record of Islamic cemeteries and the related burial customs and funerary rituals

Birgit Mershen ( Department of Archaeology , Sultan Qaboos University , Sultanate of Oman)

The visual omnipresence of burial sites is one of the outstanding features of Oman's archaeological landscape. Whereas archaeological research in this field has largely concentrated upon pre-Islamic tombs and cemeteries, few investigations have so far been carried out on Islamic cemeteries. A particular lacuna is information leading to the establishment of a typological and chronological framework for Islamic tombs and cemeteries. Scarcity of information is even more obvious when we consider the burial customs and funerary and post-funerary rituals which shaped the archaeological surface record of Islamic cemeteries in Oman. This record is not uniform, but on the contrary displays great heterogeneity through time and space. The proposed contribution will present the results of my fieldwork in Ibra/Sharqiyah, carried out in October 2002 and in January-February 2003, as well as pointing to parallels from survey work I undertook in other areas of Oman. The three surveyed Ibra cemeteries are characterized by an astonishing density of ceramic vessels and sherds, and the fact that it was standard procedure for all funerary inscriptions to be written on ceramic sherds. In order to elucidate local burial customs and funerary and post/funerary rituals/sacrifices which have caused the above mentioned features in the archaeological record I complemented the archaeological survey by extensive ethno historical and oral history research.

An exceptional Yemenite necklace from the beginning of the 20th century as an example of introducing artistic novelty in a traditional craft

Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper (Curator, Department of Ethnography, The Israel Museum , Jerusalem)

At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous Jewish silversmith Yihye Al-Abyadh started to make a new type of necklace, the so-called " Labbeh tyur" ("Bird" necklace), which went on to be produced by his sons, especially Meysha Al-Abyadh. Examples are still extant. The "Labbeh tyur" necklace differs significantly from other types of Yemenite necklaces, both in structure and motifs, and partly also in technique.

From ethnographic interviews it appears that this type of necklace was originally made for the ladies of the Imam's family, and was later also worn by other Muslim women of means. Because of its motifs, however, it was considered inappropriate for Jewish women to wear it.

In this lecture I shall describe the technique by which this necklace was made, and shall attempt to trace its stylistic origins. I shall discuss its motifs and the different reactions to which they gave rise. It will be demonstrated that the introduction of artistic novelties in a tradtional craft such as Yemenite jewellery-making, elicited social criticism and consequently faced different grades of acceptance which were not only based on aesthetic criteria.

Le concept d'inaliénabilité dans le dialecte arabe de Sanaa

Samia Naïm ( CNRS-LACITO, France)

Le concept d'inaliénabilité a une portée universelle. Nous en étudierons l'expression dans le dialecte arabe de Sanaa (Yémen) et nous nous s'interrogerons sur l'existence de marques morphologiques et / ou syntaxiques propres à l'encodage de concepts relationnels (parties du corps, relations de parentés) et de concepts non relationnels. Dans la perspective d'une comparaison inter-langues et inter-cultures, les notions de possession encodées dans la langue seront articulées aux notions prototypiques de la possession : les notions de propriété et d'inanimé, par exemple, sont-elles instanciées en arabe yéménite ? Y-a-t-il des corrélations entre une société, sa culture et sa façon d'organiser le monde et l'expression (ou la non expression) linguistique de tel ou tel domaine de la possession ?

A new Abreha inscription from the Great Dam of Märib

Norbert Nebes ( Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients , Jena, Germany)

During the excavation and consolidation work conducted by the German Archaeological Institute on the northern sluice of the great dam last year a new stela inscribed on its four sides was discovered. In the inscription written by King Abreha and dated to the same year as his larger one CIH 541, a detailed report is given concerning the restoration work of a central element of the northern sluice. In comparison with the corresponding lines of CIH 541 more evidence can be found that this element has to be identified with the northern part of the outlet of the northern sluice of the great dam.

Middle Dilmun Sealings from Qal'at al-Bahrain: An Alternative View on Kassite Dynamics in the Arabian Gulf.

Eric Olijdam (The Netherlands)

Recent excavations at Qal'at al-Bahrain (hereafter referred to as QAB) by the French Archaeological Mission to Bahrain directed by Pierre Lombard have revealed the remains of a large palatial structure dating to the mid-second millennium B.C. The assemblage consists not only of the well-known Kassite 'caramel ware', but also of a wide range of cuneiform documents (see the report by Pierre Lombard & Beatrice André-Salvini in the 1998 volume of PSAS) as well as clay sealings.

About one hundred unbaked clay fragments with one or more seal impressions have been recovered from a wide range of contexts. The still rather general chronological division of the Middle Dilmun sealing material already allows some interesting interpretations and conclusions which validate their presentation even though the study is still in its initial stage.

This paper will give a first presentation of the material, the archaeological contexts, the nature and state of the sealing assemblage. It will also give a preliminary interpretation of the findings so far in terms of 'styles' present (and the absence of others). The QAB assemblage will be compared with the 'contemporary' corpus from Mesopotamia as well as from the rest of the Gulf (i.e. the settlement of Failaka and the burials on Bahrain). The QAB material has more affinities with the Mesopotamian material than with that from Failaka and Bahrain. Finally, the implications of this corpus for understanding the development of mid-second millennium glyptics will be briefly discussed as QAB forms the earliest 'Kassite' archive unearthed in the Near East.

The GPS mapping of the Hajar Project's al-Hajar oasis town at Bisya in the Wadi Behla, northern Oman: the first two seasons

Jeffery Orchard (The Al-Hajar Project)

During its two most recent seasons in Oman in 2000 and 2002, the Hajar Project (patron: The National Museums of Scotland) has begun the contoured archaeological mapping of its identified 3rd millennium BC oasis town site to the north of Bisya in the Wadi Behla, using Real Tim Kinematic GPS equipment. In this paper, the mode of conduct and current progress of this mapping is discussed, as well as important additional information which its execution has revealed since the author's previous communication to the Seminar in 1999 (Orchard, J., Oasis Town or Tower Hamlets? Bisya during the Al-Hajar period, PSAS 30 (2000): 165-175).

Traditional Arabian watercraft and the ark of the Gilgamesh Epic: interpretations and realizations.

Ralph K. Pedersen ( Institute of Nautical Archaeology , College Station, Texas, USA)

The watercraft encompassed by the term "Dhow" have existed in Arabia for millennia. Although these vessels are now commonly nailed and built on a framework of timbers, the traditional form of construction was by sewing together a shell of planking. Aspects of the sewn technique are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh via a new interpretation of the account in which Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, constructs a huge boat to escape the universal deluge. This paper examines the pertinent sections of the epic as they relate to Arabian sewn boat construction, and how this opens the door for understanding other ancient texts and the iconography of boats from the Gulf region.

The mercantile empire of the Tibis: economic predominance, political power, military subordination

Valeria Piacentini (Department of Political Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart , Rome, Italy)

The paper focuses on the mercantile supremacy of this family between the end of the 12th century-early14th century AD. Their power rises with the Mongol Il-Khans: it is a positive mercantile predominance, a financial and economic power, which finds its evidence in the numerous archaeological finds all along the Indian Ocean and the Gulf. It has its limits in the political subordination of the Tibis to the Il-Khan governors of Fars. Favoured by the Il-Khanid power and their military strength, the Tibis would reach an unprecedented splendour and an unrivalled mercantile activity spreading from their "political" heart in Fars all over the seas. Remarkable family-members are to be found posted to one or the other political office or in the main emporia of the intrer-ocean routes mentioned in the available literature of the time. The literary data fit perfectly with the material evidence, and provide us with a vivid fresco. At the start of the 14th century two main factors contributed to their decline: the rise of the power of Harmuz (military and economic at the same time) on the one side, and the crumbling down of the Il-Khanid power and its military strength and support, on the other. Harmuz had the upper hand, and eroded one by one the main economic bases and storehouses of the Tibis (Bahrayn, Qatif, Julfar, Kargah etc. all along the Arabian seaboard).

The production and distribution of amphorae in South Arabia and East Africa in the first millennium BC

Alexandra Porter ( Institute of Archaeology , UCL , London, U.K.)

A particularly distinct South Arabian ceramic vessel, or 'amphora', has often been thought to be an indicator of both regional and international trade relations during the first half of the first millennium BC (Van Beek 1967: 115; Van Beek 1969: 369; de Maigret 1988: fig. 23: 10, 12-15; Glanzman 1994: 315). This jar form, named Type 4100 by Van Beek, has an unmistakeable set of morphological characteristics, which include an everted rim, a very narrow neck, a biconical-shaped body and a flared pedestal base. The form is also typified by a heavy 'sand-tempered' fabric. This vessel type has an exceptionally wide distribution and has been found at virtually every early pre-Islamic site in southern Arabia as well as at a number of pre-Axumite sites in northern Ethiopia and central Eritrea. Does the distribution of the amphorae represent commercial relations between sites in South Arabia and East Africa during the first millennium BC, as scholars have suggested? In this paper, the full distribution of the amphorae throughout Yemen and East Africa will be outlined, the results of a thin-section provenance analysis on these vessels will be presented and the significance of their distribution will be discussed.

de Maigret, A. (ed) 1988. The Sabaean Archaeological Complex in the Wadi Yala (Eastern Hawlan at-Tiyal, Yemen Arab Republic): A Preliminary Report, Reports and Memoirs, Vol. XXI. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
Glanzman, W.D. 1994. Toward a Classification and Chronology of Pottery from HR3 (Hajar ar-Rayhani), Wadi al-Jubah, Republic of Yemen. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Van Beek, G.W. 1967. Monuments of Axum in the Light of South Arabian Archaeology. Journal of the American Oriental Society 87, 113-122.
Van Beek, G.W. 1969. Hajar Bin Humeid. Investigations at a Pre-Islamic Site in South Arabia. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press.

Mashhad `Ali revisited: recent data from Hadramawt

Mikhail Rodionov ( Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum , Halle, Germany)

The hawta, or sacred enclave, of Mashhad 'Ali has been an object of my field-research in Hadramawt since 1983. Founded in 1160/1747 by sayyid 'Ali b. Hasan b. 'Abdallah al-'Attas (1122/1720 - 1772/1758) in the Northern part of Wadi Daw'an, it comprises his shrine with a mosque, wells, water reservoirs, pilgrim dwellings, the remnants of buying-and-selling places and stocks. Sayyid 'Ali started to build the hawta in honour of his great-great-grandfather 'Umar, but nobody doubted that the vaulted tomb of al-Mashhad was intended not for his ancestor but for himself. The ruins of an ancient site, Raybun, inspired sayyid 'Ali to create poems giving detailed description of the site along with speculations about the vanished glory of its people. The making of the hawta has been exceptionally well documented in a manuscript entitled 'Kitab al-maqsad' (now in the Maktab al-Ahqaf Library, Tarim), and I talked about it at the SAS in 2000. Now I intend to shed more light on this subject, adding not only further information from the manuscript, but also my new field and archival data collected in Hadramawt from February 2003 onwards within the DFG project "Traditions and customs in Hadramawt according to unpublished documents". The special focus is the correspondence concerning Mashhad 'Ali,stored in the al-Kathiri Sultans Archives in Say'un.

The Nabataean burial inscriptions from Umm el-Jimal

Salah Said ( University of Al-Hussain , Jordan) and Muntasir Al-Hamad ( University of Manchester , U.K.)

Nearly a century ago (Butler, PAES, 1907-1949), Enno Littmann and their colleagues recorded many Nabataean inscriptions during the expedition to southern Syria in the southern area of the Hawran. The majority of these were collected at Umm al-Jimal (LNa. Nos. 38-68). Those from Busra came a close second (nos. 69-91). The rest were scattered among twenty-five other towns and villages in the region.
This subsequent addition to this important corpus has been few and far between, and mostly concentrated in the vicinity of Busra in the northern Syrian sector of the Hawran. Only a few have been published from the Jordanian sector of the Hawran.
Due to great expansion of settlement in recent decades, these towns and villages have become difficult to protect and conserve. Thus, recording antiquities in the region is a matter of great urgency. A survey team was organized at Al al-Bayt University to explore the area extending from Umm as-Surab in the west to Kum al-Ahmar in the east, and from the Syrian border in the north to the Baghdad Highway in the south, an area of about 200 square km. The survey was conducted over an eleven-week period from the middle of November 1996 to the end of January 1997.
During this expedition, numerous inscriptions were found, and many brought back to be deposited in the new museum at Al al-Bayt University. The team found that many of the inscriptions are in Greek and Safaitic, but a number of new Nabataean inscriptions were also found.
Now, Dr. Said and Al-Hamad are studying some short Nabataean inscriptions, which were found in the region of Umm el-Jimal. The main addition for those inscriptions will be in the field of personal names, as well as some special remarks which deserve highlighting.
The researchers hope that this paper will be a significant contribution to the Nabataean inscription corpus from the Hawran region.
Two 3-4 line inscriptions were studied by Dr. Said and Al-Hamad (See: forthcoming JSS 2003, and the reports of The Second International Conference about Nabataeans in Jordan, Oct.2002).

Reflections on the use of animal drugs in Yemen

Hanne Schoenig ( Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum , Halle, Germany)

Magic is an integral part of folk medicine, and in Yemen, beliefs on spiritual causes of disease such as the evil eye, black magic and spirits are common and we find a wide range of drugs and treatments corresponding to the magical character of the disease. The scarcity of animal drugs there is, however, conspicuous, compared with other Arabic/ Islamic countries, such as Morocco, in particular, where a great deal of animal drugs are attested (Venzlaff, Der marokkanische Drogenhändler, 1977). Yemeni druggists hardly offer any, as I could observe during the many occasions when I worked with them. This scarcity is corroborated by Yemeni medicinal texts, as, e.g., the Nata?ig al-fikar by Sa'ban b. Salim al- San'ani (18th century; studied and translated by Schopen/ Kahl, 1993), though the Kutub Manafi' al-hayawan spread the knowledge on the sympathetic properties of animal drugs, which determine their place within magical practices, all over the Islamic world. This shows once again, that in spite of the common stock of written knowledge in the Arabic/ Islamic countries, the mediation and use of this knowledge may vary considerably in different parts of the Islamic world, as local traditions and cultural contacts play an important role. Based on empirical research as well as textual evidence of local manuscripts I want to demonstrate the particularities of medication in Yemeni folk-medicine.

A Sabaic proverb

Peter Stein ( Lehrstuhl für Semitische Philologie und Islamwissenschaft , Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena , Germany)

Recent research on the Sabaic minuscule texts from Ancient Yemen in possession of the Bavarian State Library in Munich has revealed many more details from the private life and behaviour of the Sabaeans than expected. In fact, the minuscule texts published so far are almost entirely of a business character, and even letter correspondence deals with dry business matters like transactions of goods and money. Despite the remaining problems in interpreting single passages in the new texts due to the unknown vocabulary, we do have clear evidence for fairly private and intimate affairs, such as cheating, quarrels within the family and neighbourhood, health problems while nursing and so on. Along with these peculiarities of content, a large variety of expressions in language can be observed - much different from the formal style of the monumental inscriptions. As an example, in one piece from the Munich collection, Mon.script.sab. 129, we find the literal quotation of an oral saying which is explicitly called "proverb" in the text. This saying is used to appeal to the addressed persons' conscience to settle a debt.

The orthography of the pre-Sa'adianic Judeo-Arabic
compared with the orthography of the inscriptions of pre-Islamic Arabia

Yosef Tobi (Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of Haifa , Israel)

Recently Prof. Christian Robin has shown in his long and learned study "Les Inscriptions de L'Arabie Antique et Les Études Arabes" (Arabica XLVIII, 2001, pp. 509-577), that the orthography of the pre-Islamic Arabic, as attested, for instance, in the findings from the excavations in Qaryat al-Faw, as well as in other pre-Islamic languages in Arabia, is somewhat different from what we know of classical Arabic. In my opinion, this orthography should be compared with another pre-Islamic Arabic, the pre-Sa'adianic Judeo-Arabic. As was firmly demonstrated from not a few pieces found in the Cairo Genizah, most of them identified and published by myself, and one by Prof. Yehoshua Blau, there existed at least two different Judeo-Arabic translations to the Pentateuch and one to the Book of Proverbs. The orthography of these excerpts is phonetic and does not follow the orthography of the Judeo-Arabic as determined by Sa'adia, namely keeping up with the orthography of classical Arabic. All signs and data we have, mostly from Muslim sources, lead these pre-Sa'adianic Judeo-Arabic translations to Arabia, probably pre-Islamic Arabia. In my paper I intend then to compare the findings of Prof. Robin with my findings regarding the point of orthography, in order to confirm my view concerning the provenance of the pre-Sa'adianic Judeo-Arabic translations.

Rome and South Arabia: new artefactual evidence from the Red Sea

Roberta Tomber ( Department of Archaeology , University of Southampton , U.K.)

Interaction between the early Roman world and South Arabia is well established from documentary evidence provided by the Periplus Maris Erythraei, as well as published Roman artefacts from key sites such as Timna, Qane and Khor Rori. To date corresponding evidence for South Arabian artefacts has been absent from the Roman Red Sea, but recent excavations at the ports of Aqaba, Jordan and Berenike and Myos Hormos, Egypt have reversed this situation. While rare South Arabian graffiti have been recorded, more common finds are handmade cooking pots and storage vessels, which on typological, petrological and distributional grounds would seem likely to originate in South Arabia. This paper will present the source evidence for these vessel types and discuss the significance of South Arabian material at three ports vital to Rome's trade with the East.

Sedentarization of Ancient Arab nomads: the Nabataeans

Saad Twaissi ( Bradford University , U.K.)

Few studies had tried to shed light on the history and process of Nabataean sedentarization eg. Parr (1970), Hammond (1973), Negev (1977), Bowersock (1983), Knauf (1989), (Schmid 2001a; 2001b). However, these studies have no general agreement about the history and process of the Nabataean sedentarization, although most of the studies concluded that trade and change in political powers played a major role in the transformation of the Nabataean society into sedentary life. Nevertheless some archaeologists suggest that the Nabataeans led a nomadic life throughout their history until 106 AD. The aim of this paper is to answer the questions of when the Nabataeans sedentarized and what was the mode of this sedentary life and to what extent nomadism lost its importance among the Nabataeans. All these questions will be answered from an archaeological point of view.

Eighteenth-century religious patronage in Sanaa: Qasimi building in the new capital

Nancy Um ( Department of Art History, Binghamton , N.Y., USA)

Two of the most visible icons of Sanaa's architectural landscape, Qubbat Al-Mutawakkil in Tahrir Square and Qubbat Al-Mahdi on the Sa'ilah, have received little scholarly attention from architectural historians. Both of these domed mosques were built under the patronage of the Qasimi Imams in Sanaa and reflect a clear divergence from the expected modes of Zaydi building. As such they are often dismissed as mere imitations of Ottoman prototypes.

In this paper, I would like to situate these two structures within the larger context of patronage in the first half of the eighteenth century by Imam Al-Mutawakkil Al-Qasim, Imam Al-Mansur Al-Husayn, and Imam Al-Mahdi 'Abbas. My research reveals that the less visible patterns of Qasimi patronage in Sanaa provide a nuanced perspective on building in the era and allow us to better understand the role of these iconic structures. In this paper, I will rely on field research conducted in Yemen in the summer of 2002, recent studies on religious architecture in Yemen as well as contemporary historical chronicles from the era.

Wadi Sur – a large fortification in Ras al-Khaimah

Christian Velde (Resident Archaeologist, National Museum of Ras Al-Khaimah , United Arab Emirates)

The "Wadi Sur", discovered by Beatrice de Cardi, was thought to be a dam or floodwater barrier, which had been erected to keep the Wadi Bih floods out of Shimal and Nakheel agricultural area. A recent detailed examination has revealed that it originally consisted of a rampart made from gravel supported by a mudbrick wall on top that clearly has a defensive purpose.

The 7 km long construction runs from the mountains at the edge of the agricultural area to the creek of Ras al-Khaimah and is still preserved to a height of 2 m. Around 50 round towers were built at a distance of 150 m from each other along the wall. A ditch, at least 2.5 m deep, runs in front of the wall.

We believe that the defensive wall was built between the 13th - 16th centuries AD to secure from tribal raids the fertile palm gardens of Shimal and Nakheel, which served as the main hinterland for the large trading town of Julfar.

This paper will describe the wall, the towers, and the results of a recent survey and investigation, and speculate on the possible date and function of the structure.

Recent research of the German Institute of Archaeology at the Great Dam of Marib, Yemen

Burkhard Vogt ( Kommission für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Archäologie , Bonn, Germany)

The Great Dam at Marib, Republic of Yemen, is one of the best known hydraulic monuments in antiquity. It appears that everything has been said but a first season of consolidation in 2002 provided unexpected and completely new insights into the history and the operational principles of the monument. Work was jointly carried out by the Commission for General and Comparative Archaeology, Bonn, and the Sanaa Branch, both of the German Institute of Archaeology. It enabled for the first time a large-scale excavation of major architectural and functional components of the dam - mainly at the so-called Northern Sluice and to a lesser extent at the earthen dam and the Southern Sluice. Evidence from excavation and new epigraphic finds suggests that at least the Northern Sluice in its present shape was constructed during late Pre-Islamic times.

The linguistic geology of San'ani Arabic

Janet Watson ( IMEIS , University of Durham , U.K.)

Like geological formations, languages contain numerous strata that have built up, in some cases, over millennia. In this paper, I look at a number of external strata in the lexicon of San'ani Arabic, the dialect of the capital of Yemen. The oldest identifiable non-Arabic elements in San'ani Arabic go back to one or more of the ancient languages of South Arabia, collectively known as Ancient South Arabian. Written records demonstrate that at least one of these languages, belonging to the Himyaritic sub-group, was spoken in the area of San'a prior to the arrival of Arabic in possibly the third century AD. Himyaritic was eventually displaced by Arabic following the rise of Islam, probably in the ninth or tenth century AD. Ancient South Arabian substrate terms attested today typically refer to aspects of material culture and particularly to architecture.

Historically, Ottoman Turkish is the next major influence on San'ani Arabic, resulting from two periods of Turkish occupation in Yemen, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and from the mid-nineteenth century until the end of World War I. The Turks introduced a number of terms in the areas of administration and the military, as well as terms relating to material culture such as clothing, cooking and Turkish baths.

Since the Revolution of September 1962, northern Yemen has been transformed from a self-isolating, traditional, theocratic state into a modern open democracy. With the subsequent introduction of mass education and mass media, terms have come into San'ani from Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian and other Yemeni dialects. Another interesting influence on modern San'ani Arabic is English, both in its role as global lingua franca and as the language of the colonial power (up to 1967) in the former southern Yemeni state.

Yemen's links also stretch further afield. There have been continuous trade links between Yemen and the Indian subcontinent since at least 2000 BC. The name of the island of Socotra (in Arabic suquTra) probably derives from the Sanskrit dvipa sakhadara, the Island of Bliss (Mackintosh-Smith 1997: 206). Spices have been traded between Yemen, India and the Indonesian archipelago since pre-classical times. These links are reflected in Indian influence on San'ani Arabic, particularly in culinary terminology: examples include sambuusih 'samosa' and ruuti 'small baguette-like loaf'.

Mackintosh-Smith, T. (1997) Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land. London.

© Seminar for Arabian Studies 2006.

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