Guest editors’ foreword

This special issue of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy is the result of the conference ‘Archaeological Failaka, Recent and Ongoing Investigations’ organised at the National Library of Kuwait by the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters (NCCAL) of the State of Kuwait and the French Research Center of the Arabian Peninsula (CEFREPA, formerly known as CEFAS) between 26 and 28 November 2019. Not less than 13 articles on the archaeology of Failaka offer an overview of the most recent works on sites dating from its first occupation in the Bronze Age to the late Islamic period. It provides a new insight into the rich history of Failaka – an island explored by Kuwaiti and international teams since the 1950’s and that was connected with Mesopotamia, Iran, the Near East and India – and begin to fill in some gaps, in particular concerning the late Islamic period, the pottery studies, the long-distance trade and the geomorphology of the island.     

Excavations at MR11 on Marawah Island (Abu Dhabi,UAE): new insight into the architecture and planning of Arabian Neolithic settlements and early evidence for pearling

In 1992, an archaeological survey of Marawah Island conducted by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey identified two significant Neolithic settlements known as MR1 and MR11. Both sites are constructed on prominent rocky platforms located towards the western end of the island. In 2000 and 2003, small-scale excavations took place at MR11, with the first full excavation taking place in 2004. Excavations continued at MR11 between 2014 up to 2019. Radiocarbon dating demonstrates that the site was occupied between the earliest part of the sixth millennium to the mid-fifth millennium BC. Three areas have been so far examined. Area A—a tripartite house (2004 and 2014–2017 excavation seasons); Area B—a partial structure (in 2003 and 2017–2018); and Area C—a series of at least five rooms (in 2017–2019). The results provide a valuable new insight into the architecture and planning of Arabian Neolithic settlements in the region, as well as the earliest known evidence for pearling.     

The Use of Desert Kites as Hunting Mega-Traps: Functional Evidence and Potential Impacts on Socioeconomic and Ecological Spheres

Journal of World Prehistory - For almost a century there has been debate on the functional interpretation of desert kites. These archaeological structures have been interpreted as constructions for...     

HDOR 410, a mid-Holocene campsite (Hadramawt, Yemen) and the difficulty of determining cultural tradition

Located in Wâdî Mikhfar, Yemen, the stratified site of HDOR 410 was excavated by the French Archaeological Mission in Jawf-Hadramawt. The site illustrates the co-existence of a form of expediency and a form of complexity in the production of lithics, revealing the presence of industries with low technological visibility (expedient production of flakes) at a time traditionally characterised by marked typological constraints (production of trihedral points).     

Games on the seashore of Salalah: the discovery of mancala games in Dhofar,Sultanate of Oman

During the 2013 fieldwork of the French archaeological mission along the shores of the Arabian Sea, mancala games were discovered on the seashore of Salalah at the site of Ad‐Dahariz. They are cup‐hole carvings made directly into rock slabs and distributed in six distinct zones of the site. They usually consist of fourteen cup‐holes aligned in two lines of seven, two supplementary holes being sometimes present on each side. They are the first of their kind in South Arabia and can be compared to similar configurations of carved games elsewhere in Arabia, such as at Jebel al‐Jassasiya, Qatar. This paper presents the potential origins of this game in the region, as well as a plausible dating of their use.     

The dynamics of mangrove ecosystems,changes in sea level and the strategies of Neolithic settlements along the coast of Oman (6000–3000 cal. BC)

This paper focus on the Holocene palaeogeography of the Ja'alan coast from the 6th to the 4th millennium cal. BC, integrating the dynamics of mangroves, lagoons, khors-estuaries and deltas, with sea-level change and the evidence from Neolithic shell middens. The distribution and maturation of mangrove ecosystems along the Arabian coasts has varied considerably, affected by physical forces such as sea-level changes, climate, tidal amplitude and duration as well as the quantity of fresh water inflow associated with the monsoon systems along the Arabian coast. Palaeo-mangroves and lagoons, today replaced by large sabkhas, appear to be correlated to mid-Holocene fossil deltas and estuaries that currently function episodically, depending on the rhythm of winter rains. All these parameters have determined and impacted the location of settlement networks and the economic strategies of the first Arabian farmers along the eastern Arabian coast. The mid-Holocene sea-level highstand stability (5th millennium BC) can be considered to be an optimum period for mangrove development and can be correlated with Neolithic sites around the mangroves. The decline of mangroves since 3000/2500 cal. BC and further degradation is mainly attributed to the prevailing arid climate that reduced summer monsoon effects in the tropical area by favouring the extension of sabkhas. We discuss these aspects based on new archaeological surveys, excavations and geoarchaeological studies.     

Bidirectional blade technology on naviform cores from northern Arabia: New evidence of Arabian-Levantine interactions in the Neolithic

Discovered in March 2015, the sites of DAJ-112 and DAJ-125 in the Al-Jawf province of northern Saudi Arabia consist of a large collection of surface lithic artefacts that can be compared to well-known Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) B technology from the Levant: the two sites include bidirectional blade technology with naviform core preparation and opposed platforms surface exploitation, as well as burin production at a wide scale. Other surface scatters have been identified during the 2013 and 2015 surveys, showing these two sites are not isolated in Al-Jawf, as rather important occurrences of Early Holocene technology have been identified across the region. Although the sites from Al-Jawf are surface occurrences and not radiometrically dated, the finds have proven to be extremely significant, representing a southward incursion of classic naviform cores-based technology, thus expanding the geographical distribution of this technology beyond the Levant. By addressing the lithic evidence from northern Arabia, the expansion and/or influence of PPN populations and cultural elements will be discussed.