Settlement Pattern in the ‘Araba Valley and the Adjacent Desert Areas, a View from the Eilat Region 2006 (original) (raw)

Settlement Patterns in the Wadi Arabah and the Adjacent Desert Areas: A View from the Eilat Region

The desert environment is usually considered inhospitable, and archaeological remains are often modest and less impressive than in other regions. Accordingly, scholars have often marginalised desert cultures and their role in the history of the ancient Near East. The purpose of this article is to show that desert remains are often misconstrued, that they actually represent richer cultural complexes than have been commonly accepted, and the current view of desert history requires re-evaluation. The discussion focuses on the periods from Late Neolithic to the end of Early Bronze Age, i.e. the sixth-third millennia BC. 1

In the Desert Margins the Settlement Process in an Ancient South and East Arabia

Year: 2014 Publisher: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER Series: Arabia Antica, 09 ISBN: 978-88-913-0680-7 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 336 Size: 24 x 28 cm Ancient Arabia has promptly been pictured as a vast empty desert. Yet, for the last 40 years, by digging out of the sand buried cities, archaeological researches deeply renewed this image. From the second half of the 1st millennium BC to the eve of Islam in East Arabia, and as early as the 8th century BC in South Arabia, the settlement process evolved into urban societies. This study aims at reviewing this process in South and East Arabia, highlighting the environmental constraints, the geographical disparities and the responses of the human communities to ensure their subsistence and to provide for their needs. Evolution was endogenous, far from the main corridors of migrations and invasions. Influences from the periphery did not cause any prominent change in the remarkably stable communities of inner Arabia in antiquity. The settlement process and the way of life was primarily dictated by access to water sources and to the elaboration of ever-spreading irrigation systems. Beyond common traits, two models characterise the ancient settlement pattern on the arid margins of eastern and southern Arabia. In South Arabia, the settlement model for the lowland valleys and highland plateaus results from a long-term evolution of communities whose territorial roots go back to the Bronze Age. It grew out of major communal works to harness water. Into a territory of irrigated farmland, the south- Arabian town appeared as a central place. Settlements constituted networks spread across the valleys and the plateaus. Each network was dominated by a main town, the centre of a sedentary tribe, the capital of a kingdom. In East Arabia, the settlement pattern followed a different model which emerged in the last centuries BC along the routes crossing the empty spaces of the steppe, in a nomadic environment. Each community spread over no more than one, two or three settlements. These settlements never grew very large and the region was not urbanised to the same degree as in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Permanent settlements were places for exchanges and meetings, for craft productions, for worship, where the political elites resided, where the wealth from long-distance trading was gathered, and where surplus from the regional economy was held. Each town was isolated, like an island in an empty space. Dr Hdr Michel Mouton Archaeologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNR S), Michel Mouton has been director of the French archaeological expedition in Sharjah from 1991 to 1997 (excavations at Mleiha and al-Madam); director of the French archaeological expedition in the Jawf-Hadramawt from 1995 to 2006 (excavations at Qan' , Makaynn, and surveys of the Yemen territory) and head of the project Early Petra from the National Agency for Research (2008-2012). From 2000 to 2002, he has been general secretary of the French Institute in the Near-East (IFPO, Damascus / Beirut / Amman), and deputy director in 2003. At the present time, he is director of the French Research Centre for Archaeology and Social Sciences in the Arabian Peninsula (CEFAS, Jeddah / Sanaa). Dr Jérémie Schiettecatte Archaeologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNR S), in Paris, Jérémie Schiettecatte holds a PhD in Near-Eastern archaeology from the Sorbonne University. He focuses on the study of the settlement process in arid lands. His current interests lay in the analysis of the evolution of settlement

2014 - In the desert margins. The settlement process in ancient South and East Arabia

2014

Ancient Arabia has promptly been pictured as a vast empty desert. Yet, for the last 40 years, by digging out of the sand buried cities, archaeological researches deeply renewed this image. From the second half of the 1st millennium BC to the eve of Islam in East Arabia, and as early as the 8th century BC in South Arabia, the settlement process evolved into urban societies. This study aims at reviewing this process in South and East Arabia, highlighting the environmental constraints, the geographical disparities and the responses of the human communities to ensure their subsistence and to provide for their needs. Evolution was endogenous, far from the main corridors of migrations and invasions. Influences from the periphery did not cause any prominent change in the remarkably stable communities of inner Arabia in antiquity. The settlement process and the way of life was primarily dictated by access to water sources and to the elaboration of ever-spreading irrigation systems. Beyond common traits, two models characterise the ancient settlement pattern on the arid margins of eastern and southern Arabia. In South Arabia, the settlement model for the lowland valleys and highland plateaus results from a long-term evolution of communities whose territorial roots go back to the Bronze Age. It grew out of major communal works to harness water. Into a territory of irrigated farmland, the south-Arabian town appeared as a central place. Settlements constituted networks spread across the valleys and the plateaus. Each network was dominated by a main town, the centre of a sedentary tribe, the capital of a kingdom. In East Arabia, the settlement pattern followed a different model which emerged in the last centuries BC along the routes crossing the empty spaces of the steppe, in a nomadic environment. Each community spread over no more than one, two or three settlements. These settlements never grew very large and the region was not urbanised to the same degree as in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Permanent settlements were places for exchanges and meetings, for craft productions, for worship, where the political elites resided, where the wealth from long-distance trading was gathered, and where surplus from the regional economy was held. Each town was isolated, like an island in an empty space.

When environment meets culture in the arid margin of the Southern Levant

Journal of Arid Environments, 2024

Research in the arid margins of the Southern Levant has revealed a series of cultural entities related to and interacting with analogues in the more mesic Mediterranean zone. These terminal Pleistocene (Epipalaeolithic) and early Holocene (Pre-Pottery Neolithic) foraging entities display clearly local traits reflecting restricted networking and adaptations at times when environmental conditions deteriorated, and the connections with contemporaneous cultural entities farther afield weakened, combined with connections with the wider panregional cultural entities. By examining the specific example of the short-lived Late Epipalaeolithic Harifian culture we attempt to illustrate the manner in which local social behaviours in the landscapes of the arid margins may have contributed to maximizing and prolonging cultural adaptations there especially during periods of variable, yet generally challenging environmental conditions during the Younger Dryas (YD), with a greater degree of isolation from the 'sown land'. Ultimately, a threshold was reached towards the end of the YD, and the Harifian adaptation ceased to be viable, so they had little choice but to abandon their former territories in the Negev and northern Sinai to more favourable environmental conditions, near and, perhaps, far. Speculatively, having to merge with different groups as conditions there were not improving and 'packing' was tight, may have contributed to the emergence of large-scale 'archaic' villages of the PPNA.

A Permanent Late Neolithic Residential Structure in the Eastern Desert of Jordan

Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 30 April – 4 May, 2012, University of Warsaw. Vol 2., 2014

A season of excavation in the summer of 2011 at Wisad Pools, in Jordan's Black Desert, has revealed how inadequate regional paleoclimatic models based on proxies from the western Levant are when it comes to understanding changes in the exploitation potentials at distances far removed from the Mediterranean coastal regimes. The exposure of a Late Neolithic (in this case, c. 6,000 calBC)

Neolithic Structures in the Jordanian Arid Zones: A Synthesis

This paper is concerned with the Early Bronze Age I–III archaeological evidence from the Jordan Valley, the aim of inquiring if there was a trade route linking Egypt with the southern Levant during this era. This was a critical period for the social evolution of this area because it coincided with the appearance of the first cities.

The Fringes of the Arid Regions: Prehistoric Settlement Development in Central Jordan

It has been noticed that prehistoric research in Jordan has been rapidly increasing during the last thirty years. The large number of results of archaeological survey, sounding site and regional field projects reflect this. The results of these activities are published in preliminary or final reports. During the past 20 years several major publications devoted only to the discussion of the prehistory of Jordan have been published.1 In addition a large number of PhD and MA theses discussing major aspects of the prehistory of Jordan have been submitted to many national and international institutions. Comprehensive studies directed towards understanding the prehistory of Jordan started only during the second half of the 1970 s of the twentieth century. However, a survey of the prehistoric research in Jordan reveals a marked increase in the number of projects over the last decades. They are widely distributed and represent time frames ranging from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Chalcolithic. Unfortunately, only a few of these projects have reached final publications, while many are still underway. However, the published preliminary results may assist researchers in understanding the differences in the settlement patterns through all the prehistoric periods, and from one region to another in Jordan. This presentation will concentrate only on studying the prehistory of the fringes of central Jordan