The Middle Palaeolithic of the Nejd,Saudi Arabia

The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as being of great importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. Here we report on the identification of five new Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Nejd of central Arabia and the southern margins of the Nefud Desert to the north. The importance of these sites centers on their diversity in terms of landscape positions, raw materials used for lithic manufacture, and core reduction methods. Our findings indicate multiple hominin dispersals into Arabia and complex subsequent patterns of behavior and demography.     

The decline of eastern Arabia in the Sasanian period

This paper lists and reviews the archaeological evidence for the Sasanian period in eastern Arabia (third–seventh centuries AD). Much of the published evidence is shown to be either erroneous or highly doubtful, leaving very little evidence that is reliable. It is argued that the paucity of evidence in comparison to the Hellenistic/Parthian period indicates that this was a time of marked and continuing decline in the number and size of settlements, the number of tombs and the amount of coinage in circulation, all of which probably result from a population that was both declining in size and participating less in the types of production and consumption that leave discoverable traces in the archaeological record. This is in contrast to the historical evidence, which, although patchy, is stronger for the Sasanian period than it is for the Hellenistic/Parthian period. The argument for decline challenges some generally accepted historical views of eastern Arabia at this time, which see the region as undergoing a notable period of growth. In conclusion, some brief consideration is given to the possible causes of the decline.     

Pearl fishing in the ancient world: 7500 BP

The oldest pearl in the world was found in the United Arab Emirates and dates from 7500 BP. Gemmologists and jewellers have popularised the idea that the oldest pearl in the world is the 5000‐year‐old Jomon pearl from Japan. Discoveries made on the shores of south‐eastern Arabia show this to be untrue, as the archaeological pearls that have been found are 2500 years older. In this region, pearls still hold an important place. Indeed, today they remain a central, identifying element. The discovery of archaeological pearls demonstrates an ancient fishing tradition that no longer exists today.     

A note on the dating of the clay smoking pipes collected in the course of two archaeological surveys conducted in Saudi Arabia: the Comprehensive Survey of Saudi Arabia (1976–1981) and Michael Gilmore’s survey of the Darb al‐Hajj

Several clay smoking pipes (chibouks) were recovered during the course of two archaeological surveys conducted during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Saudi Arabia. At the time these projects took place, no published clay tobacco pipe typologies existed, forcing the participants to assign a cursory date of ‘Ottoman period’ to the pipes. Since then, considerable archaeological research has been done on the Ottoman clay pipe. The following concerns the refining of the dates of these tobacco pipes in light of new studies.     

Polylinear incursions and autochthonous adaptations: Neolithisation and sustainable sedentarisation of the Arabian Peninsula

This contribution’s broad and in parts essayistic approach to Arabia’s Neolithic is less a discussion of findings than an explicit advocacy for future holistic research strategies. Based on the contribution’s meta-theoretical inputs, it suggests two sets of theses to be tested by the hitherto gained fragmentary information and future research on Arabia’s Neolithic. It aims to encourage an “emancipation” of Arabia’s early to mid-Holocene research from conceptions developed outside its regions, and to identify the Neolithic elements and developments of the Arabian lands by distinguishing incursions from primarily autochthonous and/or autonomous adaptations in their own right. It is suggested that productive lifeways are considered to be the only crucial parameter to testify a Neolithic status. In our view this is the case, provokingly enough, for the productive foraging management of natural resources which attests surplus and pre-planning strategies and contacts with established Neolithic socio-economies. Polylinear incursions and autochthonous adaptations are discussed as the two poles between which early to mid-Holocene developments in Arabia took place. A set of basic and a set of trajectory hypotheses on Arabia’s neolithisation and finally sustainable sedentarisation (reliance on oases economies) is presented, offered as a possible framework for future multi-/ transdisciplinary research.     

Specialization and social inequality in Bronze Age SE Arabia: analyzing the development of production strategies and economic networks using agent-based modeling

This paper investigates the role of specialized production strategies in the development of socio-economic inequalities in Bronze Age south-eastern (SE) Arabia, and particularly, the ways in which a localized, internal exchange economy may have produced stress and instability in the SE Arabian socio-economic system. While archaeological research has established that the communities of SE Arabia participated in a widespread Bronze Age exchange system that included areas of the ancient Near East, South Asia, and Central Asia, it is unclear to what degree this interaction fostered the broad-scale socio-economic changes seen in the Early Bronze Age of SE Arabia. Here we present the results of an agent-based model that suggest the nature of the internal exchange economy in SE Arabia itself may have precipitated the social conditions necessary for change by allowing individuals to profit disproportionately. We thus emphasize the importance of local production strategies in generating socio-economic change, in addition to the well-established economic and cultural contacts with the wider Bronze Age world.     

Food for eternity? The analysis of a date offering from a 3rd millennium BC grave at Hili N,Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

Ever since the early 3rd millennium BC the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) has played an important role in eastern Arabia where its remains, in the form of seeds, fruits and stem fragments, are preserved on numerous archaeological sites. The recent discovery of a carbonised mass of pitted dates in a collective burial pit from the end of the Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2200–2000 BC) at Hili (United Arab Emirates) constitutes the earliest example of a food preparation involving this species. The present paper describes the discovery and identification of this unique offering before addressing the question of its significance in a funeral context in Bronze Age Arabia.     

The Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project: a first look at the Peter B. Cornwall Collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

This article presents an overview of the Peter B. Cornwall collection in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Cornwall conducted an archaeological survey and excavation project in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1940 and 1941. At least twenty‐four burial features were excavated in Bahrain from five different tumuli fields, and surface survey and artefact collection took place on at least sixteen sites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The skeletal evidence, objects and faunal remains were subsequently accessioned by the Hearst Museum. The authors recently formed the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project to investigate this collection. This article provides background information on Cornwall’s expedition and an overview of the collection. Additionally, skeletal evidence and associated objects from two tumuli in Bahrain, D1 and G20, are presented to illustrate the collection’s potential contribution. Although the tumuli’s precise locations cannot be determined, associated objects help assign relative dates to these interments at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the Early Dilmun Period.     

Kites — new discoveries and a new type

The stone structures known as kites and found widely in ‘Arabia’, are one of the more intriguing archaeological traces in what are often arid and bleak landscapes. They were first reported from the air in 1927, and by 1995 — largely through interpretation of old aerial photographs — c.500 had been identified. Now (2012), remote‐sensing techniques of various kinds have produced a huge increase, to over 3000. Recent work has also extended the geographical spread of kites in ‘Arabia’, from south‐eastern Turkey and north‐western Iraq to central Yemen. Much detailed work will be required to develop and refine a typology for kites as a whole and to digest and present data from remote sensing on which specialists may build interpretations and explanations. Current tabulation and mapping, however, already reveal patterns, and the discovery of an unusual form in the desert between Damascus and Palmyra in Syria deserves special attention.     

Google earth and the archaeology of Saudi Arabia. A case study from the Jeddah area

Archaeologically, Saudi Arabia is one of the least explored parts of the Middle East. Now, thanks to Google Earth satellite imagery, a number of high-resolution ‘windows’ have been opened onto the landscape. Initial investigations already suggest large parts of the country are immensely rich in archaeological remains and most of those identified are certainly pre-Islamic and probably several thousand years old. Detailed interpretation of one ‘window’ east of Jeddah forms the basis for illustrating the richness of the heritage and how the satellite imagery can be exploited to shed important light on the character and development of the human landscape. Through this ‘window’ we set out a proposed methodology for future work and where it may lead.     

Kites of AlUla County and the Ḥarrat ʿUwayriḍ, Saudi Arabia

A comprehensive remote sensing survey of AlUla County in north-west Saudi Arabia has revealed 32 examples of the ancient, stone-built animal traps known as ‘kites’. Noting that most (27) are located on the Ḥarrat ʿ Uwayriḍ, a satellite survey of parts of that lavafield outside of AlUla County was undertaken, identifying a further 175 kites. These show commonalities with ‘V-shaped’ kites previously identified in mountainous areas along the western extents of the Arabian Shield in the Sinai Peninsula, Negev Desert and south-west Saudi Arabia. A study of the form and placement of these kites in their ecological and geological contexts suggests that they are representative of a distinct complex, exhibiting sophisticated morphological adaptations to target specific games over similar terrain.     

Optically stimulated luminescence dating of the city wall system of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia)

In addition to a series of chronological markers (artefacts, pottery) in the archaeological contexts of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques were applied to generate reliable ages for the city wall system of the oasis. A massive aeolian sand deposit burying the oldest part of the outer wall of Tayma was sampled to obtain a minimum age for the construction of this wall. The sequence of OSL ages from the inactive dune (ID) (4900 ± 300 a, 5100 ± 400 a, 4400 ± 300 a, 3900 ± 200 a, 4000 ± 200 a) is in full accordance with ¹⁴C-AMS ages of charcoal embedded into the same dune (4190–4420 cal BP, 3870–4080 cal BP). Underlying alluvial samples from the inactive gravel sheet (IGS) in contrast give maximum ages for the construction which scatter between 6600 ± 300 a and 4900 ± 400 a. The new dating sequence provides evidence that the oldest part of the ancient city wall system already existed in the 2nd half of the 3rd mill. BC which is earlier than expected thus far from archaeological and architectural interpretation.     

A Neolithic innovation in eastern Arabia: haematite axes and adzes

Well before metallurgy, Neolithic societies in the Gulf were engaging in a very peculiar form of metal object production, particularly of axes and adzes made from haematite. In the heart of the Neolithic Middle East, this innovation was specific to Arabian shores between the Musandam and Qatar peninsulas. Quite infrequent among Neolithic lithic assemblages from Arabia, axes and adzes were mostly collected on the surface of domestic settlements. One is often dealing with objects to which the most focus has been given, apart from arrowheads and projectile points. Several sites or outcrops are present on the Emirati coastline and Gulf islands. Inland mountain ranges also include some of these. From Ra’s al-Khaimah to Qatar, only 500 km separate the most distant Neolithic domestic settlements which possess haematite axes or hoes, a distance that is quite small when one considers the circulation of polished stone blades in other societies of the same period. Within the Middle East, south-eastern Arabia during the Neolithic engaged in a very original means of production of metal objects, as the latter did not focus on copper, a very malleable and much more available material, but on haematite, which was much harder.     

Understanding Saudi Arabia's Influence on Pakistan: The Case of the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism

The launch of the Saudi‐led so‐called Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism (IMAFT) in 2015 tested the strong strategic alliance between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In light of concerns about the positioning of the coalition of 41 states against Iranian interests in the Middle East, Pakistan's initial response to the Saudi demand to join the war in Yemen was a polite refusal by means of a unanimous decision of the parliament. However, under tremendous pressure from Riyadh and other Gulf States, Islamabad later capitulated and backtracked from its initial decision. This paper analyses the unique nature of the relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia through a dissection of the various dimensions of the Kingdom's cultural and political influence on Pakistan. It also illuminates Saudi hegemonic strategies and the manner in which Islamabad adjusts and is influenced as well as coerced to revise its foreign policy choices. This paper argues that Saudi's diplomatic strategies, political pressure and pledges of generous financial assistance ensured Pakistan's participation in IMAFT.     

Southwest Arabia During the Holocene: Recent Archaeological Developments

Recent fieldwork has considerably increased our knowledge of early Holocene settlement in Southwest Arabia. Neolithic settlement occurred within an environmental context of increased monsoonal moisture that continued during the mid-Holocene. A now well-attested Bronze Age exemplified by village- and town-scale settlements occupied by sedentary farmers developed toward the end of the mid-Holocene moist interval. The high plateau of Yemen was an early focus for the development of Bronze Age complex society, the economy of which relied upon terraced rain-fed and runoff agriculture. On the fringes of the Arabian desert, the precursors of the Sabaean literate civilization have been traced back to between 3600 and 2800 B.P., and even earlier, so that a virtually continuous archaeological record can now be described for parts of Yemen. In contrast to the highlands these societies relied upon food production from large-scale irrigation systems dependent upon capricious wadi floods. Bronze Age settlement, while showing some links with the southern Levant, now shows equal or stronger linkages with the Horn of Africa across the Red Sea. Although some regions of Yemen show breaks in occupation, others show continuity into the Sabaean period when a series of major towns grew up in response to the incense trade with the north. It is now clear that these civilizations grew up on the foundations of earlier Bronze Age complex societies.     

High‐resolution geospatial surveying techniques provide new insights into rock‐art landscapes at Shuwaymis,Saudi Arabia

Many parts of the Arabian Peninsula contain rock art that has received minimal archaeological attention or has not yet been thoroughly surveyed. In 2001 an extensive rock‐art complex called Shuwaymis, Ha'il Province, Saudi Arabia was brought to the attention of the Saudi General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. This paper sets out the results of the first high‐resolution geospatial mapping and recording of rock art at this remote site. The research saw the innovative use of a differential GPS to record rock‐art panels to within 5 mm of accuracy at the site of Shuwaymis‐2, the first time that such technology has been used to record rock art in the Arabian Peninsula. With such technology it was possible to show which of eighty‐three late prehistoric rock‐art panels surveyed were in their original position and which had fallen, and to demonstrate that there was spatial homogeneity of rock‐art styles and composition across the site. The mapping recorded multiple panels of cattle, ibex, equid, large cat and other animals. The depictions of lions and cattle in particular indicate that the rock art must have been engraved no later than the early Holocene humid phase (c.10–6 ka BP).     

The PalaeoEnvironments and ARchaeological Landscapes (PEARL) project: Recent findings from Neolithic sites in Northern Oman

The PalaeoEnvironments and ARchaeological Landscapes (PEARL) research project is a joint German–British project with the principal objective of developing a framework of past human occupation and landscape change in south-eastern Arabia. Fieldwork during 2018 and 2019 involved the systematic survey and excavation of sites in the Rustaq and Ibri regions of Northern Oman, with the aim of establishing the nature and timing of human occupation and landscape change during the Early Holocene period (c. 10,000–7,000 years BP). Further to the findings previously reported, results from recent excavations of the site Hayy al-Sarh in Rustaq revealed the presence of animal remains, stone and shell beads and stone structures, indicating a large Neolithic settlement with burial areas. In addition, preliminary excavations at a rock shelter site near Ibri have revealed stratified archaeological remains, including a Fasad-type assemblage. Future fieldwork will further develop archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records to help build a framework for studying cultural and natural developments in Northern Oman.