ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula 827
See also: Asia, West: Archaeology of the Near East: The
Levant; Mesopotamia, Sumer, and Akkad; Phoenicia;
Roman Eastern Colonies; Civilization and Urbanism,
Rise of; Europe, South: Greece; Greek Colonies; Rome.
Further Reading
Allen L (2005) The Persian Empire. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Culican W (1965) The Medes and Persians. London: Thames and
Hudson.
Curtis VS, Hillenbrand R, and Rogers JM (eds.) (1998) The Art and
Archaeology of Ancient Persia. New Light on the Parthian and
Sasanian Empires. London: Tauris.
Curtis VS and Stewart S (2006) The Idea of Iran, Vol. 2: The Age of
the Parthians. London: Tauris.
Daryaee T (in press) International Library of Iranian Studies, Vol. 8:
Sasanian Persia. The Rise and Fall of an Empire. London: Tauris.
Frye RN (1962) The Heritage of Persia. London: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson.
Gershevitch I (ed.) (1985) Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The
Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.
Harper PO (1978) The Royal Hunter. Art of the Sasanian Empire.
New York: Asia Society.
Herrmann G (1977) The Making of the Past: The Iranian Revival.
Oxford: Elsevier-Phaidon.
Yarshater E (ed.) (1983) Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3. The
Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, 2 parts. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Arabian Peninsula
Daniel T Potts, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW,
Australia
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Glossary
anthropomorphism The attributing of human shape or
characteristics to a god, animal, or inanimate thing.
artesian aquifer A confined aquifer containing groundwater
that will flow upward out of a well without the need for
pumping.
blade A type of stone tool created by striking a long narrow flake
from a stone core.
ghee The liquid butter remaining when butter from milk is
melted, boiled, and strained.
microclimate The climate of a small, specific place within an
area as contrasted with the climate of the entire area.
subtropical climate Refers to zones in a range of latitudes
between 30/40
and 45
. The hot season duration is longer, while
the cold season is milder and rainy.
transhumance Seasonal and alternating movement of
livestock, together with the persons who tend the herds, between
two regions, as lowlands and highlands.
Introduction
The Arabian Peninsula occupies an area of
c. 2 590 000 km2 and is bounded on the east by the
Persian Gulf; on the west by the Red Sea and the Gulf
of Aqaba; on the south by the western Indian Ocean
(Arabian Sea); and on the north by a desert-steppe
zone that blends seamlessly into the southern portions
of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Politically, it is comprised
of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain,
Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Sultanate
of Oman, and Yemen. Most of Arabia enjoys a sub-
tropical climate with low rainfall, but much of north-
eastern Arabia and parts of southeastern Arabia are
underlain by substantial reserves of artesian water.
The mountainous areas of Yemen, the Jabal Akhdar
in the interior of Oman, and inland Dhofar receive
higher rainfall capable of supporting more intensive
forms of irrigation agriculture (Yemen), horticul-
ture (Oman), and arboriculture (Dhofar). Two major
deserts, the Nafud in the north and the Rub al-Khali in
the south, dominate the interior of the peninsula.
Microclimatic zones show considerable vegetational
diversity, as in the Asir region of southwestern Saudi
Arabia, and the relict mangrove forests around Kalba,
Ras al-Khaimah, and Umm al-Qaiwain in the UAE.
Studies have documented climatic variation in the past
and major sea-level changes in both the Red Sea and
Persian Gulf that affected settlement in these regions.
Pleistocene Remains
Whether via the Levantine corridor (from Africa to
Western Asia through Sinai), the Arabian corridor
(across the Bab al-Mandeb strait from the Horn of
Africa to Yemen), or both, stone tool-using hominins
reached the Arabian Peninsula, perhaps as early as
11.2 million years ago. The earliest dated remains at
Ubeidiya in Israel, just north of Arabia, have been
placed at around 1.41 million years ago. There,
Homo ergaster used stone tools of Acheulean type,
including large hand axes and large flakes. Compara-
ble Acheulean (Lower Palaeolithic) material has been
found on open-air sites in northern Saudi Arabia and
in caves in Yemen. Potentially older pebble tools,
resembling Oldowan material in East Africa, have
been found on surface sites in the Wadi Shahar and
at Al-Guza cave (Yemen), but their attribution remains
unconfirmed.
Many more Middle Palaeolithic sites, showing
Levallois-style flaking technology and a Mousterian
industry, characterized by flakes and blades, are
known in both northwestern and southwestern
Arabia, although most of these are surface sites and
none has been excavated to date. Whether these sites
828 ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula
were inhabited by Homo neanderthalensis can only
be determined when skeletal remains are excavated
at an Arabian site.
Upper Palaeolithic open-air sites with sidescrapers
and bifacial foliates have been documented through-
out western Arabia and, more recently, south of Bir
Khasfa in the Wadi Arah of Oman. Typologically this
material shows clear links to East African, rather than
Zagros Mousterian industries.
Early Holocene
The terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene are
poorly documented in Arabia, and it is really not
until the mid-Holocene climatic optimum in the
seventh/sixth millennium BC (88507850 BP) that
the record of human settlement resumes. A variety
of data (sediments, isotopes, and pollen) from fossil
lake beds located in the southern Rub al-Khali (Saudi
Arabia and Yemen) and the UAE confirm that this
wet phase coincided with a temporary, northward
displacement of the summer monsoon. At the same
time, in the more northerly latitudes, the so-called
8.2 ka (ka thousand years ago) event, described
as the most abrupt and significant cold event to
occur in the past 10 000 years, caused a pronounced
aridification in Anatolia and the Levant, which dis-
turbed the pattern of human settlement there, effec-
tively ending the pre-pottery Neolithic phase. The
combination of aridification in the Levant and favor-
able climatic conditions further south in the Arabian
peninsula may explain the relatively sudden expan-
sion of settlement throughout Arabia. The earliest
stone tool tradition in eastern Arabia during the
sixth millennium, a blade-arrowhead industry first
identified in Qatar, shows clear links to the late
PPNB Levantine lithic tradition, while the slightly
later sites of the Arabian Neolithic or Late Stone
Age in eastern Saudi Arabia and the UAE contain
faunal evidence of domesticated sheep and goat, both
of which must have been introduced. It can therefore
be suggested that the expansion of sites in eastern
Arabia at this time may have been due to migrating
groups from the southern Levant who, with their
flocks and distinctive lithic technology, sought to
leave behind a deteriorating environment, settling in
Arabia during a favorable period when monsoon ac-
tivity was at its peak and both game and grazing were
plentiful (see Animal Domestication).
In northeastern Arabia, the bifacially retouched,
barbed and tanged arrowhead is the type fossil of this
phase, while in southeastern and southwestern Arabia,
apart from the so-called Fasad points, which are uni-
facial, foliates and tangless points are more common.
Most of the sites in the northeast and southeast are
surface scatters, although stratified sites with multiple
hearths, midden-like depositional accretion, burials,
and ceramics are known as well. Most of the ceramics
were of imported, black-on-greenish buff material of
Ubaid-type from Mesopotamia, although a coarse,
chaff-tempered redware found on sites like Abu Khamis
and Dosariyah in eastern Saudi Arabia may represent
local attempts at ceramic manufacture. The mechan-
isms whereby Mesopotamian pottery was distributed
from southern Iraq to sites in Kuwait, eastern Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE are unknown,
but scholars have speculated that Mesopotamian sea-
men may have ventured south in search of pearls and
other resources, for which they exchanged pottery
and perhaps other, perishable items.
As the excavated sites of this period in southeastern
Arabia always yield the remains of domesticated
sheep, goat, and cattle, it seems appropriate to class
the groups inhabiting them as herders who did some
hunting on the side, rather than hunters and gatherers
who kept livestock. In addition, as can be seen clearly
in the UAE, a seasonal pattern of transhumance was
practiced. This involved spending winters on the
coast, where fish, shellfish, and other marine fauna
provided ample protein; spring on the gravel plains of
the interior; and summers in the dry desert interior or
mountains.
Along with fish, shellfish, and domestic livestock,
wild animals like gazelle and oryx were hunted,
migratory birds including the Socotran cormorant (Pha-
lacrocorax nigrogularis) were caught, and the date
palm was exploited, setting a pattern of use which is
a hallmark of Arabian horticulture to this day. It is
very likely that the animal domesticates were kept
primarily for their secondary products milk, fleece,
and hair while hunted animals (and marine resources)
provided the bulk of the protein needs of the popula-
tion. Importantly, the domestic animals kept in eastern
Arabia were capable of turning brackish water, other-
wise unfit for human consumption, into potable milk.
Given the impossibility of keeping milk very long in an
arid environment, it is clear that it was probably turned
into some form of cheese or ghee (clarified butter) that
could be consumed over a longer period of time.
Excavations at Ras al-Hamra (Oman) and Jabal
Buhais 18 (Sharjah, UAE) have revealed large cem-
eteries dating to this period. These are usually single
inhumations in shallow pit graves, although in several
cases more than one individual seems to have been
interred simultaneously, perhaps as the result of death
in a single event. The deceased were buried with a
variety of personal belongings including necklaces,
headbands, belts, bracelets, and anklets made out of
marine shells, coral, mother-of-pearl and stones such

as agate, anhydrite, carnelian, chert, jet, limestone,
and serpentinite.
Few sites of this period have been excavated in the
interior of Arabia or in Yemen, but it is likely that
some of the many surface sites on which Arabian
bifacials and foliates have been found date to this
era. Many fossil lake beds in the southern interior of
Arabia, for example, are ringed by remains probably
left by hunting parties, though no sites as substantial
as those in eastern Arabia, with burials and stratified
deposits, have yet been identified.
Early Bronze Age
By the end of the fourth or the beginning of the
third millennium BC, the cultural manifestations
around the Arabian Peninsula begin to show more
and more divergence in all forms of material culture.
In southeastern Arabia, monumental tombs built of
unworked stone, of so-called Hafit type (after Jabal
Hafit), appear on ridge tops near oases such as Baat
and Buraimi. Although they contained few individ-
uals, they were probably collective. Imported ceram-
ics point to links with the Jamdat Nasr period
(c. 3000 BC) in southern Mesopotamia. Towards the
middle of the third millennium, the better-attested
Umm an-Nar culture, with its large circular fortifi-
cations (c. 1640 m in diameter, built of stone, mud
brick, or a combination of both) and far more numer-
ous collective tombs, built of unworked stone faced
with finely masoned limestone ashlars, emerges. In
rare cases, the limestone ashlars of these tombs have
scenes in low relief, including humans and animals
Figure 1 Temple of cut limestone ashlars at Barbar, Bahrain.
ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula 829
(camel, oryx, donkey, bull). Mesopotamian and
Bahraini pottery, Iranian, black-on-gray ceramics and
carved softstone vessels, ivory combs from Bactria
and/or the Indus Valley, and Harappan weights and
etched carnelian beads, all reflect peak close ties with
a wide array of regions extending from the Indus
Valley in the east to Syria in the west. At RJ2 in
eastern Oman (Ras al-Jinz), a sprawling settlement
with third millennium occupation has revealed frag-
ments of bitumen bearing cord and reed mat impres-
sions that come from boats. Harappan material,
including ceramics and seals, found at the site suggests
that Ras al-Jinz, the nearest landfall to Pakistan and
India if one crosses the Arabian Sea by boat, was
probably an important stage in the maritime routes
linking the Indus Valley and the west. Importantly,
RJ2 has also yielded a rectangular, footed incense
burner with traces of aromatic resin still adhering to
its upper surface. This find suggests that the trade in
aromatics linking south Arabia, or the frankincense
and myrrh-producing regions of Dhofar (technically
in Oman, but culturally south Arabian), was already
underway in the Bronze Age, a probability made
highly plausible by references to a large variety of aro-
matics in Mesopotamian cuneiform sources of third
millennium date.
Late in the third millennium, several large settle-
ments were founded on Bahrain (Qalat al-Bahrain and
Saar), while nearby temples (Barbar and Diraz) dis-
played the first public religious architecture known
in the region (Figure 1). In contrast to southeastern
Arabia where collective burial (sometimes involving
hundreds of individuals) was the norm, burial mounds
830 ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula
on Bahrain, over 150 000 of which have been counted
on aerial photographs of the main island, were pre-
dominantly individual inhumations.
Cuneiform sources in Mesopotamia allow us to
identify southeastern Arabia with the region known
as Magan (Sumerian) or Makkan (Akkadian) at this
time. The mainland of eastern Saudi Arabia, with the
important island of Tarut, and Bahrain, on the other
hand, formed the land known as Dilmun (Sumerian)
or Tilmun (Akkadian). Settlements and tombs on the
mainland at Rufayah, Abqayq, and Dhahran, and on
Tarut, show evidence of strong connections with
southern Mesopotamia (ceramics) and southeastern
Iran (softstone vessels).
Elsewhere in the peninsula, however, third millen-
nium occupation is more elusive. Recent C-14 dates
from the deepest levels at Tayma, in the Hejaz, sug-
gest that Bronze Age occupation underlies the pre-
dominantly Iron Age strata at the site. In Yemen, the
Bronze Age was only discovered less than 25 years
ago when Italian archaeologists revealed stone struc-
tures near Sirwah at Khawlan at-Tiyal and Hada; in
the Wadi Hirab, north of the Jawf; and on the high
plateau near Sanaa around Hadur Hamdan and
Rayda. These seem to be small villages of agricultur-
alists who cultivated wheat, barley, sorghum, and
oats, and kept domesticated sheep, goat, and possibly
donkey. A limited range of brick-red, sand-tempered
ceramic forms, some of which are decorated with
burnishing and incision on the exterior, as well as
ground and flaked stone tools, copper tools (pins/
awls) and weaponry (short swords with raised midrib
and two rivets at the base for attachment to the hilt,
c. 1625 cm long, all from Bayt al-Mujali), and jewelry
made of shell and semiprecious stones, constitute the
bulk of the material found on these sites, with one
important exception. A small number of monolithic,
anthropomorphic statues, made of granite and vary-
ing between c. 17.5 and 33 cm in height, appears to
date to the third millennium (and possibly the second
as well). All have small, triangular, flattened heads
with eyes indicated by slight depressions and a clear
nose, atop broad, square shoulders. The upper arms
are held vertically against the body, and the forearms
are horizontal, a pose that is reminiscent of Mesopo-
tamian statuary of the mid-third millennium in the
Diyala region (Early Dynastic II). Males are often
distinguished by a raised ridge running from the
shoulder downward, between the hands and around
the upper waist (a rope? braid? edge of a toga-like
garment that left the neck and one shoulder uncov-
ered?); a belt closer to the hips; and a penis. In one
case, a female is identifiable by a large pubic triangle,
while in another small breasts and the labial area are
clearly delineated. The function of such statuary is
unknown. On analogy with contemporary Mesopota-
mia, these anthropomorphic images may represent
dead individuals who wished to be commemorated
by a statue in an attitude of perpetual prayer. If so,
then it is likely that they were originally displayed in a
temple or shrine of some sort.
The third millennium inhabitants of south Arabia
were buried in turret graves, collective inhumations
built of unworked stone whch often occur in clusters
or alignments. Most have been robbed, however, and
the paucity of archaeological finds contained in them
have made their dating problematic. Another tomb
type dating to the mid-third millennium, attested at
al-Qibali 9 in the Wadi Arf and at graves in the Wadi
al-Muhammadiyin, consists of a circle of vertical,
unworked boulders, some of which may have incised,
anthropomorphic forms on the outer face. These
resemble the freestanding granite statuary described
above, with the addition of a particular dagger type,
with crescentic pommel or handle (perhaps the handle
type that would have been riveted to the copper blades
found at Bayt al-Mujali). Close parallels for precisely
this type of weapon are known from the so-called
grave of Meskalamdug (PG 755) in the Royal Cem-
etery at Ur (c. 2500 BC) and later in a XIIth Dynasty
grave at Dahshur in Egypt (early second millennium
BC). Archaeological explorations at shell middens on
the Farasan islands in the lower Red Sea have been
directed at documenting links between southwestern
Arabia and pharaonic Egypt but to date there is
no compelling evidence of such ties before the Late
Bronze Age (see the relevant section below). As for the
Early Bronze Age of central and northern Arabia, as
well as most of the Red Sea littoral north of Yemen,
we have no information at the present time.
By the mid-third millennium, eastern Arabia began
to figure increasingly in Mesopotamian cuneiform
sources. Late Early Dynastic documents show us
Dilmun (Bahrain/eastern Saudi Arabia) as an exporter
of woods from foreign lands and copper to the south-
ern Mesopotamian city of Lagash. By the twenty-
fourth century BC, Magan (UAE/Oman) had become
an object of aggression as at least two Old Akkadian
kings, Naram-Sin and Manishtushu, conducted cam-
paigns there. Further aggression may have taken place
during the Ur III period, but the trade of Mesopota-
mian textiles and oil (sesame) for copper from Magan
(extracted from the copper-rich ophiolite formation
of the Hajar mountains in Oman) is also attested
(Figure 2). A decentralized political system is sug-
gested by the size and nature of sites from this period
in the UAE and Oman, most which are dominated by
one or more fortified towers and were probably the

Figure 2 The copper-rich Hajar mountains run from the northern UAE to the southeastern part of Oman.
Figure 3 Gold objects from the late 3rd millennium BC tomb at
Tell Abraq.
strongholds of local rulers, but there is at least one text
from Ur in Iraq which records the receipt of gold dust
from a king of Magan (Figure 3) (see Political Com-
plexity, Rise of).
Middle Bronze Age
In the early second millennium, the major settlement
at Qalat al-Bahrain grew within the confines of an
enormous city wall, built at the very end of the third
millennium, encompassing some 15 ha. A large, pala-
tial residence built of cut limestone ashlars, that
continued to be used right through the Iron Age, was
erected in this period. Cuneiform documents from
Ur confirm that an important trade in copper ingots
(originating in Oman) on their way to the cities of
ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula 831
southern Mesopotamia passed through the hands of
Dilmunite traders. A planned settlement at Saar, with
streets, a temple, and a consistent set of multiroomed
houses, was also inhabited. Furthermore, a colony of
Dilmunites was established on Failaka, an island in
the bay of Kuwait, at the head of the Gulf. Distinctive
stamp seals with iconography showing humans and
animals were used by Dilmunite traders, as a seal-
impressed tablet recording trade in metals found at
Susa, in southwestern Iran, attests. Relations with
Oman, Dilmuns copper source, are reflected in the
presence of typical red-ridged, Dilmunite (so-called
Barbar) pottery, at sites like Tell Abraq and Kalba
in the UAE, the composition of some of which (from
Tell Abraq) shows that it originated at Saar.
In Oman and the UAE, a change in diet is suggested
by isotopic analyses of skeletal remains from collec-
tive tombs. Fewer terrestrial fauna (cattle, sheep,
goat) were being consumed, while marine resources
contributed a greater proportion of the protein intake
than previously. Whether environmental conditions
deterioriated at this time is unclear, though this has
been invoked as a possible cause of settlement regres-
sion. Whereas tombs are abundant enough in the first
700 years of the second millennium, settlements
became exceedingly scarce. A reversion to nomadism
is unlikely, particularly as there is no evidence of camel
domestication yet (see below). It is certain, however,
that socioeconomic change occurred, visible in changes
in ceramics, settlement pattern, and burial form.
Graves were now either long, single-chambered struc-
tures (both semi-subterranean and above ground);
ovoid, sometimes with an internal wall running the
length of the chamber; or multichambered aggregates
832 ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula
of roughly circular or oval spaces (perhaps built suc-
cessively to house members of an extended group?).
The evidence of contact with the outside world, so
abundant in the late third millennium, is considerably
less, though post-Harappan and Kaftari (Elamite) cera-
mics, at Tell Abraq and Shimal, as well as pottery and
seals of Dilmunite type, reflect ongoing contact with
foreign areas.
The Middle Bronze Age remains very poorly
attested outside of eastern Arabia, and it is not until
the Late Bronze Age that the archaeological sequences
in northwestern and southwestern Arabia offer us
much evidence.
Late Bronze Age
The late second millennium BC is now seen by many
as the formative period in both northwestern and
southern Arabia, leading directly to the emergence
of state-level societies in Yemen during the Iron Age
and major tribal confederations (e.g., the Midianites)
in the Hejaz that interacted on a variety of levels with
the peoples of Syro-Palestine and Egypt.
On the Tihama coast (Red Sea) and around the
southwestern tip of Arabia toward Abyan, to the
east of Aden, a unified, Late Bronze culture known
as the Sabr culture (after the type site of the same
name, c. 20 km north of Aden) shows clear links in
ceramic shapes and punctate or combed decoration
with African material, particularly at pre-Aksumite
sites in Ethiopia and Eritrea, from which the Yemeni
coast is separated only by the narrow Bab al-Mandab,
and on sites of the Pan Grave culture in Nubia.
Less oriented toward the highlands of Yemen than
toward the Red Sea, the Sabr culture represents an
important phase of development prior to the rise
of Saba in the early first millennium BC. The trajec-
tory that led in the direction of the classical south
Arabian states (Awsan, Saba, Main, Qataban, and
Himyar) is, however, apparent in the highlands at
Yala and Hajar Bin Humeid, where calibrated C-14
dates push the beginnings of settlements utilizing irri-
gation agriculture and making ceramics which pre-
figure later south Arabian material, back to the
twelfth century BC. Some scholars have pointed to
early occuation at Raybun and Shabwa in the Wadi
Hadramawt which appears not merely pre-Sabaean
but noon-Sabaean, evincing links, to judge by the
ceramics, with the southern Levant. Such links are
long suspected by linguists who point to a prob-
able common ancestry for the Phoenician and the
south Arabian alphabet and similarities between
alphabetic Ugaritic and the south Semitic alphabet
and letter order. These clues, along with ceramic par-
allels, have convinced researchers that an important
stimulus leading to the appearance of classical south
Arabian civilization derived from overland contacts
along what would become the western incense route
leading from Gaza in Palestine to Marib in Saba.
Certainly at the time proposed for such links,
northwestern Arabia was inhabited, but there has
been no excavation at key sites such as Qurayyah,
east of the Gulf of Aqaba in northwesternmost Saudi
Arabia, where the visible remains of fortifications,
a citadel, agricultural fields, ceramic production
area, and an associated settlement are known only
from brief surface investigations. Both Late Bronze
Age Aegean and Egyptian parallels, and with Midi-
anite wares from the copper-smelting site of Timna
near Aqaba, suggest nevertheless that a date in the
thirteenthtwelfth centuries BC is highly probable.
Relations with Egypt and Israel, attested to in written
sources, will unfortunately remain invisible from
an archaeological perspective until excavations are
undertaken at Qurayyah and other sites in the region.
Turning to the east, by the Late Bronze Age,
Bahrain had come under the control of the Kassite
dynasty in southern Mesopotamia. Archaeologically,
this is manifested by a fundamental change in the
ceramic repertoire, as classic Kassite shapes replace
those of the BarbarDilmunite tradition. Several
dozen cuneiform texts found in the reused palatial
building on Qalat al-Bahrain, surely the seat of pro-
vincial administration at this time, attest to the use
of writing for local recording purposes by Kassite
officials, but, apart from this, writing seems not to
have become more widespread in the local commu-
nity. Failaka, too, was well within the Kassite sphere
of influence, and the settlement there, consisting of
densely packed, multiroomed houses built of locally
available beach rock (Arabic farush), shows the same
predominance of Kassite ceramic forms as Bahrain.
Southeastern Arabia, on the other hand, remained
beyond Kassite control. At the end of the Late Bronze
Age, local ceramic forms and fabrics find few paral-
lels outside the region and with the exception of a
small number of sherds resembling Elamite material
from southwestern Iran, as well as one manifestly
Elamite cylinder seal of faience from Tell Abraq,
evidence of ties to other regions is lacking.
Iron Age
During the early first millennium BC, several factors
combined to launch a number of regions in the
Arabian peninsula toward complex statehood. Agricul-
tural intensification due to improved irrigation, the
production of surpluses under the control of local elites,
the domestication of the camel enabling long-distance
caravan trade in aromatics, and pressure from outside

aggressors (principally Assyria) all contributed to state
formation processes in southwestern and northwestern
Arabia, while in the Persian Gulf and southeastern
Arabia, tributary relations with Assyria on the part of
local rulers were documented.
By far the best known of these states arose in south
Arabia where thousands of inscriptions, many of
them historical or annalistic, shed light on the intense
competition between rulers and regions that resulted
in the consolidation of successive Sabaean, Minaean,
Qatabanian, Hadramawt, and Himyarite states.
Although we know little of the earliest supraregional
state in the region, Awsan, there is an unbroken record
of state-level, highly organized, militaristic societies
with standing armies and important external trade
and diplomatic relations from the eighth century BC,
when two Sabaean kings are mentioned in Assyrian
royal inscriptions, to the coming of Islam in the seventh
century AD. Broadly speaking, this millennium can be
divided into four main periods: (1) the period of the
mukarribs (unifiers or federators) of Saba, eighth provincial administrator in the service of the Achae-
to sixth century BC; (2) the period of the kings of
Saba, fifth to first century BC; (3) the period of the
kings of Saba and dhu-Raydan, first to third century
AD; and (4) the Himyarite period, fourth to sixth
century AD. South Arabian society was supported by
an intensive agricultural regime dependent on irriga-
tion. Major dams, like the one at the Sabaean capital
Marib, stored water and enabled the production of
massive agricultural surpluses. Large, walled cities
(Marib, Sirwah, Baraqish, Shabwa, Najran, etc.) dot
the south Arabian landscape, along with smaller
towns, villages, and farmsteads in a complex hierarchy
of settlement. High standards of stone masonry and
an arid climate have resulted in an extraordinary level
of preservation at many sites. Monumental tombs,
replete with alabaster statuary, bronze weaponry, and
ceramics; silver and base metal coinage, inspired ori-
ginally by Athenian coinage; a rich repertoire of icon-
ographic elements in architectural decoration and
metalwork; and a passion for highly visible, elegantly
carved public inscriptions, characterize south Arabias
civilizations.
In northwestern Arabia, the site of Tayma grew
into a major urban center during the sixth century
BC when the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus moved
his residence there from 553 to 543 BC. A large city
wall enclosing an important settlement with temples
and industrial areas makes this the largest archaeo-
logical site in the region. At about the same time, an
important settlement on the northeastern outskirts of
the al-Ula oasis, known as Khuraybah, began to
grow. The site, where Saudi excavations have recently
begun, is attested in the Bible as Dedan (e.g., Genesis
10.7, etc.) and was home to a trading emporium
ASIA, WEST/Arabian Peninsula 833
founded by Minaean merchants from south Arabia
who thereby established an important commercial
center near the northern end of the incense route.
Other important Iron Age remains have been iden-
tified in the Jawf oasis of north-central Arabia,
ancient Adummatu of the Assyrian sources, but
these have not yet been investigated intensively.
Assyrian accounts of campaigns in the region make
it clear, however, that tribal confederations of camel-
breeding nomads occupied much of the north
Arabian desert in the early and mid-first millennium
BC. The archaeology of this population is virtually
unknown, although some of the abundant rock art to
be seen in the region probably dates to this period.
Assyrian sources also record the receipt of tribute
from several kings of Dilmun but these predate the
occupational evidence from the major palatial build-
ing on Qalat al-Bahrain which was used during the
mid-first millennium. Ceramics and a rock crystal
stamp seal in Achaemenid court style suggest that a
menid Persian Empire may have used the building.
Otherwise, there is little archaeological evidence of
Persian control at this time.
The Iron Age in the Oman peninsula witnessed an
explosion of settlement. Thanks to the introduction of
qanat or falaj irrigation technology, many new oasis
settlements were established, some of which were
walled. Date palm cultivation probably expanded at
this time and the use of the domesticated dromedary
camel is attested. Sites like Muweilah, Rumeilah,
al-Thuqaibah, and Hili 17 reflect the existence of
large communities living in multiroomed, mud brick
houses. Bronze weaponry has been recovered in large
quantities in cemeteries such as al-Qusais, on the out-
skirts of Dubai. Iron Age graves have been found all
over southeastern Arabia, and Izki, according to
Assyrian sources, was the base of a king named Pade
who sent tribute to the Assyrian ruler Assurbanipal in
the seventh century BC.
The Age of World Empires
Between Alexander the Greats conquest of the Achae-
menid Empire in the late fourth century BC and
the coming of Islam, the different sub-areas of the
Arabian peninsula experienced highly variable inter-
action with the empires of later antiquity. In eastern
Arabia, there are visible signs of contact with the post-
Alexander Seleucid Empire, based in central Mesopo-
tamia, and with the later Parthian and Sasanian
Empires that originated in Iran. A small Seleucid gar-
rison that has yielded Greek inscriptions and coins,
imported Hellenistic pottery and figurines of Greek
834 ASIA, WEST/Archaeology of the Near East: The Levant
deities, was established on Failaka island. Similar
sorts of finds are attested on Bahrain, particularly at
Qalat al-Bahrain and in hundreds of burial mounds,
while in the UAE and Oman the degree of Hellenistic
influence is considerably less, amounting to a small
quantity of imported pottery (e.g., the stamped han-
dles from Rhodian wine amphorae) and a small num-
ber of coins. A local dynast named Abiel minted his
own coins at the site of Mleiha, in the interior of
Sharjah, where a sprawling settlement with private
houses and monumental, mud brick graves, generally
reminiscent of Palmyrene funerary towers in Syria,
has been excavated. Large quantities of imported
Parthian pottery, along with Characene coins from
southern Iraq, Namord ware from southeastern Iran,
Indian Red Polished Ware from the Indian subconti-
nent, and quantities of Roman glass, have been found
in excavations at the large (c. 4  1 km2) site of ed-
Dur, on the Persian Gulf coast north of Umm al-
Qaiwain. Later occupational evidence in southeastern
Arabia is scarce. Although a large settlement mound
at Kush, in Ras al-Khaimah, has been excavated, as
well as numerous graves around Samad in Oman, the
last few centuries before the coming of Islam are poor-
ly documented, perhaps because climatic conditions
deteriorated and population declined.
Given the distance from Yemen to the rest of the
Near East, south Arabia was rarely threatened by her
neighbors and its later history is marked more by
internal military strife than external threats. Although
diplomatic relations are attested in the Assyrian period,
and an alliance between the Hamdanid dynasty and
the Axumites in Ethiopia is attested in the second
century AD, the Roman expedition against Marib
of 26/5 BC was the first foreign incursion into south
Arabia. Increasingly, however, south Arabia was drawn
into a web of international political competition be-
tween the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires, in which
Christianity, Judaism, and international trade all
played a role. Archaeologically, the last few centuries
before Islam are poorly known. The major site of Zafar,
capital of Himyar, has never been excavated, and only
cursory investigations have been undertaken at Najran,
scene of an infamous massacre of Christians by Dhu
Nawas, a Jewish ruler in south Arabia who came to
power through a coup in 521522 AD. The conquest
of south Arabia by the Sasanians in 575 is archaeologi-
cally invisible.
The last great civilization in pre-Islamic north-
western Arabia was that of the Nabataeans. Although
normally associated with their capital Petra in south-
ern Jordan, the Nabataeans exercised control much
further south. Madain Salih, in northwestern Saudi
Arabia, about 110 km southwest of Tayma, is a major
site with rock-cut tombs and a large settlement
mound. Smaller Nabataean sites are also known in
the region.
See also: Asia, West: Archaeology of the Near East: The
Levant; Mesolithic Cultures; Mesopotamia, Sumer, and
Akkad; Paleolithic Cultures; Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-
Pharaonic; Animal Domestication; Asia, South: Indus
Civilization; Political Complexity, Rise of.
Further Reading
Edens C and Wilkinson TJ (1998) Southwest Arabia during the
Holocene: Recent archaeological developments. Journal of
World Prehistory 12: 55119.
Hoyland R (2001) Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to
the Coming of Islam. London: Taylor and Francis.
Potts DT (1990) The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, Vols. 12. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Simpson St J (ed.) (2002) Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient
Yemen. London: British Museum.
Archaeology of the Near
East: The Levant
Suzanne Richard, Gannon University, Erie, PA, USA
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Glossary
aniconic Traditional view that bans idols from the decorative
arts, for example, Jewish tradition disallows images in
accordance with Mosaic law.
Asherah The Canaanite mother goddess, term used to describe
Iron Age pillar figurines.
bit-hilani A Syrian-style palace/temple consisting of a portico
with columns, often with animals carved into the column bases.
hippodamian A town plan on a gridiron pattern, usually divided
into blocks according to various functions.
hypogeum An underground stone-built tomb.
Merneptah stele Victory stele of Pharaoh Merneptah (1207
BCE) mentioning numerous conquests, including, the people,
Israel.
miqvaot Pl. of miqveh, a Hebrew term for a ritual bath.
tetrapylon Architectural gate-like structure consisting of four
arches usually located at a major intersection in a Roman city.
Via Nova Trajiana The new road of Trajan, built after CE 135
from Petra to Bostra.
Introduction
Defining the Near Eastern Area: The Levant
The area encompasses the modern countries of Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, as well as, Palestine and the