Ḥegrā, a Lihyanite caravan city?
A reassessment of the early settlement in Ḥegrā/Madāᵓin Ṣāliḥ
Keywords:
Ḥegrā, Lihyanite kingdom, Nabataean kingdom, coins, potteryAbstract
The excavations carried out since 2008 in Ḥegrā by the Saudi-French Madāᵓin Ṣāliḥ Archaeological Project shed light on the long occupation of this site, which started several centuries before it was settled by the Nabataeans in the course of the second half of the first century BC. The chronological sequence given by carbon dated stratigraphy dates back to the mid-first millennium BC. In addition, numismatic and pottery data suggest a dense occupation of the site during the whole second half of this millennium. Local silver and bronze coins imitating Attic owls can now be firmly identified as Lihyanite issues. Similarly, the painted and unpainted pottery from the early contexts is comparable to those from Lihyanite sites of the al-ᶜUlā region. These results provide strong evidences that Ḥegrā belonged to the Lihyanite territory between the early fourth century BC and the late first century BC. Finally, the settlement of the Nabataeans in Ḥegrā, linked to their long-time frequentation of the region through their caravan trade activities, could be explained by the nature of the site that may have been a “commercial suburb” of Dadān, located only fifteen kilometres to the south.
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