COPPER TRADE AND THE SETTLEMENT RISE IN THE SOUTH LEVANTINE DESERTS IN THE EB IV (original) (raw)
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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
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1996
Approximately 1,000 EB IV sites have been surveyed to date in the Negev and Sinai deserts. A few of these sites are large, permanent settlements located near water sources and consisting of 100 to 200 structures. The vast majority, however, are small, temporary sites with a few poorly built structures, located far from water sources. Reexamination of the finds that reflected the economy of the sites revealed evidence of pastoralism and agriculture, primarily in the small temporary sites. In the large, permanent settlements, however, there was extensive evidence related to industry and trade in copper, on a much larger scale than previously believed. The author maintains that the emergence of settlements in the desert during EB IV is related to the transport of copper from Feinan to Egypt by Asians. Following the establishment of large, per- manent settlements, mainly by copper-specialists whose main economy was not depen- dent on the desert environment, there was a rise in seminomadic activity throughout this area, as evidenced in the hundreds of small temporary
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.
Památky archeologické, 2013
Study presents results of longitudinal archaeological prospection in the segment of oasis Bahariya named Al-Hayz, that would be further carried out by Czech Institute of Egyptology and Institute for Classical Archeology, of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, in collaboration with University of Jan Evangesista Purkyně, Ústí nad Labem, Institute of archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. v. i. and National Heritage Institute. Expected delineation of Roman period and middle age Egypt history with regard to history of the Western desert is accompanied by exhaustive list of archaeological localities. These were collected thanks to remote or surface explorations and partial terrain excavations either for the first time exhaustively documented or discovered. List of localities as well as collected heap of documented material culture enables us to present basic development of oasis settlement in the Roman and Middle age period. In the Roman period dating back since 3rd century AD there is evidence for massive inhabitation of oasis, building of intricated underground technicist constructions, gathering and dispatching water along the dessert margin and also upheaval of agricultural as well as non-agricultural industries. In the area of oasis we glance over settlement of the city type, including adjacent fields and its infrastructure, water industry, necropolises etc. We oversee remnants of village type of settlement and material culture indicating intensive connections with other areas of Roman Empire, especially with Tripolitan region and Northern Mediterranean. On the whole we can guess there were living tens of thousands of people there. Regression of inhabitation happens since 5th century AD. Eventhough oasis was presumably never completely abandoned settlement was reduced to several villages whose material culture indicates isolated settlement and its pauperization. Process of relatively fast migration of inhabitants serves here as an extraordinary example of the fact how downfall of central bureaucracy and state power influences ability of agriculture communities to maintain shared technicist constructions whose existence is prerequisite for extreme conditions in the Western desert.