Northern Arabia Research Articles

Chariots, mail coaches and wagons in the Arabic dialect of Qaṭrāyīth (“in Qatari”) in early Islamic eastern Arabia

AbstractThis paper will present the evidence for two newly discovered words, gawzag and shagar, meaning “two-horse chariot/mail coach” and “wagon” respectively in the eastern Arabian dialect of Qaṭrāyīth (Syriac for “in Qatari”) of the seventh and eighth centuries ce. They reveal the continued local knowledge of wheeled transport in Arabia and possible use long after its supposed disappearance in the Near East between the fourth and sixth centuries according to Richard Bulliet's well-known thesis in his seminal work The Camel and the Wheel (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990). The fact that this vernacular maintained two specific words for two different modes of wheeled transport likely suggests a practical need for them in everyday communication among the inhabitants of the Beth Qaṭraye region (Syriac for “region of the Qataris” in north-eastern Arabia). Moreover, their use in an Arabic dialect reveals that native words were developed for wheeled vehicles in the local language spoken by the inhabitants of the area well before the adoption of markabah as a neologism to mean chariot in nineteenth-century Arabic, according to Michael Macdonald's stimulating article “Wheels in a land of camels” (Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 20/2, 2009). Thus, the various rock drawings of two-wheeled carts and chariots in northern Arabia may in fact not only have been known but also used nearby in eastern Arabia, rather than being inaccurate representations reflecting a distant awareness of the existence of chariots elsewhere such as in Mesopotamia and Egypt as had been previously thought. This is a literary, philological. and historical study that aims at presenting newly discovered vocabulary in context for further analysis by linguists and others.

The ramparts of Khaybar. Multiproxy investigation for reconstructing a Bronze Age walled oasis in Northwest Arabia

The multidisciplinary investigation carried out between 2020 and 2023 by the Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project (CNRS-RCU-AFALULA) demonstrates that the Khaybar Oasis was entirely enclosed by a rampart in pre-Islamic times, like several other large regional walled oases in north-western Arabia (Tayma, Qurayyah, Hait, etc.). The cross-referencing of survey and remote sensing data, architectural examinations and the dating of stratified contexts have revealed a rampart initially some 14.5 km long, generally between 1.70 m and 2.40 m thick, reinforced by 180 bastions. Preserved today over just under half of the original route (41 %, 5.9 km and 74 bastions), this rampart dates back to the Bronze Age, between 2250 and 1950 BCE, and had never been detected before due to the profound reworking of the local desert landscape over time. This crucial discovery confirms the rise of a walled oasis complex in northern Arabia during the Bronze Age, a trend that proved to be central to the creation of indigenous social and political complexity.

Human dispersals out of Africa via the Levant.

Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa into Eurasia multiple times in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. The route, across northeastern Africa into the Levant, is a viable terrestrial corridor, as the present harsh southern Levant would probably have been savannahs and grasslands during the last interglaciation. Here, we document wetland sediments with luminescence ages falling in the last interglaciation in the southern Levant, showing protracted phases of moisture availability. Wetland sediments in Wadi Gharandal containing Levallois artifacts yielded an age of 84 ka. Our findings support the growing consensus for a well-watered Jordan Rift Valley that funneled migrants into western Asia and northern Arabia.

An Early Bronze Age stone tool assemblage from al-Badʿ Oasis in northern Arabia: a technological and functional analysis

Archaeological research on the 4th millennium BCE throughout the Levant has shown how craft specialization, extended trade and supply routes, as well as increased social stratification, established the foundation for the urban Early Bronze Age formation process in the third quarter of the 4th millennium BCE. The specific context of northern Arabia, along the fringes of the fertile crescent, remains, on the contrary, largely unexplored. In this paper lithic finds from an Early Bronze I village, named al-Rudaydah in al-Badʿ Oasis, situated in north-western Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea, are presented. All the stone tool artefacts, over 100 lithics, found in a rectangular drystone masonry dwelling, were subjected to technological and traceological analyses. Most of the artefacts are small chips and flakes resulting from tool maintenance and recycling. Formal tools include so-called tabular scrapers and trapezoidal blade segments with gloss. The results show that the scrapers were likely imported as blanks or ready-made tools, the glossy artefacts were likely sickle insets.

Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia-New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf.

Archaeological sites with surface hearths are a ubiquitous feature across the arid zones of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf, in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia, numerous grinding stone fragments were found in association with hearths, though the original purpose of these stones was unclear owing to the poor preservation of faunal and botanic remains. Here we describe results from use-wear analysis on five grinding tools at Jebel Oraf, demonstrating that such artefacts were used during the Neolithic for plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production. Grinding stones were often broken up after initial use and fragments were subsequently re-used for alternative purposes, before finally being placed on hearths or discarded. More specifically, plants were ground or prepared and possibly cooked in the hearths, and bones were processed as well. The analyses also highlight the importance of pigment processing at Neolithic sites and provide a link to painted rock art. The frequent use of pigment in the archaeological record suggests that pigment was widely used, and that Neolithic painted art may have been more common than the surviving images suggest.

Before the Holocene humid period: Life-sized camel engravings and early occupations on the southern edge of the Nefud desert

The Neolithic of northern Arabia is characterised by monumental stone structures, ephemeral ‘hearth sites’ indicative of a highly mobile lifestyle, and a rich rock art heritage with iconic representations of domesticated livestock. However, the character and timing of occupation prior to the spread of pastoralism (ca. 6000 BCE) remains elusive, with only one stratified Epipalaeolithic site and two surface early Neolithic sites so-far known in the Jubbah Oasis. Here we present Sahout, a newly documented rock art site with Neolithic and earlier occupations, on the southern edge of the Nefud desert. The rock art is dominated by life-sized, naturalistic, engravings of camels, which are in some cases superimposed with Neolithic imagery of domesticated sheep. Surveys and test excavations carried out in the vicinity of the rock art revealed a lithic assemblage with similarities to the late Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Levant. Radiocarbon ages from two test trenches and two hearths indicate repeated occupation at Sahout between the Terminal Pleistocene and the Middle Holocene, which partly mirror the rock art sequence. Investigations at Sahout indicate that rock art production in northern Arabia may have begun earlier than previously thought. Research also suggests a broader geographical extent to human occupations prior to the Holocene humid period.

Uniformity and Diversity in Handaxe Shape at the End of the Acheulean in Southwest Asia

ABSTRACT This study examines parameters, causes, and spatio-temporal patterns of handaxe shape variation from Tabun cave in the Levant, and Khall Amayshan 4B and Khabb Musayyib in northern Arabia. These assemblages span the range of most pointy to most rounded handaxes found anywhere during the Acheulean. The AGMT3D program is used to conduct high resolution geometric morphometric analysis of handaxe form from 3D models. Shape variation is tested against blank type, allometry, and reduction intensity. None of these factors appears to be a strong influence, but there are significant assemblage-wise differences in form, suggesting the different shapes were intentionally produced. The analysis quantifies a pattern of high diversity in the assemblages from Tabun versus low diversity in the shorter occupations at the Arabian sites. We suggest possible explanations of emerging specificity in utilitarian functions, as well as the manifestation of social identities in artefacts at the end of the Acheulean.

Using clay mineralogy and micropalaeontological observations to unravel Neogene climate variations in Northern Arabia

The Zagros Mountain belt in Iran comprises an extensive record of Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits uplifted by collision of the Arabian and Iranian continental plates. This area has been shown to provide important information to decipher the climatic history of Western Asia, especially regarding the evolution of deserts in Mesopotamia and Northern Arabia. In a high-resolution geological record of 84 samples, we combine clay mineralogy and micropalaeontological observations to refine the late Neogene climate record in Northern Arabia. We investigated a 2.6-km-thick sedimentary profile from the Simply Folded Zagros Mountain belt spanning ca. 10.2 myrs from the late Middle Miocene (Serravallian) to earliest Pleistocene (Gelasian) comprising floodplain sediments and saline mudstones with a strong aeolian contribution. The clay fraction < 2 µm reveals palygorskite, smectite, illite, chlorite and the zeolite mineral erionite. Using clay mineralogy, arid conditions during the Serravallian and early Tortonian in Northern Arabia are identified, followed by semi-arid conditions during the late Tortonian. Clay mineralogy suggests a transition to sustained arid conditions during the early Messinian and provides a more complex picture on a previously proposed period of hyperaridity (NADX) in Northern Arabia penecontemporaneous with the apex of the Messinian salinity crisis.

A lost campaign? New evidence of Roman temporary camps in northern Arabia

Remote sensing survey in southern Jordan has identified at least three Roman temporary camps that indicate a probable undocumented military campaign into what is today Saudi Arabia, and which we conjecture is linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in AD 106.

Watering the desert: Oasis hydroarchaeology, geochronology and functionality in Northern Arabia

The phenomenon of very extended desert oases settlements, mega-sites featuring complex irrigation systems and monumental walls has long been observed in Northern Arabia. In the past, it has been linked to the settling down of nomadic components of the population and dated through archaeological material to the Late Bronze or Iron Ages (late second to mid-first millennium BCE). Since 2014 we have been investigating this development through the case study of the oasis of Qurayyah, a walled site of over 300 ha (Tabuk, NW Saudi Arabia). After mapping the geomorphological and hydroarchaeological layout of this ancient settlement, we established the age of key locations of the site through OSL and radiometric measurements from controlled stratigraphic excavations. We could thus confirm that a major – the largest so far documented in Arabia – flood protection and surface water harvesting system (SWHS) was developed already during the Early Bronze Age (2900–2600 calBCE) onto the relict late Pleistocene playa landscape. This sophisticated anthropogenic hydraulic infrastructure enabled the foundation of the river oasis and construction of the permanent walled settlement. Since different components of the SWHS erected on the site (dam, inlet, canals, weirs, outlet, etc.) resulted being synchronic, they are understood as functional elements of one and the same system. A test of the functionality of the identified SWHS for different rainfall scenarios has confirmed that the volume of its catchment’s surface-water supply was sufficient for irrigation, productive and drinking needs of the large oasis since its Early Bronze Age creation.

Cult, herding, and 'pilgrimage' in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla.

Since the 1970s, monumental stone structures now called mustatil have been documented across Saudi Arabia. However, it was not until 2017 that the first intensive and systematic study of this structure type was undertaken, although this study could not determine the precise function of these features. Recent excavations in AlUla have now determined that these structures fulfilled a ritual purpose, with specifically selected elements of both wild and domestic taxa deposited around a betyl. This paper outlines the results of the University of Western Australia's work at site IDIHA-0008222, a 140 m long mustatil (IDIHA-F-0011081), located 55 km east of AlUla. Work at this site sheds new and important light on the cult, herding and 'pilgrimage' in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia, with the site revealing one of the earliest chronometrically dated betyls in the Arabian Peninsula and some of the earliest evidence for domestic cattle in northern Arabia.

Enhanced phytoplankton bloom triggered by atmospheric high-pressure systems over the Northern Arabian Sea

During winter, the dry, cool air brought by prevailing northeasterly trade winds leads to surface ocean heat loss and convective mixing in the northern Arabian Sea. The current paradigm is that the convective mixing process leads to the injection of nutrients up into the surface waters and exert a dominant control on winter productivity. By combining a variety of observations, atmospheric reanalysis and model simulations, we unraveled the processes responsible for the observed year-to-year chlorophyll-a variations in the northern Arabian Sea. Our findings suggest that the atmospheric high-pressure systems that traverse the northern Arabian Sea every winter and spring disrupt winter convective mixing and create an array of environmental conditions conducive to trigger phytoplankton blooms. The arrival of an atmospheric high with the anticyclonic flow in the northern Arabia Sea sets the stage for a sequence of events culminating in intermittent mixed-layer restratification due to buoyancy gain aided by increased specific humidity, supplemented with abundant sunlight due to clear skies, and suppressed turbulent mixing owing to weak winds. These combined with the mixed layer that is shallower than the euphotic zone and the influx of nutrients into the euphotic zone brought by convective mixing between the calm periods, caused unprecedented high concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the northern Arabian Sea.

Facies architecture and paleogeography evolution of regressive wave-dominated shorelines transitioning into tide-dominated estuaries: Early Devonian Subbat Member, Jauf Formation, Saudi Arabia

AbstractThe Paleozoic succession on the northern Arabian Plate was deposited during several regressive and transgressive events. The Early Devonian Subbat Member of the Jauf Formation comprises several smaller-scale intervals of the Paleozoic succession that were interpreted based on large-scale observations from outcrop and subsurface data. This study utilizes process-based sedimentology and investigates facies stacking, lateral continuity of sand bodies, and ichnofacies to interpret an open marine wave-dominated forced regressive system, that is followed by transgressive shorelines.This study integrates a total of 417 meters of the Devonian stratigraphy from four outcrops and two shallow cores. This dataset records a third-order sequence which developed through an extensive intra-plate siliciclastic influx in between two carbonate units during the deposition of the Subbat Member. This study illustrates the evolution of a falling-stage systems tract that is characterized by shoreface sand bodies and an erosional-based delta front in the lower Subbat Member. These sediments overlie a regressive surface of marine erosion (RSME), extending for hundreds of kilometers and transitioning to an overall transgression in the upper parts of the Subbat Member.This study interprets a total of seven facies associations (FAs): i) offshore, ii) wave-dominated delta, iii) shoreface to offshore transition, iv) fluvial channels, v) crevasse splays, vi) paleosol, and vii) estuarine facies associations. In the lower part of the Subbat Member, the wave-dominated delta and shoreface to offshore transitional FAs overlie the marine shelf strata of the offshore FA and develop a RSME. Fluvial channels and crevasse splays FAs are interpreted.Unique assemblages of trace fossils, in terms of intensity and diversity, ranging from the Nereites Ichnofacies to Skolithos Ichnofacies, play a major role in the understanding of the overall water depth and depositional setting. Distinctive terrestrial Prototaxites fossils are present in sheet-like bodies and are interpreted as part of extensive crevasse splays that formed during major river flooding events. This study provides a unique integrated approach using ichnology, sedimentology, and sequence stratigraphy to better understand the spatial and temporal facies distribution of a forced regressive sequence and refine the paleogeography of northern Arabia during Early Devonian time.

A rock art tradition of life-sized, naturalistic engravings of camels in Northern Arabia: new insights on the mobility of Neolithic populations in the Nafud Desert

Among the rock art in Arabia, a little-known Neolithic tradition of large, naturalistic camel depictions stands out. Their geographic distribution and stylistic traits suggest close links with the Camel Site reliefs. Four newly documented panels appear to have been carved by the same individual (or group), tracing repeated movements over hundreds of kilometres.

Following the herds? A new distribution of hunting kites in Southwest Asia

Remote-sensing analysis of open-source satellite imagery has identified a major, new distribution of undocumented hunting kite structures in northern Arabia. This new data has important implications on the environmental viability of hunting and on possible settlement patterns during the early and middle Holocene. Running across the eastern side of the Nafud Desert in Saudi Arabia, this research has identified star-shaped kites in a distribution that continues on to southern Iraq. From a broader perspective, this new distribution appears to represent a continuation of the well-known arc of kites recorded running principally through southern Syria and eastern Jordan. As well as representing an important archaeological identification in its own right, this new distribution also has important implications in terms of the paleoenvironment of the region, faunal dispersals and human cultural connections.

Spatiotemporal climatology of the Arabian Subtropical Anticyclone

ABSTRACT The Arabian Subtropical Anticyclone (ASA) plays an essential role in regulating weather systems over the Arabian Peninsula (Arabia) and adjacent areas. A need exists to document specific details of the spatial and temporal climatology of the ASA. In order to identify the monthly ASA position/center, the local maximum geopotential height (gph) should be located at different vertical levels. The common automated method did not work for the ASA in the warm season and an approach involving wind flow patterns was needed. The ASA was better defined in the lower troposphere in the cool season and in the mid- to upper-troposphere during the warm season. The near surface ASA begins in Aug over northern Arabia and migrates southeast until it reaches the Arabian Sea in Feb. Apr is the onset of the middle-troposphere ASA. From May to Aug, this anticyclone moves to the north with increasing height. The upper-level ASA is located over northeast Arabia in May and goes north in Jun and Jul. Seasonal changes in energy fluxes and atmospheric circulation patterns linked with the Asian Monsoon are identified as possible drivers of the temporal changes in the ASA.

The unexpectedly short Holocene Humid Period in Northern Arabia

The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today’s arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. While this phase is well defined in North Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from Northern Arabia is lacking. Here we fill this gap with unprecedented annually to sub-decadally resolved proxy data from Tayma, the only known varved lake sediments in Northern Arabia. Based on stable isotopes, micro-facies analyses and varve and radiocarbon dating, we distinguish five phases of lake development and show that the wet phase in Northern Arabia from 8800–7900 years BP is considerably shorter than the commonly defined Holocene Humid Period (~11,000–5500 years BP). Moreover, we find a two century-long peak humidity at times when a centennial-scale dry anomaly around 8200 years BP interrupted the Holocene Humid Period in adjacent regions. The short humid phase possibly favoured Neolithic migrations into Northern Arabia representing a strong human response to environmental changes.

The Classification of Bedouin Arabic: Insights from Northern Jordan

The goal of the present paper is to provide a revaluation of the classification of the Bedouin dialects of Northern Arabia and the Southern Levant, based on published or publicly available data and on first-hand data recently collected amongst some Bedouin tribes in Northern Jordan. We suggest extending previous classifications that identify three types of dialects, namely A (ʿnizi), B (šammari), and C (šāwi). Although intermediary or mixed types combining šammari features with šāwi features were already noted, our data suggest that further combinations are possible, either because they had so far been unnoticed or because recent levelling and dialect mixing have blurred the boundaries between some of the varieties.

Life-sized Neolithic camel sculptures in Arabia: A scientific assessment of the craftsmanship and age of the Camel Site reliefs

The life-sized, naturalistic reliefs at the Camel Site in northern Arabia have been severely damaged by erosion. This, coupled with substantial destruction of the surrounding archaeological landscape, has made a chronological assessment of the site difficult. To overcome these problems, we combined results from a wide range of methods, including analysis of surviving tool marks, assessment of weathering and erosion patterns, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and luminescence dating of fallen fragments. In addition, test excavations identified a homogenous lithic assemblage and faunal remains that were sampled for radiocarbon dating. Our results show that the reliefs were carved with stone tools and that the creation of the reliefs, as well as the main period of activity at the site, date to the Neolithic. Neolithic arrowheads and radiocarbon dates attest occupation between 5200 and 5600 BCE. This is consistent with measurements of the areal density of manganese and iron in the rock varnish. The site was likely in use over a longer period and reliefs were re-worked when erosion began to obscure detailed features. By 1000 BCE, erosion was advanced enough to cause first panels to fall, in a process that continues until today. The Camel Site is likely home to the oldest surviving large-scale (naturalistic) animal reliefs in the world.

Western Gondwana imaged by S receiver-functions (SRF): New results on Moho, MLD (mid-lithospheric discontinuity) and LAB (lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary)

We study the Moho, the mid-lithospheric discontinuity (MLD), and the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) from southern Africa to northern Arabia, from Archean cratons to active rifts, at 1° resolution using our comprehensive new database of shear-wave receiver functions (SRFs). The good agreement between the Moho depth obtained from our SRFs and published P-wave receiver function (PRF) results provides confidence that our images of deeper lithospheric discontinuities are robust, including boundaries not normally visible on PRFs. We map the Moho and a deeper negative velocity gradient (NVG) almost everywhere we have data coverage. Our synthetic tests and comparisons of SRFs processed with and without deconvolution, and with varying filter parameters, indicate the observed NVG represents earth structure, not a processing artifact. Depth comparisons with seismic tomography and tectonothermal age studies suggest the NVG represents the MLD beneath Archean cratons but represents the LAB beneath non-cratonic regions. Both preserved crustal thickness and lithospheric thickness in the Nubia-Somalia-Arabia plates are statistically thinner for Phanerozoic and late Proterozoic terranes and older regions reactivated during these eras, than for cratons not reworked since the early Proterozoic or Archean. In contrast, NVG depth is uniform for all tectonothermal ages, though with a possible increase in amplitude with age. The equivalence of NVG depth and LAB depth in Phanerozoic lithosphere suggests that low-wavespeed compositions are frozen into the lithosphere as it thickens by cooling, forming our observed MLD at the present day.