Seminar for Arabian Studies

Abstracts - 2007 Seminar

The 2007 Seminar for Arabian Studies will be held at the British Museum in London from Thursday 19th - Saturday 21st July 2007.

This is supported by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Visit their website at: www.mbifoundation.com and read details about their sponsorship at http://www.mbifoundation.com/mbi-foundation-projects/seminar-for-arabian-studies.html

All lectures will be held in the Stevenson Auditorium in the Clore Centre within the British Museum. Click here to view the provisional timetable for the 2006 Seminar.

Please click here (Microsoft Word format, 45 Kb) for a booking form for the 2007 Seminar and Accommodation.

*NEW* download a poster form - please email us this form as soon as possible if you plan to present a poster at the 2007 Seminar. Posters will be placed in screens approximately 1.8m tall and 1m wide so please size your presentation accordingly.

All the abstracts below are for papers which are to be orally presented at the Seminar, except where otherwise stated.

*NEW* View the abstracts for the Posters which have been already offered.

THURSDAY 19 JULY 2007

9:00 Registration

9:30 Welcome - Neil MACGREGOR (Director, British Museum, UK)

SESSION 1 - EASTERN ARABIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
Chair: Lloyd WEEKS (University of Nottingham, UK)


9:40 - New research on the Bronze Age cemeteries at Bat, Oman. Manfred BOEHME (Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman), Gerd WEISGERBER (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Germany), Biubwa AL SABRI and Sultan AL BAKRI (Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman).

Contact details:

Boehme, Manfred (bat_restoration@yahoo.com)
Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, PO Box 668, Muscat 113, Sultanate of Oman

Weisgerber, Gerd (gerd.weisgerber@bergbaumuseum.de)
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Am Bergbaumuseum 28, D-44791 Bochum, Germany

Biographies:
Manfred Boehme (1963) studied archaeology in Muenster/Westphalia and currently lives in Weimar. He has participated in excavations for the Departments of Archaeology in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. His research interests are in Iron copper smelting in Thuringia and the archaeology of medieval towns. Since 2004 he has been involved in excavation and restoration work at the Bat site, Sultanate of Oman.
Gerd Weisgerber has been working since 1973 as a mining archaeologist at the German Mining Museum at Bochum. His study focuses on the ancient mining of flint and metals and of metallurgy in Europe and the Near East. His main interests are in mineralogical (ores and rocks) and biological raw materials as well as ancient games. His main region of activity is Oman and Jordan.

Al Sabri, Biubwa

Al Bakri, Sultan

Abstract:
At Bat near Ibri is the largest and best preserved Chalcolithic and Bronze Age necropolis of Oman and has survived nearly 5000 years. Together with a great number of fortification towers, settlements and irrigation installations for agricultural cultivation they form a rare ensample of cultural relics. The area has been the subject of successful archaeological research since the early 1970s. As consequence, the Ministry of Heritage and Culture has protected the site and in 1988 it was registered by UNESCO as a World Heritage Monument.
The careful tomb by tomb registration has lead to the discovery of many more tombs, unknown tomb constructions and topographical positions, and especially of younger periods not yet known at the site before. Excavations could clarify the function of the separating walls in the large Umm an Nar tombs. Spectacular new finds reinforce the well known connection of ancient Magan with Mesopotamia, Iran and India and also with the hinterland behind the Oman mountain range.
The fortunate preservation of building remains have allowed a reconstruction of a large Umm an Nar tomb thus illustrating the efforts of the Omani Government for this UNESCO protected site. The work will continue.

10:05 - Wadi Settlement at Northern Oman: Towards a Model for Settlement Quantification. Nasser AL JAHWARI (Department of Archaeology, Durham University, UK)

Contact details:
Al-Jahwari, Nasser Said (buraimi75@hotmail.com)
Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, DH1 3LE, UK

Biography:
In 1997, I graduated with a BA degree from the Department of Archaeology at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. In 2001, I was awarded my MA degree from the University of Sheffield. Since September 2001, I have been working as a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Sultan Qaboos University. Currently, I am doing my PhD at Durham University. My major interest is field survey and excavation, mainly within Landscape Archaeology.

Abstract:
Many field surveys in Europe and the Mediterranean apply systematic methodologies of fieldwalking and surface survey sampling techniques. This is in order to provide a good understanding of artefact density and distribution and of quantified settlement changes over time. In the cultivated areas of the Arabian Gulf, particularly the Oman Peninsula, it is difficult to apply these techniques, which were developed for the ploughed fields of Europe and the Mediterranean. This is because of the distinct patterns of occupation and the high degree of land disturbance caused by date palm agriculture. In addition, unlike in Europe and the Mediterranean, where archaeological sites can be easily identified on the surface, the Oman Peninsula is characterised largely by wadi settlement concentrated along wadi banks. In order to quantify settlement it is important to develop a sampling methodology that is capable of taking into consideration the peculiarities of such a landscape. For the above mentioned reasons, the author has developed a sampling technique that suits such a landscape. This paper will outline this technique, which is based on surveying some selected small wadi settlements and their surrounding areas, as well as control areas near and around wadi systems. The method allows for the collection of data that is suitable for quantified analysis that in turn allows analysis of differing levels of activity and settlement over time. It will also present the emerging pattern from the analysis of the collected data and will attempt to interpret the emerging change in the level of activity between these different periods.
The results show that the general picture from the wadi villages and their surroundings along the banks of Wadi Andam and its hills demonstrates that the most represented evidence is that dated to the Islamic period, mainly Late Islamic. More precisely, among the pre-Islamic periods, the Umm an-Nar and the Late Iron Age are the most represented periods. On the contrary, the pattern indicates that there is very little evidence from the Wadi Suq, Early Iron Age and Early Islamic periods. This pattern suggests that these villages and their surroundings were largely occupied already during the Umm an-Nar and Iron Age periods as well as the later Islamic periods. It also shows that there is a decline in occupation during the Wadi Suq, Early Iron Age and Early Islamic periods. This relative change in the level of activity is the basic pattern, although it is complicated to some extent by tombs, which appear to indicate a slightly different trend. The evidence demonstrates that the majority of Umm an-Nar, Wadi Suq and Early Iron Age evidence comes much more commonly from tombs. It also indicates that evidence for settlement during the Wadi Suq and Early Iron Age periods is almost absent, indicating that there was perhaps a considerable cultural change in the settlement pattern at Wadi Andam during these periods. There is, however, some evidence for the use of tombs during the Wadi Suq Period. These tombs could be the remains of small nomadic or semi-nomadic populations who perhaps used some places as burial grounds for their dead on the edges or away from the previous wadi villages. On the other hand, the large evidence of Umm an-Nar and Late Iron Age from both tombs and occupational areas indicates that the study area was extensively inhabited during these periods, pointing to a sedentary way of life.

10:30 - Human Behavior and Ceramic Correlates in SE Arabian Iron Age. Crystal FRITZ (Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, USA)

Contact details:
Fritz, Crystal (crystal.fritz@gmail.com)
Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, Box 1667, 101 N. Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, USA

Biography:
Crystal is a PhD candidate in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. She is currently working on her dissertation, which is concerned with Iron Age ceramics from the UAE, under the supervision of Peter Magee.

Abstract:
In this paper I will present the preliminary results of my on-going doctoral research. This research examines the ceramic correlations of specific human behaviours attested at a number of functionally-specific sites in the United Arab Emirates. These include Iron Age nomadic or at least non-sedentary campsites at Muweilah, a shell-midden field and campsites at Hamriya, burial sites in the Wadi-al-Qawr and an elite building at Muweilah.
In amassing data from these sites, I have sought to address questions of the manner in which the different functions of each of these sites may be reflected in the functions and origin of the ceramic corpus. The latter is addressed through a program of detailed ICP-MS and INAA data. Specifically, I will focus on the role of non-sedentary groups and the relationships between mountain, inland and coastal sites.
When complete, the research will not only illuminate an important artifact-behaviour relationship in southeast Arabian prehistory but will also serve as a model for other regions that are characterized by the interaction of different forms of human occupation.

10.55-11.30 - Coffee

11:30 - Excavations at Muweilah (Sharjah, UAE). Peter MAGEE (Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, USA).

Contact details:
Magee, Peter (pmagee@brynmawr.edu)
Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, 101 North Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA, 19010, USA

Biography:
Peter Magee received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1996 and is currently associate professor of near eastern archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. He has excavated in Greece, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

Abstract:
Since last reporting on the excavations at Muweilah, three seasons of excavation have been conducted at this Iron Age settlement. These excavations have revealed a wealth of data attesting to the wide- ranging contacts which this settlement maintained. In this paper we focus on two aspects of this work. Firstly, we present new geochemical data achieved through ICP-MS that highlights Muweiah's position within ceramic production and exchange at a regional and inter-regional level. Secondly, we detail stratigraphic and architectural data which when combined with C14 dates graphically illustrates the rapid pace of growth within the settlement within a tightly controlled relative and chronological sequence. Such data is of particularly importance given some recent challenges issued to the chronology of this site and Iron Age settlements throughout southeastern Arabia.

11:55 - Two seasons of research at al-Hamriya. Results of a joint Bryn Mawr College - University of Tübingen research project. Peter MAGEE (Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, USA), Marc HANDEL (Instititut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Tuebingen, Germany), Don BARBER (Department of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, USA), Margarethe UERPMANN & Hans-Peter UERPMANN (Instititut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Tuebingen, Germany), Crystal FRITZ (Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, USA) and Sabah A. JASIM (Director of Antiquities, Sharjah).

Contact details:

Magee, Peter (pmagee@brynmawr.edu)
Department of Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, 101 North Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA, 19010, USA

Händel, Marc (marc.haendel@gmx.de)
Instititut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Schloss Hohentübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

Barber, Don (dbarber@brynmawr.edu)
Department of Geology, Bryn Mawr College, 101 North Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA, 19010, USA

Uerpmann, Margarethe (margarethe.uerpmann@uni-tuebingen.de)
Instititut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Schloss Hohentübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

Uerpmann, Hans-Peter (Hans-peter.uerpmann@uni-tuebingen.de)
Instititut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Schloss Hohentübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Fritz, Crystal (crystal.fritz@gmail.com)
Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College, Box 1667, 101 N. Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, USA

Jasim, Sabah A. (sjasim@archaeology.gov.ae)
Directorate of Antiquities, Department of Culture & Information, PO Box 5119, Sharjah, UAE

Biographies:

Peter Magee received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1996 and is currently associate professor of near eastern archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. He has excavated in Greece, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

Marc Händel is a graduate engineer with the additional degree of a technician for archaeology I have had a rather unusual approach to my profession. I have been working in the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE) since 2001 with the archaeological team of the University of Tübingen, first as leading field technician and later as field director for Neolithic sites at Jebel Buhais and Jebel Faya. Since 2005 I
have been involved in the joint Bryn Mawr College - University of Tübingen research project, working as field director for the sites of Hamriya and Tell Abraq.

Don Barber is a marine sedimentologist who uses geochemical and geophysical techniques to analyze Quaternary deposits to address research questions in paleoceanography, global climate change, coastal processes and archaeology. Barber is Associate Professor of Geology on the Clowes Fund for Science and Public Policy, and he directs the Environmental Studies program at Bryn Mawr College. http://www.brynmawr.edu/geology/dbarber

Margarethe Uerpmann studied Prehistoric Archaeology at the Universities of Munich, Freiburg and Tubingen, with specialisation on Neolithic flint technology and on Holocene archaeozoology. Areas of study are Central Europe, Iberia, Turkey, Caucasia and SE-Arabia.

Hans-Peter Uerpmann has been working in SE-Arabia since the 80s; mainly with regard to the Neolithic period, but also extending to the Metal Ages with regard to environmental history and Archaeozoology. Fieldwork has concentrated on the Emirate of Sharjah during the last decade in close cooperation with the local Directorate of Antiquities.

Crystal Fritz is a PhD candidate in the department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. She is currently working on her dissertation, which is concerned with Iron Age ceramics from the UAE, under the supervision of Peter Magee.

Dr Sabah Jasim is the Director of the Department of Antiquities in Sharjah, UAE and has directed or contributed to all the major archaeological projects in the region.

Abstract:
Between 2005 and 2007 a team of researchers from Bryn Mawr College, the University of Tübingen and the Directorate of Antiquities (Sharjah) carried out survey and excavation focussing on the extensive shell midden located at al-Hamriya in the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE). Although this site had been noted before by researchers, the full extent and chronology of these middens was not evident until an extensive topographic and artifactual survey was conducted. When combined with C14 dating of shells and newly obtained data from the renewed excavations at Tell Abraq, it is clear that the site holds the potential to provide a wealth of data. The artifactual and bioarchaeological data gathered thus far by the project will be detailed in this lecture and illustrate that the project has already come someway in achieving its goals of highlighting the past lifeways of those who seasonally occupied the coastal areas of the northern UAE.

12:20 - The Bahrain Burial Mound Project. Steffen Terp LAURSEN and Kasper Lambert JOHANSEN (both Department of Oriental Archaeology, Moesgård Museum, Denmark)

Contact details:

Laursen, Steffen Terp (Steffen@terp-laursen.dk)
Department of Oriental Archaeology, Moesgård Museum, DK-8270 Højbjerg, Denmark

Johansen, Kasper Lambert (kalj@dmu.dk)
Department of Oriental Archaeology, Moesgård Museum, DK-8270 Højbjerg, Denmark

Biographies:

Steffen Terp Laursen has an MA in pre-historic archaeology and computers for Archaeologists from the University of Aarhus. He has studied Bronze Age barrows in Denmark and his PhD research is on the burial mounds of Bahrain. Main interests: Monuments, burial praxis, long-term structures, social networks, aerial photos, prehistoric landscapes and GIS.

Kasper Lambert Johansen has an MA in pre-historic archaeology and computers for Archaeologists from the University of Aarhus. He currently works at the University of Aarhus's Centre for monitoring of climate change in the Polar Regions (DMU).

Abstract:
The beginning of archaeology in Bahrain was inspired by the vast burial mound cemeteries, but the picture we have today of the Early Dilmun period is mainly due to excavations in the capital of Dilmun, Qala'at al-Bahrain, the temples at Barbar and the settlement at Saar. v
During the last 50 years the majority of burial mounds have been removed to make way for roads and housing, and in this process about 8000 mounds have been excavated; of these only c. 265 have been published. In 2006 the Bahrain Directorate for Culture & National Heritage and Moesgaard Museum decided on a collaborative project focussed on the Bahrain burial mounds.
Within the framework of the Burial Mound Project aerial photos from 1959 have been orto-rectified and geo-referenced and so far a GIS-based digital map representing more than 60.000 mounds have been completed. With respect to the thousands of excavated mounds the huge process of linking relevant information to the mounds have been initiated in the course of which excavation data of individual monument is being fed into a relational database.
Our preliminary study of the digital maps of the mound cemeteries has revealed an abundance of interesting patterns that immediately gave rise to puzzling new questions that will direct the future explorations of the project. Of particular interest is a distinctive new type of elite monuments situated to the south of the so-called Royal Mounds in the centre of the island. The newly discovered type of mounds apparently reflect an elite segment of society from around 2200-2050 BC and indicate the emergence of social stratification prior the development of the Dilmun kingdom.
The project is carried out by Steffen T. Laursen, Kasper L. Johansen and Flemming Højlund.

12.45-14.00 - Lunch

SESSION 2. YEMENI ARCHAEOLOGY
Chair: Nadia DURRANI (Current World Archaeology, UK)


14:00 - Mapping Incipient Irrigation in Wadi Sana, Hadramawt. Michael HARROWER (Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada)

Contact details:
Harrower, Michael (m.harrower@utoronto.ca)
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada

Biography:
Michael Harrower is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. His recently completed PhD examined the origins of irrigation in Southwest Arabia focusing on Geographic Information Systems analyses of irrigation in Wadi Sana. His continuing research in Yemen and Ethiopia concentrates on transitions to agriculture, settlement patterning, and territoriality.

Abstract:
Irrigation systems of Yemen's famous ancient states have attracted considerable research attention but far less is known about their smaller-scale predecessors. Irrigation systems are notoriously difficult to date and in areas with millennia of land-use archaeologists face many challenges in distinguishing modern and historic from very ancient systems. This paper reports results of archaeological survey and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses of early irrigation in Wadi Sana, Hadramawt. Confirming comparable dates in western Yemen, radiocarbon assays place the earliest irrigation in Wadi Sana during the 6th millennium cal. BP. A satellite imagery-derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) used to model surface water flow sheds new light on techniques employed, and associated results of the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) Research Project help illustrate the long-term societal contexts in which locally-tailored irrigation originated.

14:25 - Ancient Irrigation in Wâdî Jirdân, Yemen. Ueli BRUNNER (Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Contact details:
Brunner, Ueli (ueli_brunner@bluewin.ch)
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland

Biography:
As a geographer I have been working in the Yemen since 1979 mostly in cooperation with the German Archaeological Institute. My main subjects of interest are ancient irrigation, remote sensing and mapping in the regions of Ma'rib, Wâdî Markhah and Lahj. Further experience has been gained in Balotchistan and Eritrea.

Abstract:
Wâdî Jirdân is one of the few valleys at the eastern fringe of the Ramlat as-Sab'atayn. It is located fifty kilometres south of Shabwa, the ancient capital of Hadhramawt. The valley runs from east to west. The most important archaeological sites are al-Barîra and al-Binâ'. The planning of a pipeline gave the opportunity to study the small oasis of Darbas in detail and to map two impressive canals that were cut into the surrounding hills of Wâdî Sa'da. The shorter one, called Naqb, forms a gorge that is 350m long, 5m wide and 20m deep. Nuqub, the other canal, is 740 m long, 20 m wide at its top with a mean depth of about 4 m. An ancient field wall that is covered by the dugout of Nuqub but runs over the hewn-out material of Naqb allowed a relative dating. Therefore Nuqub is older than Naqb. Naqb itself can be related to the South Arabian period due to a short inscription that has been found.
The oasis of Darbas is a clearly defined irrigation unit of 120ha. The ancient irrigation led to silt accumulations of up to seven metres. Two different irrigation schemes can be detected, an older, feeder-like system on the lower level and a rectangular one at the surface. The stone structures of the two schemes that served to divide the flow of the canals show a difference in architecture. The layout of the younger system can be traced almost completely. Further signs of the former irrigation are tree rings, ploughing furrows and field walls on the surface of the silt sediments.
The research of the small irrigation oasis of Darbas is another piece in the reconstruction of the puzzle of the South Arabian hydraulic civilisations. Comparative material exists from many large wadis of Yemen such as Jawf, Dhana, Juba, Bayhân, Markha or 'Irma. The comparison shows that the irrigation scheme of Darbas is closest to the one in Wâdî Markha.

14:50 - Latest results, new dating and recent evidence for the fortifications of Shabwa (Hadhramawt). Christian DARLES (Les Métiers de l'Histoire de l'Architecture, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Toulouse, France)

Contact details:
Darles, Christian (christian.darles@toulouse.archi.fr)
Les Métiers de l'Histoire de l'Architecture, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Toulouse, 83 rue Aristide Maillol, BP 10629, 31106 Toulouse Cedex 1, France

Biography:
Architecte, professeur à l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Toulouse, directeur du laboratoire 'Les Métiers de l'Histoire de l'Architecture, archéologie du patrimoine Bâti', membre de la mission archéologique française de Shabwa, en République du Yémen.

Abstract:
The research undertaken since 2002, on the urbanism and fortifications of Shabwa allows a better understanding of the relationships between the occupation of the town, the domestic architecture and the three lines of curtain-walls. Its over-large wall-circuits of 3417m, difficult to defend, do not seem to be designed to counter a specific threat but rather to repel brigands and nomads. Thus, the first line protected herds and caravans in an area of 53.9ha (37,1 of flat ground and 2.6km of perimeter). The second, lying within the line of the first, enclosed the town 'intra-muros' with its high-status buildings, originally constructed on a flat site. The area of 15,5 ha is enclosed by a wall of 1.6km. From the 7th/6th century B.C. this wall enclosed pre-existing independent, fortified structures, which gad grouped together since the 2nd millennium B.C.; it then later expanded to include an important extra-mural building under the later royal palace, this latter only acquiring its status once it became part of the town. Later still, the citadel, so far independent, became part of a third circuit which developed up to the valley, to the south. This new area of 3.7ha is enclosed with a wall of 820m. Dating of the mortars shows they were present from the 6th century B.C. (temple 44), and they are also to be founding the walls, near gate N°6, with a 14C date of the 4th century B.C.

Biographies:

Dr. Krista Lewis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA. She has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in Yemen since 1998, concentrating on the highland mountains and the Red Sea coast in the early historic period.

Dr. Lamya Khalidi received her Ph.D at the University of Cambridge in 2006. Her dissertation focused on late prehistoric culture-contact along the Tihamah Red Sea coastal plain, Yemen. Besides her work with the Dhamar Survey Project in the Yemen highlands, she has directed four survey projects in Yemen, as well as a reconnaissance mission in Eritrea. Other current projects include the Franco-Italian Paleo-Y mission, Yemen, and excavations at the sites of Tell Hamoukar and Tell Brak, Syria. She is currently an associate researcher at the Centre Français d’Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales in Sanaa (CEFAS), Yemen.

Abstract:
The highland site of Masna'at Maryah is well known in the corpus of early historic sites in Yemen --- mainly due to epigraphic sources and its impressive urban character. Until recently, however, the site and its surrounding landscape remained relatively uninvestigated. Several seasons of survey and excavation have now provided a much fuller picture of land use and chronological development for the area. Our work has revealed complex strategies of urban and regional planning and resource extraction for the early historic Himyarite occupation, as well as confirmed human use of the area as early as the mid-Holocene. In several seasons of intensive survey in the area we have recorded a large number of key sites and landscape features including the documentation and sampling of a significant obsidian source. Our detailed mapping within the urban centre itself affords insight into Himyarite urban planning strategies, architectural patterns, and relationships to other early historic towns. We will discuss the implications of these findings for the highland archaeological record and for their insight into highland-lowland interaction spheres in southern Arabia.

16:10 - The complexity of the Peristyle Hall: Remarks on the history of construction based on recent archaeological and epigraphic evidence of the AFSM expedition to the Awam Temple in Marib, Yemen. Zaid ZAYDOON and Mohammed MARAQTEN (both American Foundation for the Study of Man, USA)

Contact details:

Zaid, Zaydoon (zaydoon@web.de)
American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM), PO Box 2136, Falls Church, VA 22042, USA

Maraqten, Mohammed (maraqten@staff.uni-marburg.de)
American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM), PO Box 2136, Falls Church, VA 22042, USA

Biographies:

Zaydoon Zaid has a Masters degree in Archaeology and a PhD from the Department of History of Architecture at the Technical University of Aachen, Germany. He has been involved in the archaeology of Jordan and Yemen for the last 20 years. His current fieldwork in Yemen focuses on temples Architecture, especially, the Awam in Marib.

Abstract:
The Awam temple is one of the most significant architectural complexes in ancient South Arabia. The architectural complex components present a high quality of style and techniques.
Part of the Temple has been excavated during the 1951-52 AFSM expedition led by Wendell Phillips. The 1951-52 AFSM activities concentrated on the Peristyle Hall. The sand-filled Peristyle Hall was re-excavated in 2004 as part of the renewal of work started in 1998 under the direction of Merilyn Philips Hodgson.
The results of the excavation of the Peristyle Hall in the 1950 were published by F. P. Albright. " Excavations at Mârib in Yemen ". In: Bowen, R. & Albright F. (eds.), Archaeological Discoveries in South-Arabia, Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man II, 1958, Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins Press, pp. 215-268. Actually F. Albright did not use inscriptions that have been discovered in Peristyle Hall for the dating of the structure. At the same time A. Jamme (Sabaean Inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis (Marib), Publications for the American Foundation for the Study of Man III, 1962, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press) gave only very little information about the location of the inscriptions in Peristyle Hall. However, the contribution of the inscriptions for dating the Peristyle Hall is very significant.
The Peristyle Hall is a truncated shaped rectangle with a north-west to south-east orientation. Its walls have headers and stretchers in the manner of a casemate, similar to a technique used in the construction of the Oval Wall. Some of the headers are visible above the flat sides flanking the false windows on the hall's interior. A close study of the Peristyle Hall floor revealed different floor types. The latest floor covering 1/2 of the total floor area consisted of refitted and reused blocks. Some are simple masonry blocks; others are decorated blocks or re-used Sabaean inscriptions.
It has been suggested that Peristyle Hall was built in the 5th century B.C. The recent excavation proves several phases of this building. The discovery of more than 300 inscriptions in the Peristyle Hall primarily in situ or reused in pavement or other small structures would help us to study and reconsider the dating of this part of the temple. Meanwhile, the discovery of a new inscription in the Annex, i.e. the area between the eight pillars and the Peristyle Hall is very significant for the dating of Peristyle Hall. This inscription mentions the mukarrib Yada'Il Dharih (ca. 660 B.C.).
The purpose of this joined paper is to present the different architectural phases of the construction of the Peristyle Hall and to give some remarks on their dating based on the inscriptions relating to them. This will prepared by Zaydon Zaid, AFSM Archaeological Architect. The chronology of the inscriptions will be presented by Mohammed Maraqten, AFSM field epigrapher.

16:35 - Women's inscriptions recently discovered by the AFSM at the Awam Temple/ Mahram Bilqis in Marib, Yemen. Mohammed MARAQTEN (American Foundation for the Study of Man, USA)

Contact details:
Maraqten, Mohammed (maraqten@staff.uni-marburg.de)
American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM), PO Box 2136, Falls Church, VA 22042, USA

Abstract:
The AFSM, under the direction of Mrs. Merilyn Phillips Hodgson, has been excavating at the Awam temple since 1998. These archaeological activities serve as a continuance of the efforts of Wendell Phillips carried out at the Mahram Bilqis of the 1950es. Nine seasons (1998-2006) of excavation have now been carried out in the AFSM's renewed efforts, and discoveries contain new buildings outside the ovoid wall of the temple and uncovering the Peristyle Hall, part of the entrance area of the temple to the west side of the Peristyle Hall, the Annex, i.e. the area between the eight pillars and the Peristyle Hall as well as the West Gate. In addition, a part of the area inside the oval wall, near to the entrance between the Peristyle Hall and the oval wall has been also excavated.
Hitherto, more that 450 Sabaean inscriptions have been discovered in the recent archaeological excavations of the AFSM. The majority of the texts recovered from the temple are dedicatory. However, legal, religious, literary texts as well as texts dedicated by women have been found. These new inscriptions increase not only our knowledge of the Sabaic language in general, but also contribute important data to the cultural, social, and political history of ancient Yemen.
About 15 inscriptions mention that women made dedications to the god Almaqah, lord of Awam. These inscriptions are dealing primarily with health case of women such as giving birth or thanksgiving for getting children. Some of them record some information about the status of women such as that a woman was 'a servant' of the king or a 'priest of Almaqah. Women also are mentioned in legal texts and in the so-called confession inscriptions.
The purpose of this paper is to give a general report about inscriptions that mention dedications of women and their content in addition to an overview of other inscriptions mentioning women in their general context. Furthermore, one text of women's inscriptions will be selected and presented. A reading and translation of the selected text will be delivered.

17:00 - Shalom (Salim) al-Shabazi (17th Century) as a Yemeni Poet. Yosef TOBI (Hebrew & Comparative Literature, University of Haifa, Israel)

Contact details:
Tobi, Yosef (tobiy@research.haifa.ac.il)
Hebrew & Comparative Literature, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel

Biography:
Professor of medieval Hebrew poetry. Main fields: medieval Hebrew & Arabic poetry; Judaeo-Arabic literature; Jews of Yemen; Jews of Tunisia. Main publications: The Jews of Yemen: Studies in Their History and Culture, Brill: Leiden 1999; Proximity and Distance: Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Poetry. Brill: Leiden 2004. Editor of: TEMA Judaeo-Yemenite Studies (1-9, 1990-2006); Ben 'Ever La-'Arav - Medieval and Modern Judaeo-Arabic Literature

Abstract:
Shalom (Salim) al-Shabazi (1619-1680+) is the most prominent figure in Jewish-Yemeni poetry in terms of poetic volume and variety, Jewish national expression, and popularity. As a part of a project to publish a comprehensive critical edition of his 850 poems, most of them in Arabic, in which I have been immersed in recent years, I wish to focus on one significant aspect of his verse, namely his being the most important poet to paint Jewish-Yemeni poetry in abundant local colours, even though he was certainly not the first Jewish-Yemeni poet who contributed in this regard.
Jewish-Yemeni verse, as known since the 11th century, followed mainly the Hebrew-Spanish school (950-1150), which in turn was greatly based on medieval Arabic poetry. But with the advent of the Muslim-Yemeni school in the 16th century, Jewish-Yemeni poets revealed a very liberal openness to that school in respect of language, prosody and contents, all of which might be epitomized by the term hÿumayni. Shabazi's prosody and use of Arabic has already been dealt with by some scholars. But only little has been examined regarding content, to which the present paper is directed.
Most of Jewish-Yemeni poetry prior to Shabazi, Hebrew or Arabic, dealt mainly with the national theme of Exile and Redemption or the ethical-philosophical theme of body versus soul and repentance. Shabazi was the first to enlarge the content of Jewish-Yemeni poetry far beyond the traditional themes. The new ones were conspicuously taken from the hÿumayni poetry. One of its popular genres was the rangstreit poems, that is, poems in which two or more personified things, like towns, writing implements, or seasons of the year, argue among themselves as to which of them is the most important. Shabazi wrote some poems of this kind, in two of which the two contending parties are the qat and the qahwa. The proposed paper will focus on these two poems, one printed and the other still in manuscript, in comparison with Muslim-Yemeni poems on the same subject.

18.30 - Green Arabia: Climate and Archaeology from Prehistory to the Incense Trade. Tony WILKINSON (Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, UK). This lecture forms part of the British Museum's Lecture Series. Free to registered attendees of the Seminar.

Special Session organized by: Jeffrey I. ROSE (Oxford Brookes University, UK) and Michael PETRAGLIA (Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Cambridge University, UK)

Until present, the Palaeolithic period in Arabia has been more or less terra incognita. Within the last decade, evolutionary scientists have begun to recognize the key role this region must have played in the origin of modern humans. New discoveries in the field of genetics underscore the significance of the Peninsula as a conduit for early human migration to and from Africa.
Recently, a number of international expeditions have concurrently and serendipitously discovered the first in situ, datable Pleistocene sites in Arabia. Their findings promise to provide a wealth of data with which to explore questions surrounding prehistoric occupation on the Peninsula.
The session will begin with a series of presentations that explore fossil, genetic, and palaeoenvironmental evidence; consequently, their implications in the study of hominid evolution in Arabia. These papers explain the significance of the burgeoning body of archaeological data and provide a theoretical and regional framework with which to interpret the Palaeolithic. New data will also be presented, introducing recently discovered material from find spots in Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. The session will conclude with a 15 minute panel discussion to synthesize these papers, specifically focusing on questions of taxonomy and chronology. The ultimate goal of this congress is to establish a solid theoretical foundation to base future Palaeolithic research in Arabia.

09.30 - Demographic confluence and radiation in southern Arabia. Adrian PARKER and Jeffrey I. ROSE (both Department of Anthropology and Geography, Oxford Brookes University, UK)

Contact details:

Parker, Adrian (agparker@brookes.ac.uk)
Department of Anthropology and Geography, Oxford Brookes University, School of Social Sciences and Law, Gipsy Lane campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 OBP, UK

Rose, Jeffrey I. (rose@uta.edu)
Department of Anthropology and Geography, Oxford Brookes University, School of Social Sciences and Law, Gipsy Lane campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 OBP, UK

Biographies:
Dr. Adrian G. Parker is a Reader in Physical Geography in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Oxford Brookes University. He leads the Human Evolution and Environmental Reconstruction research group. His research interests include geochronology, palaeoecology and geomorphology and he has worked extensively in S. E. Arabia.

Jeff Rose is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Oxford Brookes University, and directs the Central Oman Pleistocene Research Project (COPR). His areas of interest include lithic technology, prehistoric archaeology, human origins, Quaternary geology, genetics, rock art, and the anthropology of religion.

Abstract:
During the Upper Pleistocene, pendulous swings in annual precipitation and eustatic sea levels had a profound impact on hominin development in southern Arabia. The magnitude of hyperaridity at the last glacial maximum (18,000 BP) is marked by a widespread phase of significant aeolian accumulation across all of Arabia. Dry, harsh periods such as this produced human population bottlenecks, and may have ultimately led to a tabula rasa-that is, complete break in the occupational sequence. Changes in glacio-eustatic sea levels had an equally dramatic effect on human demographic patterning because of cyclical marine transgression-regression in the Arabo-Persian Gulf. From 115,000 until 6,000 years ago, there was an additional 50,000 km2 (minimum) of exposed land within the basin, as depressed eustatic sea levels fluctuated 20 to 120 meters below present day. Moreover, the exposed floodplain served as a primary terminus for most drainage networks flowing from the Taurus, Zagros, and Hajar Mountains.
Given these conditions, we posit the well-watered Gulf floodplain was one of the few zones with adequate freshwater during glacial maxima; thus, served as a stable, continuous refugium over the course of the Upper Pleistocene. Pluvial phases would have brought ecological ruin; however, as gradually rising sea levels inundated the plain and triggered cascading waves of demographic expansion. This model is parsimonious with phylogenetic distributions of Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups, and will be archaeologically verifiable as new Palaeolithic data are obtained from Arabia.

9:50 - Genetics and the southern route of dispersal. Tomas KIVISILD (Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Cambridge University, UK)

Contact details:
Kivisild, Tomas (tk331@cam.ac.uk)
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, The Henry Wellcome Building, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, UK

Biography:
Dr. Toomas Kivisild joined the Leverhulme Center of Human Evolutionary Studies (LCHES), University of Cambridge, in September 2006. His previous research using mainly human mtDNA and Y chromosome diversity has focused on questions relating global genetic population structure with general evolutionary processes such as migrations, admixture, drift, and selection.

Abstract:
Evidence on human dispersals can be inferred from the genetic diversity that accumulates in human populations through time. Phylogeographic analysis of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal variation provide strong evidence for the recent out of Africa dispersal explaining the genetic diversity in populations living today outside Africa. Arabian Peninsula lies at the crucial position
between the Horn of Africa and Western Asia, at the route the ancestral modern human populations could have taken to colonize the rest of the world. But also it has been the connecting point of more recent episodes of gene flow that have occurred during the Holocene period. The understanding of genetic population structure of Arabian populations is thus important for sharing light on the
multitude of transcontinental migrations that have occurred in the past and shaped our appearances in both broad and local contexts.

10:10 - Arabia and Out of Africa Connections. Michael PETRAGLIA (Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Cambridge University, UK)

Contcat details:
Petraglia, Mike D. (mp341@cam.ac.uk)
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, The Henry Wellcome Building, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, UK

Biography:
Dr. Michael Petraglia is Lecturer in Human Evolution and Palaeolithic Archaeology, Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge. His interests include dispersals, evolution of cognition, behavioural adaptations and stone tool technology. He has conducted collaborative research on the Palaeolithic of Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Abstract:
The Arabian peninsula certainly played a critical role in human evolution. It central geographic position relative to Africa places it on the 'Out of Africa' dispersal route of hominins. Significant changes in environments from the late Pliocene through the Pleistocene must have played a dramatic role in evolution, leading to population expansions, contractions and extinctions. This paper reviews what we know about the Paleolithic archaeological record of Arabia and how the material record may be analysed relative to theoretical propositions. An assessment of the Palaeolithic archaeological record of Arabia is made followed by recommendations for future study.

10:25 - An early Lower Palaeolithic site from central Saudi Arabia. Abdullah ALSHAREKH (King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Contact details:
Alsharekh, Abdullah
Department of Archaeology, King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Biography:
Currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Archaeology, King Saud University and a graduate of Cambridge University in 1996. His research interests include prehistory, rock art, pastoralism and remote sensing. His fieldwork projects include the Thumamah project and the Southern Red Sea project (with Professor Geoff Bailey)

Abstract:
During the fieldwork survey for my Ph.D thesis in the early 1990's, I discovered a lithic site, which largely comprises large blocks of stones with flaking scars, with various heavily patinated artefacts scattered nearby.
This site, which is located on top of the Aruma plateau in NE Riyadh, was visited late in 2005, and appeared much older than previously expected. This paper aims at providing a general background of the archaeological importance of this site, in relation to its lithic material and stone structures associated spatially with it.
Further, this paper would emphasize the effect of weathering and erosion on the recognition and identification of lithic artefacts made of limestone, dating to the early prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula.
This paper hopes to show the need for further archaeological surveys of early Palaeolithic sites in the Arabian Peninsula, in order to have a better understanding of the early history of the region.

10.40 - Questions and discussion - Michael PETRAGLIA (University of Cambridge)

10.55-11.25 - Coffee

11:25 - Upper Pleistocene Stone-tools from Sharjah, UAE. Initial Investigations: Interim Report. Julie SCOTT-JACKSON (PADMAC, University of Oxford, UK), Sarah MILLIKEN (Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK), William SCOTT-JACKSON (PADMAC, University of Oxford, UK) and Sabah A. JASIM (Directorate of Antiquities, Department of Culture & Information, Sharjah, UAE)

Contact details:

Scott-Jackson, Julie (Julie.scott-jackson@prm.ox.ac.uk)
PADMAC Unit, University of Oxford, 60 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK

Milliken, Sarah (sarah.milliken@archaeology.oxford.ac.uk)
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK

Scott-Jackson, William (william.scott-jackson@prm.ox.ac.uk)
PADMAC Unit, University of Oxford, 60 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK

Jasim, Sabah A. (sjasim@archaeology.gov.ae)
Directorate of Antiquities, Department of Culture & Information, PO Box 5119, Sharjah, UAE

Biographies:

Dr Julie Scott-Jackson is Director of the PADMAC Unit, University of Oxford, the focus of which is the identification and geo-archaeological investigation of high-level in situ Palaeolithic sites on Karstic landforms of southern England, Europe and the Middle East.

Dr Sarah Milliken is the Artefact specialist for the PADMAC Unit as well as a Lecturer in pre-history at the University of Oxford.

Dr William Scott-Jackson is Spatial Analyst for the PADMAC Unit at the University of Oxford.

Dr Sabah Jasim is the Director of the Department of Antiquities in Sharjah, UAE and has directed or contributed to all the major archaeological projects in the region.

Abstract:
This paper updates our 2006 report on the discovery of stone-tool manufacturing sites on high-level limestone ridges flanking the west of the Hajar mountains in Sharjah Emirate, UAE. This area correlates with a proposed 'Southern route out of Africa'.
Although rare finds of stone-tools, from the Emirates, have been tentatively defined as pre-Holocene, these are the first well-delineated and essentially in-situ sites with prolific surface-scatters.
The artefacts, of dark reddish brown or strong brown patina, were made using hard hammer technology; the flakes and flake-blades were typically removed from unidirectional or bidirectional (opposed and orthogonal platform) cores. Also, flakes were struck from Levallois and discoidal cores. The presence of core rejuvenation flakes, primary and secondary flakes, and the predominance of unretouched flakes, indicates that these were stone-tool manufacturing sites. Retouched artefacts include small (5 - 8 cm) bifacial tools, ranging in shape from foliate to ovate.
An Upper Pleistocene age for the assemblages is suggested by the absence of pressure flaked points or true blades and the presence of Levallois and discoidal flakes. Also, the occurrence of bifacial tools which are typologically similar to artefacts known to be of Upper Pleistocene age (Middle or Upper Palaeolithic) from Oman and the Horn of Africa.

11:40 - Barakah: A Middle Palaeolithic site in Abu Dhabi. Ghanim WAHIDA (Cambridge, UK), Walid YASIN and Mark BEECH (both Department of Historic Environment, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, UAE)

Contact details:

Wahida, Ghanim (ghanimwahida@hotmail.com)
106 Barton Road, Cambridge, CB3 9LH, UK.

Yasin, Walid (wyasin11@yahoo.com)
Head of Division - Archaeology, Department of Historic Environment, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), P.O. Box 15715, Al Ain, UAE

Beech, Mark (mark.beech@cultural.org.ae)
Head of Division - Cultural Landscapes, Department of Historic Environment, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), P.O. Box 2380, Al Ain, UAE

Biographies:

Dr. Ghanim Wahida has a PhD from the University of Cambridge (1975). His PhD Thesis was entitled 'A Reconsideration of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Zagros Mountains'. He has worked in the Directorate of Antiquities in Baghdad, Iraq (1964-1971) and has lectured at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Khartoum, Sudan (1977-1979), the Department of Archaeology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1979-1985), as well as at the University of Kuwait (1986-1990). He worked for MBC-London in the Cultural Section from 1995-1999. He is currently working on a research contract for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

Dr Walid Yasin al-Tikriti has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, U.K. (1983). His PhD thesis was entitled 'Reconsideration of the Late Fourth and Third Millennium B.C. in the Arabian Gulf with Special Reference to the United Arab Emirates'. Since the early 1970's he has been involved in the archaeology of the United Arab Emirates. He worked as Archaeology Advisor at the Department of Antiquities and Tourism in Al Ain from the late 1970's until 2006. He has recently joined the newly formed Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage as Head of Division - Archaeology. Web: www.cultural.org.ae/e.

Dr Mark Beech has a PhD from the Departments of Archaeology and Biology at the University of York, U.K. (2001). The title of his PhD thesis was 'In the Land of the Ichthyophagi: Modelling fish exploitation in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman from the 5th millennium BC to the Late Islamic Period'. He has been involved in the archaeology of the United Arab Emirates since 1994. From 2002-2006 Dr Beech was Senior Resident Archaeologist for the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS). Since June 2006 he has been Head of the Cultural Landscapes Division within the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. Web: www.cultural.org.ae/e.

Abstract:
Recently collected lithic artifacts from Jebel Barakah, the well known Late Miocene fossil locality situated in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi emirate, provide clear evidence for a Middle Palaeolithic presence in the region. The artefacts come from three localities around Barakah: one lies to the west of the Jebel, the other to the southwest and the third, to the east, which may be the site first described by McBrearty. The three cluster sites represent a single techno-typological industry. Most artefacts were collected from Locality 1 (on the western side of the Jebel), that lies between the sea-cliffs and the first line of ridges, some 40 metres from the sea. The area that lies immediately beyond the cliffs was devoid of archaeological material. The presence of Mousterian points, a single hand axe and the Levallois technique of manufacturing flakes, place the Barakah assemblage in the Middle Stone Age. The total absence of blade implements was immediately noted. Previous reporting on the Barakah material had suggested a date ranging between the Middle Pleistocene and the Mid to Late Holocene. The Barakah material complements the recent discovery of Palaeolithic material elsewhere in the UAE and in Oman.

Anthony Marks is prehistorian who has worked in Africa, the Near, and Europe for the past c.45 years. He is currently studying a major Pleistocene East African site of Mumba. In addition, he is working with Hans-Peter and Margret Uerpmann on Palaeolithic occupations at Faya I in Sharjah.

Abstract:
The northern end of Jebel Faya is known to have been an important flint extraction area during the Neolithic period. A stratified site, called FAY-NE01, was found in 2003 by the joint Al Buhais Project of Tübingen University and the Directorate of Antiquities in Sharjah. Further explorations by the Directorate of Antiquities led to the discovery of two other Neolithic sites with intact layers, named FAY-NE10 and FAY-NE15. FAY-NE01 is a large rock-shelter at the confluence of several wadis draining the eastern slope of the mountain. The sediment deposited by these wadis led to the stratification of the embedded archaeological remains. FAY-NE10 is a small cave used as a burial site during the Iron Age. Neolithic layers were discovered in situ underneath these graves. Sedimentation there is caused by fine-grained slope-wash entering the cave through cracks in the rock.
FAY-NE15 is embedded in a low wadi-terrace consisting of alluvial and colluvial sediments accumulating behind a rocky ridge. This last site resembles site BHS18 of Jebel al-Buhais in having Neolithic burials and a fossil spring. This is corroborated by a 14C date and by the nature of the artefacts.
FAY-NE10 is a flint workshop. The waste of the production of bifacial foliates is found there. Radiocarbon dating is in progress.
FAY-NE01 yielded a number of radiocarbon dates of the pre-Islamic period from fire pits dug into the Neolithic layers. These layers yielded an industry containing some bifacial elements and several blade arrowheads resembling Fasad-points. Underneath this Neolithic stratum there is a deposit of almost 1 m of sterile sediments. Below these an up to now unknown Palaeolithic stone industry was discovered. OSL-dating is in progress.

12:10 - A Middle Palaeolithic in South Arabia? Levallois and Wa'shah methods from Yemen. Remy CRASSARD (Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie, Equipe 'du village à l'Etat', CNRS, UMR 7041, France)

Contact details:
Crassard, Rémy (rcrassard@prehistoricyemen.com)
Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie, Equipe 'du village à l'Etat', CNRS, UMR 7041, ArScAn, 21 Allée de l'Université, 92023 Nanterre Cedex, France

Biography:
Dr Rémy Crassard recently completed his PhD entitled 'The contribution of lithic technology to the definition of the prehistory of Hadramawt, within the context of Yemen and South Arabia'. He is a resident researcher at the French Centre for Archaeology (CEFAS) in Sana'a, Yemen.

Abstract:
The "Wa'shah method", which was already presented during a former Seminar for Arabian Studies (Crassard & Bodu 2004), was discovered in 2002 in Wâdî Wa'shah (Hadramawt, Yemen) during the operations carried out by the French Archaeological Mission in Jawf-Hadramawt. Its characteristics are very similar to the "classic" operating system of the Levallois point, such as is evidenced in the Levant. The Wa'shah method draws its originality with a unique laminar conceptualization of debitage and is the first example of a tradition of predetermined blade production in Southwest Arabia. Recent study of a wider corpus of blades, cores, preparation debris and "Wa'shah points" (the final product of the Wa'shah method) adds new data to our understanding of this method of debitage.
In addition, a comprehensive study of approximately one-hundred Levallois cores from the Hadramawt region (all surface collections) has brought to light a new perspective on the Levallois industries of South Arabia, where no such study has been carried out before. The Levallois assemblages from Hadramawt represent the first existing corpus of reference for this industry in the Arabian Peninsula.
In this paper three main methods will be distinguished and comparisons with neighbouring Levallois methods (East Africa, Levant) will be presented. Furthermore, this paper will be oriented towards the analysis of lithic technology, an axis of research that remains weakly used in the region. Finally, the chronological context of the artefacts will be discussed and the question of the existence of a Middle Palaeolithic in South Arabia will be debated.

12:25 - Crossing the Rift: technology of the late Middle and Upper Pleistocene in East Africa. Anthony MARKS (Anthropology Department, Southern Methodist University, USA)

Contact details:
Marks, Anthony E.
Anthropology Department, Southern Methodist University, 3225 Daniel Avenue, Heroy Building 408, Dallas, Texas, TX 75275, USA

Biography:
I am a prehistorian who has worked in Africa, the Near, and Europe for the past c.45 years. I am currently studying a major Pleistocene East African site of Mumba. In addition, I am working with Hans-Peter and Margarethe Uerpmann on Palaeolithic occupations at Faya I in Sharjah.

Abstract:
Different models of human emergence are discussed in light of archaeological data from East Africa. There is a growing body of genetic evidence that all humans are derived from a common ancestral gene pool in sub-Saharan Africa. Under the assumption that populations will bring with them the technology from whence they came, expansion routes to and/or from Africa are assessed. Passage through the Nile Corridor is rejected based on incongruous trajectories of technological development. Unique features of late Middle and Upper Pleistocene lithic technologies in East Africa are presented in order to build a predictive model to test population expansion into southern Arabia.

12.45 - Questions and discussion - Jeffrey I. ROSE (Oxford Brookes University, UK)

PLEASE NOTE that from 15.45-17.30 - there will be a Paleolithic discussion session in a Room next to the BP lecture theatre.

12.55-14.00 - Lunch

SESSION 4 - THE ARABIAN NEOLITHIC
Chair: Robert Carter (UK)


14:00 - The Arabian Neolithic Chronology : a point of view from Ja'alan Oman. Vincent CHARPENTIER (INRAP / UMR 7041 du CNRS-ArScan, France)

Contact details:
Charpentier, Vincent (vincent.charpentier@mae.u-Paris10.fr)
INRAP/UMR 7041 du CNRS-ArScan, Maison René Ginouvès, 21 allée de l'Université F-92023, Nanterre cedex, France

Biography:
As a prehistorian (UMR 7041 CNRS Nanterre), Vincent Charpentier has worked in France, the North American Arctic and Iraq. Since 1985 he has been involved in excavations of neolithic sites along the Omani coast (Ra's al Jins, Al-Haddah, Suwayh projects). His new project is Akab Island in Umm al-Qawain Emirate, UAE. He is also Partnerships & Media Relations Manager for the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP, Paris), as well as a journalist and scientific broadcaster for France Culture (Radio France).

Abstract:
Vingt années de prospections dans le Ja'alan mais surtout les fouilles entreprises à Suwayh, al-Haddah, Ra's al-Jinz et Ra's al-Hadd permettent aujourd'hui de mettre en perspectives plusieurs facies culturelles néolithiques. Cette étude essentiellement basée sur leurs industries lithiques (débitage et outillage), s'appuie aussi sur l'ensemble de la culture matérielle.

Abstract:
The island of Akab is located in the lagoon of Umm al-Qaiwain, facing the coastal belt occupied by the present city. A team of the French Archaeological Mission to Umm al-Qaiwain discovered in 1989 an important concentration of bones of dugongs dugon associated with objects characteristic of the 5th and 4th millennia BC.
In cooperation with the Museum of Umm al-Qaiwain, a team of the French Archaeological Mission to the United Arab Emirates resumed in 2002 and 2006 the excavation of Akab. It was showed that the site was an important well-stratified Neolithic site including in situ floors and habitation structures.
This settlement was the site of many occupations from the end of the 5th millennium to the second half of the 4th millennium BC. The activities of its inhabitants were mainly oriented towards lagoon and deep-sea fishing, especially of tuna.
Some of the material culture elements which the site has already produced are completely new. The most notable elements are three in number: mother-of-pearl fish-hooks (a type of object unknown before in the Arabian Gulf) one of the oldest fine beads ever discovered in the U.A.E., as well as many tubular beads in chlorite and shell with a particular type of attachment.

16:10 - Painted pottery groups in NW Arabia of the late 2nd/early 1st millennia BC. Arnulf HAUSLEITER (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin, Germany)

Contact details:
Hausleiter, Arnulf (arh@dainst.de)
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Podbielskiallee 69-71, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Biography:
Arnulf Hausleiter is co-directing field-work of the Saudi-German archaeological joint project in Tayma. He has been working at excavations and surveys in various countries of the Middle East and held positions at the universities of Berlin, Copenhagen and Vienna.

Abstract:
The discussion on the relations between pottery from NW Arabia and adjacent regions at the end of the 2nd and the first millennia BC has been focussed on painted pottery groups. Based on two main 'styles' (the Late Bronze Age polychrome 'Qurayyah painted style', formerly 'Midianite', and the bi-chrome 'Khuraybah-style' pottery - dated from before the mid-1st millennium BC to 5th to 3rd centuries BC) several hypotheses on the reconstruction of the settlement system have been put forward, in spite of the small quantity of material, the lack of well defined archaeological contexts and of a stratified pottery sequence.
Since 2004, excavations at Tayma by a Saudi-Arabian-German joint project revealed contexts with painted pottery with a polychrome decoration combining geometric and zoomorphic motifs. In these contexts, unpainted pottery occurs to a considerable extent, too. Based on the new evidence and settlement data from Tayma, the contemporaneity of these newly made pottery findings and the established Qurayyah style will be discussed. Archaeological data and 14C dates suggest a slightly later date of the Tayma painted pottery group - if not just a longer lasting 'tradition'.
In discussing the 'transmission' of pottery styles, it is also of importance, to which extent the geographic situation and the settlement patterns in diverging landscapes can be pertinently compared with each other. These factors have to be taken in account in order to diversify the picture of exchange mechanisms, the degree of uniformity of pottery styles and the possibility to identify historical changes (such as the end of the LBA) in terms of chronologically significant phenomena in the material culture of NW Arabia.

16:35 - Antiquities of Jarash: Asir region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abdul Kareem A. AL-GHAMDI (King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Contact details:
Al-Ghamdi, Abdul Kareem A. (elhassan@ksu.edu.sa)
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, King Saud University, PO Box 2456, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Biography:
Not yet available.

Abstract:
Jarash is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southern Arabia. It is located in Asir region, in the southwest of Saudi Arabia. It was strategically located on the ancient caravan trading routes which used to go north and north east with products of ancient Arabian Kingdoms during the period extending from the second half of the first millennium BC to the 4th century A.D. During this period Jarash played a major role as a main trading center and a market of the whole region in general. However, the 5th and 6th centuries AD Quraish was able to control the Arabian caravan trade. This control was known as Ilaf and was playing the same of the trading caravans of the ancient Arabian kingdoms. Jarash economic significance persisted and geographically extended to the extent that Jarash came to be known as 'Mikhlaf Jarash'. This Mikhlaf was an independent, political and administrative entity.
In 1980, the writer of this paper conducted an archaeological survey at Jarash site and found such varied archaeological remains as: 1- ceramics. 2- stone tools. 3- metal objects. 4- coins, in addition to architectural remains and inscriptions. The paper will present samples of these antiquities and discusses their analyses and dating.

17:00 - Sadd al-Khanaq an Early Umayyad Dam Near Medina: Saudi Arabia. Saad Bin Abdulaziz AL-RAHSHID (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Contact details:
al-Rahshid, Saad Bin Abdulaziz

Biography:
Professor Dr. Saad A. al-Rahshid was born in 1945 in Sabya, Saudi Arabia. He obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1977. Professor Dr. al-Rahshid was Professor of Archaeology and Chairman of the Dept. of Archaeology and Museology and Dean of the Faculty of Library Affairs at King Saudi University from 1986-1996. He was appointed Deputy Minister for Antiquties and Museum Affairs in 2000 until his retirement in March 2006. He is the author of several books and has written many papers on the Islamic archaeology of Saudi Arabia. Books on Darb Zubaydha, Rabadha, Islamic inscriptions in Makkha and Madinah areas are famous contributions to the archaeology of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract:
Sadd al-Khanaq or Sadd Mu'awiyh is an early Umayyad dam situated east of al-Madinah al-Munawwarah around fifteen kilometers. The dam has been built in a very narrow gorge or a passage in Wady al-Khanaq .The word 'khanaq' means: crammed or jammed. The wady run from south east of Madinah to the north west where its water flooded into a natural basin caused by lava flows and earthquakes hit the region of Madinah and Hijaz in successive years (654 /1256, 690/1291, 727/1326, 734/1333). At the most narrow spot of the wady a massive dam has been erected forming a large lake. In actual fact there two dams not one. The main dam is the most dominant since it has been built to block the run of the wady flood through the gorge. The other dam seems to be supportive, to catch the surplus water running through a small branch of the wady. The main dam is 43m in lengths with a width of ca.17.5m.at the base on the wady bed and 12.70 m. at the top. The wall of the dam rises from the level of the wady bed to highest spot on both shoulder of the rising mountain.
Two sections of the dam remain intact while the central bulk of the dam has been severely broken perhaps due to the water pressure on against the wall of the dam and also the effect of earthquakes and volcanoes.
As for the second dam it is located to west of the main dam behind a high mountain. It is also broken in the middle for a length of 29m. leaving two remaining segments showing its original construction. The total length of the dam is ca. 56m. The width of the dam is 11m. at the base and 6 m. at the top. Our inspection of the two dams led to the discovery of an inscribed stone fixed on the highest spot of the wall of the main dam. It contains very valuable information regarding the date of the building of the dam by the Umayyad Caliphs Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan (41/661-60/679). The registration of the dam the recovery of the inscription provide us with valuable knowledge of early masterpiece of water engineering and it will led to the study several existing dams in the Hijaz province.

18.15 - Reception: Clore Centre, British Museum

SATURDAY 21 JULY 2007


SESSION 6 - ANCIENT SEAFARING
Chair: Robert Carter (UK)


9:30 - Khutba & Khil'a: Networks of mercantile recognition and clientship between Calicut, Aden and Herat. Elizabeth LAMBOURN (De Montfort University, Leicester, UK)

Contact details:
Lambourn, Elizabeth (el5@soas.ac.uk)
Faculty of Art and Design, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK

Biography:
Elizabeth is a historian of material culture specialising in Islamic South and Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean world. She recently held an Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University and is currently working on her first book Coastal Perspectives and Mercantile Cultures: India, Persia and Arabia 500-1500 CE.

Abstract:
Network theory has provided one of the most useful models in recent years through which to study the mercantile cultures and economies of the Indian Ocean. This paper defines and maps two types of politico-economic network that have generally been under valued in the study of the Indian Ocean: those centered around the practices of khil'a - the ceremonial gifting of a robe and other apparel - and the khutba - the reciting of a specific ruler's name during Friday prayers. At the core of this study are two sets of documents: firstly, the detailed list of gifts to Indian merchants and religious figures given in the recently discovered and edited Daftar al-Muzaffari of 1298 and secondly, accounts of requests to use the names of Rasulid and Timurid Sultans in the khutba at Calicut, given in Khazraji's Kitab al-cUqud al-Lu'lu'iyya and in cAbd al-Razzaq Samarqandi's account of his abortive embassy to the port. Based around these documents this paper begins by explaining these practices from the perspective of Muslim mercantile communities living as autonomous units within non-Muslim polities, as was the case along much of the western and southern coasts of India. It then maps the networks so created and concludes by exploring the different ways in which the three main parties - Calicut's self-governing Muslim community, the Rasulid and the Timurid Sultans - solicited, performed, used and sometimes gravely misunderstood these practices.

9:55 - Indian ships at Moscha and the ancient Indo-Arabian trading circuit. Eivind Heldaas SELAND (Department of History, University of Bergen, Norway)

Contact details:
Seland, Eivind Heldaas (Eivind.Seland@hi.uib.no)
Historisk Institutt, Universitetet i Bergen, Box 7800, N-5020, Bergen, Norway

Biography:
Eivind Heldaas Seland teaches global and ancient history at the University of Bergen, Norway. His dissertation focuses on the relationship between long distance trade and state power in the Indian Ocean region in the ancient period, an area of interest he wishes to continue to pursue in the future.

Abstract:
Periplus Maris Erythraei, the well known Greek Merchants guide from the 1stcentury CE, mentions ships sailing by from India calling at Moscha Limên, generally identified as Sumhuram/Khor Rori in modern Oman. These ships are said to spend the winter 'because of the late season' (PME 32), and most modern commentators have considered them to be Indian ships on their way home after trading voyages to Arabia. While this is probably true, it might not be the whole truth. There should be no need to spend two sailing seasons for a return trip from India to Arabia, and different passages in the Periplus and other classical literature, combined with later Arab and European experiences with Indian Ocean navigation builds a case for these ships being ready to set out on the last leg of a wider Indian Ocean circuit. This sheds new light on the maritime contacts of the Arabian Peninsula in the ancient period, which goes beyond the old clichés of 'Indo-Roman' trade and South Arabian spice kingdoms.

SESSION 7 - EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND SETTLEMENT
Chair: Derek KENNET (Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, UK) and Venetia PORTER (The British Museum, UK)


10:20 - The Azd Migrations Reconsidered: Accounts of Malik b. Fahm and 'Amr Muzayqiya in their Historiographic Context. Brian ULRICH (Department of History, University of Wisconsin, USA)

Ulrich, Brian (brian.j.ulrich@gmail.com)
Department of History, University of Wisconsin, 455 North Park Street, Madison WI 53706, USA

Biography:
Brian Ulrich is a Ph.D. Candidate in history at the University of Wisconsin whose dissertation is 'Defining at Azdi Socal Change and Tribal Identity in the Early Islamic Centuries'. He has taught at both the University of Wisconsin and Beloit College (also in Wisconsin) and is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Abstract:
The migration of the Azd tribes from the vicinity of Saba'a to 'Uman has occupied a central place in the history of the pre-Islamic Persian Gulf. I will examine information relevant to this theme in works such as al-Azdi's Tarikh al-Mawsil, al-Baladhuri's Futuh al-Buldan, al-'Awtabi's Ansab al-Arab, al-Izkawi's Kashf al-Ghummah, and Ibn Durayd's al-Ishtiqaq, with an eye toward highlighting the differences among them and how each was shaped by its author's social environment and reason for writing. Among these factors are the tribal structure in different times and places, the iftiraq theme of early Islamic historiography, and the shu'ubiyya movement of the early Abbasid period. I will then discuss their relationship with an actual Azd migration, and the reasons for considering such an event likely on the basis of both pre-Islamic epigraphic evidence and the tribe's settlement history in Iraq. This will represent a step toward applying tradition critical methodology to the pre-Islamic history of a "Yamani" tribe, one which has attracted the interests of both historians and archaeologists.

11:15 - Muwatta' as a sourcse for the the economic and social history of Medina. Khalifa Mohamed OMER (Department of History, University of Khartoum, Sudan)

Contact details:
Omer, Khalifa Mohamed
Department of History, University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Abstract:
This a preliminary study on the Muwatta' of Malik as a source for the social and economic life in Medina during the Caliphs era.
The aim of this paper is to shed light on the importance of the Hadith books in general and Muwatta' in particular in the study of Islamic history as well as highlighting some of the persistent misconception concerning the value of jurisprudence (Fiqh) and Hadith books in the study of Islamic history.
Modern historians have rarely used these sources even though they may contain important information about people's daily way of life. The paper will try to show that it is doubtful if any distinction can be drawn between historical and Hadi>th works in favour of the former.

11:40 - A history of the Ziyâdids through their coinage (AD203-442/818-1050). Audrey PELI (University of Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France)

Contact details:
Peli, Audrey (audrey.peli@noos.fr)
University of Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France

Biography:
Audrey Peli is doing a PhD in Islamic archaeology titled 'Coin production and minting techniques in Yemen between the 8th and the 12th century' under the direction of A. Northedge and P. Benoit. She studied last spring the coin collection of the National Museum of Sana'a.

Abstract:
The history of the Ziyâdids, from the eponymous founder of the dynasty, the 'abbâsid general Muhammad b. 'Abd Allâh b. Ziyâd, who officially built their capital Zabîd in 204/820 to their Ethiopian slaves who took control of the power at the beginning of the 5th/11th century, is known from the textual sources as Umâra's Târîkh al-Yaman, Ibn al-Dayba's Qurrat al-Uyûn and Bughyat al-mustafîd fî târîkh Zabîd, but also from the coins minted in their capital city from the beginning of the 4th/10th century.
The numismatic material can complete the history of the Ziyâdids in providing precise dates of ruling for Ishâq b. Ibrâhîm, one of the most important Ziyâdid ruler, but also by specifying the names of the late rulers unknown by the sources. Coins and historical texts give us two genealogical family trees: the first the real one and the second the official one.
A second aspect of this communication is based on die-link study that, being compared to the textual sources, can give an idea of the economical context during this period.

12:30 - Rediscovery of a Fort: the Qasr al-Hosn of Abu Dhabi. Harald Alexander VELDHUIJZEN (Prince Research Consultants, UK / Institute of Archaeology, UCL, UK)

Contact details:
Veldhuijzen, Harald Alexander (h.veldhuijzen@ucl.ac.uk)<