Piecing together the evidence: architecture, inscriptions, and sherds from an early to middle Islamic funerary context in Qurḥ/al‑Mabiyāt
Keywords:
Qurḥ / al-Mabiyat, Early Islamic period, Funerary Archaeology, early to middle Islamic architecture/pottery/funerary archaeologyAbstract
Recent archaeological fieldwork in the early to middle Islamic city of Qurḥ/al‑Mabiyāt investigated architectural structures
within an extramural cemetery. The area is characterized by supposed simple graves, apparently delimited by oval rings or
covers of pebbles, while remains of stone walls, brick fragments, and pieces of white plaster indicate the presence of substantial
and representative funerary architecture. Excavations by the German Archaeological Institute funded by the Royal Commission
for AlUla (RCU) in 2022–2023 uncovered two adjoining architectural units, each confined by enclosure walls and plastered floors
surrounding an embedded central structure. Furthermore, the remains show extensive work and elaboration in the form of
claddings and superstructures. As the buildings have been looted, investigations concentrated on the architecture, associated
fragments of Kufic inscriptions, tenth–eleventh-century AD pottery, and the contextual embedding within the cemetery as part
of the city and its built environment. These new findings enable us to develop new perspectives regarding local traditions and
early to middle Islamic burial practices in north-western Hijaz and the wider region. The limited number of these monuments
at Qurḥ compared with the large number of graves, indicates that a small group of people was treated differently in death,
suggesting individual distinctions within the early to middle Islamic society of Qurḥ.
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2 – https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Baqi_Halimah.jpg (last accessed 20th October 2024)
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