Results from the aerial archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, al‑ʿUlā (AlUla) and Khaybar Projects: 2018–2021

Authors

  • Hugh Thomas
  • Melissa A. Kennedy
  • Matthew Dalton
  • Jane McMahon
  • Rebecca Repper
  • David D. Boyer
  • Aimee-Leah Gellard

Keywords:

al‑ʿUlā (AlUla), Khaybar, Saudi Arabia, Middle Holocene, stone structures

Abstract

A vital preliminary to the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has been to document the rich archaeological heritage of al‑ʿUlā. To accomplish this, RCU established an extensive landscape survey with the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – al‑ʿUlā (AAKSAU) project tasked in early 2018 to record the county’s vast hinterland. In early 2019, the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Khaybar (AAKSAK) project was created to survey Khaybar County, when parts of the region were placed under RCU’s remit. These two projects undertaken by the University of Western Australia utilize remote sensing, aerial archaeology by helicopter, ground survey, and targeted excavation to document and record the extensive and exceptional archaeological remains of the al‑ʿUlā hinterland and parts of Khaybar.

This paper presents the results of the AAKSAU and AAKSAK projects, which have so far documented more than 20,000 sites dating from the Palaeolithic to the present. This paper also outlines the first results from the targeted excavation programme, which has explored several Neolithic mustatil and domestic dwellings, as well as the monumental Bronze Age funerary structures that traverse both regions.

References

Abu-Azizeh W. 2013. The south-eastern Jordan’s Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age pastoral nomadic complex: Patterns of mobility and interaction. Paléorient 39/1: 149–176.

Abu-Azizeh W. & Tarawneh M. 2015. Out of the harra: Desert kites in south-eastern Jordan. New results from the South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 26: 95–119.

Barge O., Brochier J.É. & Karakhanyan A. 2016. Northernmost kites? Quaternary International 395: 104–112.

Betts A. 1992. Eastern Jordan: Economic choices and site location in the Neolithic periods. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 4: 111–114.

Betts A. & Burke D. 2021. Game drives in the Black Desert, eastern Jordan. Pages 187–224 in A. Betts & P. van Pelt (eds), The Gazelle’s dream: Game drives of the Old and New Worlds. (Adapa Monographs). Sydney: Sydney University Press.

Bin ‘Aqil A.J. & McCorriston J. 2009. Prehistoric small-scale monument types in Hadramawt (southern Arabia): Convergences in ethnography, linguistics and archaeology. Antiquity 83: 602–18.

Chambrade M-L. & Betts A. 2021. Kites of Syria, southern Turkey and western Iraq. Pages 127–186 in A. Betts & P. van Pelt (eds), The Gazelle’s dream: Game drives of the Old and New Worlds. (Adapa Monographs). Sydney: Sydney University Press.

Charbonnier J., Kanhoush Y., Goy J., Gravier J., Giraud J., Achouche I. … Tourtet F. 2021. Mapping an Arabian oasis: First results of a systematic survey in AlUla valley (2019–2020). Paper delivered at the Seminar for Arabian Studies 2021. [Unpublished.]

Charloux G., Crassard R. & AlMushawh M. 2021. Khaybar Longue Durée Project: Objectives and first results. Paper delivered at the Seminar for Arabian Studies 2021. [Unpublished.]

Cleuziou S. 2002. Présence et mise en scène des morts à l’usage des vivants dans les communautés protohistoriques: L’example de la Péninsule d’Oman a l’Âge du Bronze ancien. Pages 17–32 in M. Molinos & A. Zifferero (eds), Primi popoli d’Europa. Forli: Abaco.

Crassard R., Petraglia M.D., Parker A.G., Parton A., Roberts R.G., Jacobs Z. … Shipton C. 2013. Beyond the Levant: First evidence of a pre-pottery Neolithic incursion into the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. PLOS ONE 8: 1–20, e68061. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068061

Dalton M., McMahon J., Kennedy M.A., Repper R., Al Shilai S.E., AlBalawi Y. … Thomas H. 2021. The Middle Holocene ‘funerary avenues’ of north-west Arabia, The Holocene. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836211060497

Échallier J-C. & Braemer F. 1995. Nature et fonctions des ‘desert kites’: Données et hypothèses nouvelles. Paléorient 21: 35–63.

Fujii S., Adachi T., Yamafuji M. & Kazuyoshi N. 2018. Tor Ghuwayr 1–3: Surveys and excavations of tailed tower tombs in the northeastern edge of the Jafr Basin, southern Jordan. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 59: 217–234.

Gebel H.G.K. 2013. Arabia’s fifth-millennium BCE pastoral well cultures: Hypotheses on the origins of oasis life. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 43: 111–126.

Giannelli G. & Maestrucci F. 2018. Desert kites in the Libyan Sahara: New evidence from remotely sensed images. Antiquity 92, e3. https://doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.151.

Giannelli G. & Maestrucci F. 2019. Desert kites in the Tripolitania region: new evidence from satellite imagery. Antiquity 93, e26. https://doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.154.

Grainger D. 2007. The white volcanoes. Pages 37–46 in D. Grainger (ed.), The geologic evolution of Saudi Arabia. A voyage through space and time. Jeddah: Saudi Geological Survey.

Groucutt H.S., Breeze P.S., Guagnin M., Stewart M., Drake N., Shipton C. … Petraglia M.D. 2020. Monumental landscapes of the Holocene Humid period in northern Arabia: The mustatil phenomenon. Holocene 30/12: 1767–1779.

Guagnin M., Breeze P., Shipton C., Ott F., Stewart M., Bateman M. … Petraglia M.D. 2020. The Holocene humid period in the Nefud Desert: Hunters and herders in the Jebel Oraf palaeolake basin, Saudi Arabia. Journal of Arid Environments 178: 1–17.

Hausleiter A. & Zur A. 2016. Tayma’ in the Bronze Age (c. 2,000 BCE): Settlement and funerary landscapes. Pages 135–173 in M. Luciani (ed.), The archaeology of North Arabia – oases and landscapes. Proceedings of the international congress held at the University of Vienna, 5–8 December 2013. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Helms S. & Betts A. 1987. The Desert ‘kites’ of the Badiyat esh-Sham and North Arabia. Paléorient 13: 41–67.

Holzer A., Avner U., Porat N. & Horwitz L.K. 2010. Desert kites in the Negev desert and northeast Sinai: Their function, chronology and ecology. Journal of Arid Environments 74: 806–817.

Huigens H.O. 2018. The identification of pathways on harra surfaces in north-eastern Jordan and their relation to ancient human mobility. Journal of Arid Environments 155: 73–78.

Al‑Jahwari N.S. 2009. The agricultural basis of Umm an-Nar society in the northern Oman Peninsula (2500–2000 BC). Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 20/2: 122–133.

Kempe S. & Al‑Malabeh A. 2010. Kites and other archaeological structures along the eastern rim of the harrat (lava plain) of Jordan, signs of intensive usage in prehistoric time, a Google Earth Images Study. Pages 199–216 in G.J. Middleton (ed.), Proceedings 14th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology, Undara, Australia, August 2010. Available at http://www.vulcanospeleology.org/sym14/papers/Kempe-Kites.pdf

Kennedy D.L. 2011. The ‘Works of the Old Men’ in Arabia: Remote sensing in interior Arabia. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 3185–3203.

Kennedy D.L. 2012. Kites – new discoveries and a new type. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 23: 145–155.

Kennedy D.L. 2017. ‘Gates’: A new archaeological site type in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 28/2: 153–74.

Kennedy D.L. & Bishop M.C. 2011. Google earth and the archaeology of Saudi Arabia. A case study from the Jeddah area. Journal of Archaeological Science 38/6: 1284–1293.

Kennedy D.L. & Al‑Saeed A. 2009. Desktop archaeology. Saudi Aramco World (July/August): 2–9.

Kennedy D.L., Banks R. & Dalton M. 2015. Kites in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 26: 177–195.

Kennedy M.A., McMahon J., Thomas H., Boyer D., Repper R., Dalton M. & AlKhaldi K. 2021. Dating the ‘pendant’ burials of northwest Arabia: First radiometric results from the Khaybar Oasis, Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 32/S1: 183–197.

al Khasawneh S., Murray A., Thomsen K., Abu-Azizeh W. & Tarawneh M. 2019. Dating a near eastern desert hunting trap (kite) using rock surface luminescence dating. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11: 2109–2119.

Luciani M. 2016. Mobility, contacts and the definition of culture(s) in new archaeological research in northwest Arabia. Pages 21–56 in M. Luciani (ed.), The archaeology of North Arabia – oases and landscapes. Proceedings of the international congress held at the University of Vienna, 5–8 December 2013. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.

McCorriston J., Steimer-Herbet T., Harrower M., Williams K., Saliège J-F. & Bin ‘Aqil A. 2011. Gazetteer of small-scale monuments in prehistoric Hadramawt, Yemen: A radiocarbon chronology from the RASA-AHSD Project research 1996–2008. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 22: 1–22.

Magee P. 2014. The archaeology of prehistoric Arabia: Adaption and social formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Meister J., Knitter D., Krause J., Müller-Neuhof B. & Schütt B. 2019. A pastoral landscape for millennia: Investigating pastoral mobility in northeastern Jordan using quantitative spatial analyses. Quaternary International 501: 364–378.

Morabito L., Tuttle C., Roberts K., Quatermaine J., Pooley A. & Abu Azizeg W. 2021. Discovering AlUla: Extensive landscape survey and targeted excavations in the AlUla Core Area. Paper delivered at the Seminar for Arabian Studies 2021. [Unpublished.]

Morandi Bonacossi D. 2014. Desert-kites in an aridifying environment. Specialised hunter communities in the Palmyra Steppe during the Middle and Late Holocene. Pages 33–47 in D. Morandi Bonacossi (ed.), Settlement dynamics and human-landscape interaction in the dry steppes of Syria. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Munoz O. 2019. Promoting group identity and equality by merging the dead: Increasing complexity in mortuary practices from Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Oman peninsula and its social implications. Pages 21–40 in K.D. Williams & L.A. Gregoricka (eds), Mortuary and bioarchaeological perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia. Bioarchaeological interpretation of the human past. Gainsville, FL: University of Florida Press.

Munoz O., Cotty M., Charloux G., Bouchaud C., Monchot H., Marquaire C. … al‑Malki T. 2020. Marking the sacral landscape of a north Arabian oasis: A sixth-millennium BC monumental stone platform and surrounding burials. Antiquity 94/375: 601–621.

Nadel D., Bar-Oz G., Avner U., Malkinson D. & Boaretto E. 2013. Ramparts and walls: Building techniques of kites in the Negev highland. Quaternary International 297: 147–154.

Nadel D., Malkinson D., Bar-Oz G., Nachmias A., Avner U., Horwitz L.K. … Porat N. 2021. Small, sparse and effective: The Negev and Sinai kites. Pages 253–304 in A. Betts & P. van Pelt (eds), The Gazelle’s dream: Game drives of the Old and New Worlds. (Adapa Monographs). Sydney: Sydney University Press.

Parr P.J., Zarins J., Ibrahim M., Waechter J., Garrard A., Clarke C. … al‑Badr H. 1978. Preliminary report on the second phase of the Northern Province survey 1397/1977. Atlal 2: 29–50.

Perevolotsky A. & Baharav D. 1991. The distribution of desert kites in eastern Sinai and sub-regional carrying capacity: An ecological perspective. Journal of Arid Environments 20: 239–249.

Rohmer J., Al‑Suhaibani A., Desormeau X., Lesguer F., Purdue L., Tourtet F. 2021. New insights into the archaeology and geo-archaeology of the oasis of AlUla/Dadan during the Iron Age. Paper delivered at the Seminar for Arabian Studies 2021. [Unpublished.]

Al‑Saud A & Khan M. 2006. Rock art and epigraphic survey of Jubbah and Shuwaymis northern Saudi Arabia (2003/1426H). Atlal 19: 49–56.

Steimer T. & Braemer F. 1999. Monuments funéraires mégalithiques au Proche-Orient. Pages 175–189 in J. Guilaine (ed.), Mégalothismes de l’Atlantique à l’Ethiopie: [séminaire du Collège de France] sous la direction de Jean Guilaine. Paris: Éditions Errance.

Steimer-Herbet T. 2004. Classification des sépultures à superstructure lithique dans le Levant et l’Arabie occidentale (IVè–IIIè millénaires av. J.C.). (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1246). Oxford: Archaeopress.

Steimer-Herbet T. 2011. Les tombes-tours du Harra syrien: Étude préliminaire d’un paysage désertique à l’aide des scènes satellitaires à haute definition. Syria 88: 111–121.

Steimer-Herbet T. & Besse M. 2020. The tower-tombs of Arabia from the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC: A standardised megalithic architecture for egalitarian societies? Pages 95–118 in F. Cousseau & L. Laporte (eds), Pre and protohistoric stone architectures: Comparisons of the social and technical contexts associated to their building. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Thomas H., Kennedy M.A., Dalton M., McMahon J., Boyer B. & Repper R. 2021a. The mustatil: Cult and monumentality in Neolithic north-west Arabia. Antiquity 95/381: 605–26.

Thomas H., Kennedy M.A., McMahon J., Strolin L., Franklin D., Flavel A., Noble J. & Swift L. 2021b. Monumentality, social memory, and territoriality in Neolithic–Chalcolithic Northwestern Arabia. Journal of Field Archaeology 46.4: 239–259.

Thomas H., Kennedy M.A., Boyer D.D., Repper R., Dalton M., McMahon J. & Kennedy D.L. (in press). Aerial archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Ula Project (AAKSAU): Report on the 2018 aerial photography and ground survey seasons. Atlal.

Ur J.A. 2009. Emergent landscapes of movement in Early Bronze Age northern Mesopotamia. Pages 180–203 in J.E. Snead, C. Erickson & A.W. Darling (eds), Landscapes of movement: Paths, trails, and roads in anthropological perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum Press.

Wilkinson T.J., Philip G., Bradbury J., Dunford R., Galiatsatos N., Lawrence D. … Smith S.L. 2014. Contextualizing early urbanization: Settlement cores, early states and agro-pastoral strategies in the Fertile Crescent during the fourth and third millennia BC. Journal of World Prehistory 27: 43–109.

Published

01/01/2022

How to Cite

Thomas, H., Kennedy, M. A., Dalton, M., McMahon, J., Repper, R., Boyer, D. D., & Gellard, A.-L. (2023). Results from the aerial archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, al‑ʿUlā (AlUla) and Khaybar Projects: 2018–2021. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 51, 27–51. Retrieved from https://archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.php/PSAS/article/view/2005

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.