Week 1 Prehistory of the Gulf and Arabian Seas

 Prehistory of the Gulf and Arabian Seas

Ancient Arabia and the Pre-Islamic or Jahiliyya Era.   

 A great amount of knowledge has been gained from the archaeological research of ancient Yemen, where the South Arabian kingdoms excelled in water management and agricultural development.  With their construction of large dams, they were able to harness agricultural development and commercial trade centered around a system of royal dynasties that arose in the 1^st millennium B.C.E.  Modern archaeology has contributed a wealth of knowledge about the material and economic life of Ancient Arabia and its achievement in establishing towns, agriculture and a system of trade.   Within the vicinity of the Arab Gulf, the great finds of Dilmun civilization in the area of Bahrain, and of ancient Magan in the area of the UAE and the Oman peninsula provide us with evidence of the oldest settlements in our area. 

Figure 1 Dilmun archaeological site  in Bahrain (Source Wikipedia)

The work of D.T. Potts is influential including the following works,  The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity (Potts, The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, 1990); Ancient Magan:  The Secrets of Tell Abraq (Potts, 2000);  and In the Land of the Emirates:  The Archaeology and History of the UAE (Potts, 2012).  A broader survey of the ancient and pre-Islamic history of the entire Arabian Peninsula and the Arabian people at large as they moved into the region of the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, is found in Arabia and the Arabs:  from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (Hoyland, 2001) and Volume 1 of The New Cambridge History of Islam (Robinson, 2010).   Defining Arabia in Geographical Terms.  Arabia is generally defined as the land mass known as the Arabian peninsula and extending into the Syrian desert to the north.  It is an area distinguished by the phenomenon of the 200 mm/year rainfall line where agriculture is limited and practiced only through measures of extensive catchment basins and other techniques needed to supplement the low rainfall (Hoyland, 2001, p. 4).  Arabia is divided into four distinctive regions:  The western highlands, that run along the length of the Red Sea, and which reach a height of 3600 meters in the south.  This includes the Hijaz and the key centers of Mecca and Medina.  The vast interior known as the Rub` al-Khali (Empty Quarter), the Nafud and Dahna deserts of the center, and the Hisma, Hamad and Syrian deserts of the north.    The most famous region of Arabian antiquity is in far South in Yemen, where its ancient Sabaan kingdoms were rich with mineral and agricultural wealth derived from elaborate dam systems and irrigation.   The fourth region is ours, the low lying Eastern coastal lands of the Arabian Gulf, with hot and humid summers, broken up by the rock formations and palm laden oases and uplands of the Najd and Oman.    Eastern Arabia of the Stone Age and Iron Age      Stone Age tools have been found in the interior of Sharjah that date from about 125,000 to 90,000 BCE.  Considerable evidence of Iron Age settlements in the UAE and Oman date from about 1300-900 BCE. As sea levels were considerably lower, humans probably could crosss relatively easily across parts of the Red Sea trough from Africa into Arabia (Potts, 2012, p. 17). Climate change over the next 100,000 years left the area more arid and may have forced these early settlers to move on.  From the Neolithic or and early Holocene Period, evidence of flints and arrowheads from around 8,500 – 7,500 BCE have been found at Jebel Faya.  The first evidence of actual settlements, with remains of housing, burial sites, and the use of decorative jewelry,  date from around the 7^th and 6^th centuries BCE.  The oldest archaeological sites, dating from around 7,000 years are on the island of Marawah, where we also find much later staone age prehistoric oval buildings.  More importantly at a site known as BHS 18 in the interior of Sharjah at the foot of Jebel Buhais, archaeologists have uncovered elaborate painted jars of an imported Ubaid type of pottery recognized and found in Mesopotamia (Potts, 2012, pp. 26-28).  At the BHS 18 site which was occupied for about 500 years a survey of human skulls revealed that 7.2 percent of all skulls examined had head injuries, probably from warfare or other struggles, and there was evidence that ancients performed open skull surgery on these wounds.    From around 3200-2700 BCE we find evidence of round monumental tomb, known as the Hafti type  at Jebel Hafit. 

Map from Michael Rice, The Archaeology of the The Arabian Gulf

In the Iron Age, the best preserved and largest of these are found at the settlements and large round tomb monuments in the oasis at Al Ain.  These sites are known as Hili 2 and Hili 14 and date from around 1300-400 BCE.  Other sites in the area of Ras al-Khaimah and elsewhere show other settlements and stone tomb formations and at Rumeilah collections of decorative ceramic and carved stone pottery have been found (Potts, 1990, p. 381). We also have evidence of considerable metallurgy and working of iron and other metal tools, swords and other weapons, iron arrowheads, jewelry and hoes for farming.    Go to the UNESCO World Heritage Site to explore further these archaeological sites in the UAE (UNESCO, 2014). 

Dilmun and Magan Civilization:  Archaeology and new sites found in the United Arab Emirates

Map from Michael Rice, The Archaeology of the The Arabian Gulf

Among the impressive early sites showing developments of water engineering and town building are the following:

In the Iron Age settlement at Muweilah in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, the following site from about 900-800 BCE has been excavated and studied.  Iron Age technology in the region is generally dated from about 1300-300 BCE and featured the falaj (pl. Aflaj) irrigation systems that allowed channeling of underground water resources from mountains down into the new settlements.

http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/art_destinations/sharjah/archaeological_sites/muweilah

Classical Yemen and the Rise of the Sabaean Kingdom as an Agrarian and Trading State circa 1200 BCE to 250  CE

The Great Dam of Marib was among the ancient world's greatest engineering feats.  It was constructed during the Sabaean Kingdom that ruled between about 1250 BCE to 250 CE, that is about 1,000 years. During this time the fabled Queen of Sheba reigned.  The kingdom was a trading state that made use of the verdant pockets of terraced lands watered by the irrigation from the large water engineering projects such as the Great Dam of Marib.  The Great Dam was probably started in around 800 BCE and survived in some form until about the 6th century CE when it was breached or collapsed due to either earthquakes or lack of maintenance. 

This kingdom and its agricultural wealth is famously mentioned in the Quran:  As-Sabah 34:15-16 

لَقَدْ كَانَ لِسَبَإٍ فِي مَسْكَنِهِمْ آيَةٌ ۖ جَنَّتَانِ عَن يَمِينٍ وَشِمَالٍ ۖ كُلُوا مِن رِّزْقِ رَبِّكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لَهُ ۚ بَلْدَةٌ طَيِّبَةٌ وَرَبٌّ غَفُورٌ

SAHIH INTERNATIONAL

There was for [the tribe of] Saba' in their dwelling place a sign: two [fields of] gardens on the right and on the left. [They were told], "Eat from the provisions of your Lord and be grateful to Him. A good land [have you], and a forgiving Lord."

فَأَعْرَضُوا فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَيْلَ الْعَرِمِ وَبَدَّلْنَاهُم بِجَنَّتَيْهِمْ جَنَّتَيْنِ ذَوَاتَيْ أُكُلٍ خَمْطٍ وَأَثْلٍ وَشَيْءٍ مِّن سِدْرٍ قَلِيلٍ

SAHIH INTERNATIONAL

But they turned away [refusing], so We sent upon them the flood of the dam, and We replaced their two [fields of] gardens with gardens of bitter fruit, tamarisks and something of sparse lote trees.

Ruins of the Great Dam of Marib in Yemen (Source Wikipedia)

Arabia in Classical Antiquity 500 BCE to 600 AD 

In the centuries preceding the arrival of Islam parts of Arabia came under control or influence of the Roman empire and its successors, the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Dynasty.  Arabia at the time was a mixture of cultural influences, that had indigenous local religious beliefs, as well as Jews and Christians.  The ancient city of Palmyra, located at an oasis in the interior of Syria, represents the Roman attempt at dominating the interior trade between the Eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and the area of Iraq where the Sassanid Empire was a rival to Roman rule in the region (Gates, 2011, p. 400). As the Roman power weakened from the 3^rd century onward from the Sassanid attacks against them, Palmyra became an independent trade city-state that adapted local traditions for a brief period, and had its own cult religion based around the Semitic gods Maduk and Balil (Gates, 2011, p. 400).  However Palmyra’s distance and limited sustainability left it vulnerable to attack and it was mostly abandoned by the end of the Roman period in the 4^th century.  Thereafter it remained as a very small and  limited settlement up through the Ottoman period when it was finally deserted. 

Figure  Palmyra (Source Wikipedia)

Go to the following website and explore the following websites on Palymra:  Palmyra  in 360 degrees.  http://www.kaemena360.com/360/PalmyraTour/  Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/palm/hd_palm.htm  Palmyra excavations: Palmira. Missione Archeologica Italo-Siriana. http://users.unimi.it/progettopalmira/index.html (in Italian, with some English)   

Study Guide Questions:    Describe the city plan and main buildings of Palmyra. To what extent do they show a mix of Roman and local Syrian influences?      The Byzantine Empire relied on Greek both as an administrative language and as a language for its form of Christianity and ruled from its capital base in Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire retained a great deal of the administrative organization of the Roman Empire of which it was the Eastern part.    The Sassanid Dynasty relied on a form of the Persian language and was based at the city of Ctesiphon in central Iraq and held influence over Iran and parts of Iraq, where its religious beliefs were a combination of  Zoroastrian, and Christian beliefs in a society ruled by kingship (Hourani, 2002, p. 9).    The Arabian peninsula found itself at the crossroads of these two empires and managed a trade system between them and Arabian cities and African kingdoms that extended down the Red Sea into Ethiopia and East Africa.  A number of pre-Islamic city states, including Petra in Jordan, were built up and maintained as trading agents along the routes of this long distance trade that brought valuable minerals, spice and agricultural products northward to the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires (Gates, 2011).    

Petra is an interesting and useful city to study as evidence of the northward spread of Arabian culture in pre-Islamic times.  The structure of the carved monuments and structures into the cliff walls began around 312 AD, during the late Roman Empire.  The Nabateans who ruled in this region built a trade kingdom based on long distance trade between Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean.  The Nabateans originally worshipped ancient various Ancient Arabian gods or idols, until Petra came under influence of Byzantine Christianity and then later converted to Islam in the 7^th century.  

Figure 4 The Treasury at Petra (Source Wikipedia)

The following websites provide guides to Petra:  There is a 3D panorama of Petra or for a summary of archaeological research Brown University has a web page on their archaeological projects at Petra (Joukowsky, 2007)     

Map of Nabatean Trade Routes in Ancient Pre-Islamic Arabia.   

Figure 5 Map of Pre-Islamic Arabian trade routes

Map of the important Arabian Tribes at the Arrival of Islam 

Figure 6  Map of Main Tribes of Pre-Islamic Arabia.  Source:  Wikipedia

Pre-Islamic society in Arabia was characterized by the varying degree of tribal alliances.  Certain tribes based around the trade centers of Mecca and Medina were held together by their commercial and family ties.  This included the Quraysh tribe.  Others were more dispersed and probably included elements of Bedouin society.  These kinds of tribes included the al-Tamimi family and tribes.  It seems that when Arab settlements found common needs, they may have found it convenient to trace their lineage to a common ancestor, and accordingly adopted a useful common name, like al-Tamimi (Kennedy, 1986, p. 17). Leadership in tribal society was both hereditary and elected.  The tribal chief was often one who was consulted to resolve disputes.  The chief did not have absolute power but ruled through consent with the tribe.