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The rugged highlands of southern Yemen are one of the less
archaeologically explored regions of the Near East. This final
report of survey and excavations by the Roots of Agriculture in
Southern Arabia (RASA) Project addresses the development of food
production and human landscapes, topics of enduring interest as
scholarly conceptualizations of the Anthropocene take shape. Along
with data from Manayzah, site of the earliest dated remains of
clearly domesticated animals in Arabia, the volume also documents
some of the earliest water management technologies in Arabia,
thereby anchoring regional dates for the beginnings of pastoralism
and of potential farming. The authors argue that the initial
Holocene inhabitants of Wadi Sana were Arabian hunters who adopted
limited pastoral stock in small social groups, then expanded their
social collectives through sacrifice and feasts in a sustained
pastoral landscape. This volume will be of interest to a wide
audience of archaeologists including not only those working in
Arabia, but more broadly those interested in the ancient Near East,
Africa, South Asia, and in Holocene landscape histories generally.
Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space offers a concise
overview of air and spaceborne imagery and related geospatial
technologies tailored to the needs of archaeologists. Leading
experts including scientists involved in NASA's Space Archaeology
program provide technical introductions to five sections: 1)
Historic Air and Spaceborne Imagery 2) Multispectral and
Hyperspectral Imagery 3) Synthetic Aperture Radar 4) Lidar 5)
Archaeological Site Detection and Modeling Each of these five
sections includes two or more case study applications that have
enriched understanding of archaeological landscapes in regions
including the Near East, East Asia, Europe, Meso- and North
America. Targeted to the needs of researchers and heritage managers
as well as graduate and advanced undergraduate students, this
volume conveys a basic technological sense of what is currently
possible and, it is hoped, will inspire new pioneering
applications. Particular attention is paid to the tandem goals of
research (understanding) and archaeological heritage management
(preserving) the ancient past. The technologies and applications
presented can be used to characterize environments, detect
archaeological sites, model sites and settlement patterns and, more
generally, reveal the dialectic landscape-scale dynamics among
ancient peoples and their social and environmental surroundings. In
light of contemporary economic development and resultant damage to
and destruction of archaeological sites and landscapes,
applications of air and spaceborne technologies in archaeology are
of wide utility and promoting understanding of them is a
particularly appropriate goal at the 40th anniversary of the World
Heritage Convention.
This book offers a new interpretation of the
spatial-political-environmental dynamics of water and irrigation in
long-term histories of arid regions. It compares ancient Southwest
Arabia (3500 BC-AD 600) with the American West (2000 BC-AD 1950) in
global context to illustrate similarities and differences among
environmental, cultural, political, and religious dynamics of
water. It combines archaeological exploration and field studies of
farming in Yemen with social theory and spatial technologies,
including satellite imagery, Global Positioning System (GPS), and
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping. In both ancient Yemen
and the American West, agricultural production focused not where
rain-fed agriculture was possible, but in hyper-arid areas where
massive state-constructed irrigation schemes politically and
ideologically validated state sovereignty. While shaped by profound
differences and contingencies, ancient Yemen and the American West
are mutually informative in clarifying human geographies of water
that are important to understandings of America, Arabia, and
contemporary conflicts between civilizations deemed East and West.
This book offers a new interpretation of the
spatial-political-environmental dynamics of water and irrigation in
long-term histories of arid regions. It compares ancient Southwest
Arabia (3500 BC-AD 600) with the American West (2000 BC-AD 1950) in
global context to illustrate similarities and differences among
environmental, cultural, political, and religious dynamics of
water. It combines archaeological exploration and field studies of
farming in Yemen with social theory and spatial technologies,
including satellite imagery, Global Positioning System (GPS), and
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping. In both ancient Yemen
and the American West, agricultural production focused not where
rain-fed agriculture was possible, but in hyper-arid areas where
massive state-constructed irrigation schemes politically and
ideologically validated state sovereignty. While shaped by profound
differences and contingencies, ancient Yemen and the American West
are mutually informative in clarifying human geographies of water
that are important to understandings of America, Arabia, and
contemporary conflicts between civilizations deemed East and West.
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