Restauración del morabito de Sidi Abdullah Khalifa en Ouled Youssef, Oasis de Mhamid, Marruecos (original) (raw)

Facets of Life in an Ancient Oasis: Contrasting Living Spaces at Tayma (Saudi Arabia).

Otto, A., Herles, M., Kaniuth, K. (eds.), Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz., 2020

Studies on built environments in the Ancient Near East often focus on residential architecture and rarely emphasize the existence of a variety of constructed living spaces that constitute settlements (e.g. habitation, work, subsistence). The ancient oasis of Tayma, situated in the arid region of NW-Arabia, was structured by a vast system of walls that defined several Compounds with distinct characteristics. Their variety is exemplified by Compound E, in which a residential quarter (Area E-South/F) with a continual archaeological sequence dating at least from the mid-1st mill. BCE to Late Antiquity was excavated, and Compound A, once confining a large intramural agricultural area (Area H) that featured a sophisticated canal system which was in use at least from the 11th – 6th cent. BCE. In the present case study, drawn from results of recent fieldwork at the site by a joint Saudi-German project, these contrasting living spaces are analysed. Both represent different facets of everyday life such as agricultural production, food processing, storage and socioeconomic organisation of households. These aspects provide insights into the complex interplay of different living spaces within the ancient oasis of Tayma.

Al-ʿAyn Oases Mapping Project: al-Hīlī Oasis 2017

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2018

Since 2014 the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) and Zayed University have been running an annual field school aimed at introducing Emirati students to archaeological methodology and the oasis landscape of al-ʿAyn. In 2017 the focus of this programme was the oasis of al-Hīlī, the northernmost of the group. The project adopts a holistic approach to understanding the cultural landscape of the oasis that combines the detailed survey of historic boundary walls with stratigraphic excavation, typological quantification of ceramics, and the compilation of oral histories through interviews with local landowners and residents. Its aim is to understand the chronological development of the oasis and its relationship to the cycles of activity that we can trace in finds assemblages and the archaeological record of the standing historic buildings. Evidence from the water supply, historic buildings, and earthen boundary walls noted during this year's survey has allowed us to identify three distinct phases within the development of al-Hīlī Oasis and to consider once again the relationship of the historic oasis landscape to the nearby prehistoric sites of al-Hīlī. The mapping data and other information gathered during the project will further form the basis of a cultural heritage site inventory that will be used to prioritize conservation and interpretation of the oasis, one of the core components of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of al-ʿAyn.

Manah: An Omani Oasis, An Arabian Legacy: Architecture and Social History of an Omani Settlement

2011

In the December of 1835 Lieutenant Wellsted of the Indian Navy was making his voyage – the first by an European traveler – through the Sharqiyyah and the Jawf regions of Oman. Having traveled by sea and overland he reached the outskirts of the oasis of Manah on the 21st of December from the east and was struck by the verdure, “As we crossed these, with lofty almond, citron and orange trees, yielding a delicious fragrance on either hand, exclamations of astonishment and admiration burst from us. ‘Is this Arabia’, we said; ‘this the country we have looked on heretofore as a desert?’ . . . I could almost fancy we had at last reached that ‘Araby the blessed’, which I have been accustomed to regard as existing only in the fictions of our poets.” Standing out amidst the arid barrenness of the regional landscape and restrained by the desert-bound wadi courses, Manah once truly affirmed the Arabic meaning of its name, ‘the gift from God’. This monograph brings to light the architectural and urban character of Harat al-Bilad – the principal settlement of Manah. One of the frontier settlements straddling the boundary between the foothills of the Jabal al-Akhdar (Green Mountains) and the desert foreland, the oasis had played an important role in the historical and cultural development of the region. The Ministry of Heritage and Culture is currently undertaking conservation work in Harat al-Bilad a heritage site of national importance. Contents. Introduction p7. Chapter 1 Passages into a land-locked island p13. Chapter 2 Core revealed: our expanding knowledge of ad-Dakhiliyah architecture p39. Chapter 3 Manah and Harat al-Bilad: setting and townscape p61. Chapter 4 Mosques of Harat al-Bilad p91. Chapter 5 Dwellings large and small p109. Chapter 6 Tribal pattern, settlement structure and the sablah p129. Chapter 7 Harat al-Bilad: origin, morphology and structure p161. Chapter 8 Water, purity and places of worship p189. Chapter 9 From the twilight of cultural memory: the distinctive mosque type of ad-Dakhiliyah p221. Chapter 10 Topographic conflation in the decorated maharib of Omani mosques p245. Chapter 11 Privacy and the deconstructed courtyard: dwellings of ad-Dakhiliyah p273. Conclusion Precarious negotiations: architectural invention amidst cultural continuity p291. Bibliography p297. Index p307.