Gazetteer of small-scale monuments in prehistoric Hadramawt, Yemen: a radiocarbon chronology from the RASA-AHSD Project research 1996-2008

Abstract

This paper provides a new, interpretive gazetteer and chronology of Hadramawt’s highland monuments based on results from archaeological survey and test excavations by the RASA‐AHSD (Roots of Agriculture in southern Arabia‐Arabian Human Social Dynamics) Project. With the exception of a few incidental sightings and an unpublished pipeline survey, the prehistoric record of southern Yemen’s highland plateau has been largely unknown. There are few settlements, so that understanding human landscape history must begin with the numerous small‐scale stone monuments left by mobile people. With examples representing monuments from the fifth, fourth, third and first millennia BC, the corpus of small excavations and radiocarbon dates reported here provides the first guide to the monument types of South Arabian highlands. Monument building began under more moist conditions and appears to have commemorated animal sacrifices long before commemorating mortuary rites and interment. There appears to be a temporal break of 1000 years before the widespread and varied practices of Bronze Age tomb construction, which lasted through the third millennium BC. After another break in monument construction, tombs were reused in the first millennium BC, sometimes with successive ritual visits. The data presented offer new material for the interpretation of the lives and activities of prehistoric pastoralists throughout the Holocene.

Autodetection of ancient Arabian tombs in high-resolution satellite imagery

“…For instance, our field team has indicated that HCTs often appear in clusters in the field. HCTs are burial monuments that seem to emphasize group territories and group membership (Cleuziou 2001;McCorrison et al 2011). As a result, it is likely that multiple kinship and social group members have been buried in the same vicinity.…”

“…HCTs were revisited and reused, and so human traffic contributed to the clearing of darkened desert reg off bright limestone bedrock (Bin Aqil and McCorriston 2009;McCorrison et al 2011). Indeed, observations from the field indicate that most HCTs sit in a small clearing devoid of rubble.…”

“…They are circular walled tombs that are roughly 1 m high on average and may contain multiple interred bodies. Evidence suggests that some tombs were reused over time, with older bodies interred between 3100-2200 BC being covered over with rocks and newer bodies (interred between 1000 BC-500 AD) laid on top (McCorrison et al 2011). HCTs also tend to appear in clusters and seem to be a marker of territorial ownership due to their frequent occupation of easily observed ridges overlooking wadis.…”

“…De Cardi, Doe, and Roskams 1977;Braemer et al 2001;Steimer-Herbet, Braemer, and Davtian 2006;AlShahrî 2007;Bin Aqil and McCorriston 2009;McCorrison et al 2011). However, across large regions and the rough terrain, ground surveys can be time consuming and expensive.…”

The Social, Spatial, and Bioarchaeological Histories of Ancient Oman project: the mortuary landscape of Dhank

“…Recently, various research teams have surveyed other areas within the Oman peninsula and documented the distribution of early third‐millennium BC tombs in the Ja'alan (Giraud & Cleuziou ), Wadi Andam (Deadman ), the region surrounding Bat (Cable ), and as far south as Dhofar (McCorriston et al . , in press; Harrower, Senn & McCorriston, in press). Alternatively, the SoBO team has surveyed an under‐reported region of northern Oman that occupies the desert frontier between Ibri and Jebel Hafit, near the modern village of Dhank (Fig.…”