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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > Middle & Near Eastern archaeology
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Taymā’ I: Archaeological Exploration, Palaeoenvironment, Cultural Contacts (Hardcover)
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Taymā’ I: Archaeological Exploration, Palaeoenvironment, Cultural Contacts (Hardcover)
Series: Taymā’: Multidisciplinary Series on the Results of the Saudi-German Archaeological Project
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Archaeological investigations in the north-western part of the
Arabian Peninsula has increased during the last 15 years. One of
the major sites in the region is the ancient oasis of Taymā’,
known as a commercial hub on the so-called Incense Road connecting
South Arabia with the Eastern Mediterranean. In the context of this
new research a multidisciplinary project by the Saudi Commission
for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) and the Orient Department
of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) has been investigating
the archaeology and ancient environment of Taymā’ since 2004. A
major aim of this project was the development of new perspectives
of the site and the region, characterised by elaborating the local
socio-cultural and economic contexts. So far, Taymā’ has been
known mainly through exogenous sources. The present volume is the
first of the publication series of the Saudi-German archaeological
project and focuses on three fundamental aspects of research at
Taymā’: the current archaeological exploration of the oasis is
contextualised with previous and ongoing research within the
region, while at the same time offering a first overview of the
settlement history of the site, which may have started as early as
more than 6000 years ago. New information on the palaeoenvironment
has been provided by multiproxy- analysis of sediments from a
palaeolake immediately north of the settlement. The results
indicate an Early Holocene humid period in the region that is
shorter than the so-called African Humid Period. The abrupt
aridification at around 8 ka BP, known from other regions in the
Near East, is also attested in north-western Arabia. The
reconstruction of the past vegetation of the site and its
surroundings demonstrates that oasis cultivation at Taymā’
started during the 5th millennium BCE with grapes and figs, rather
than with the date palm. According to hydrological investigations
on water resources, groundwater aquifers provided the main source
of local water supply. These were exploited through wells, some of
which have been identified in the area of the ancient oasis.
Finally, since the time of early travellers to Northwest Arabia
evidence of cultural contacts has been observed in the records from
the site, which had been occupied by the last Babylonian king,
Nabonidus (556–539 BCE) for ten years. A
historical-archaeological essay on Egypt and Arabia as well as a
study on the ambiguous relationship between Assyria and Arabia –
characterised by conflict and commerce – shed new light on the
foreign relations of ancient Taymā’.
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