Prehistoric Funerary Practices at Wā
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Arab. arch. epig. 2015: 26: 1–11 (2015) Printed in Singapore. All rights reserved Between rocks and a hard place: prehistoric funerary practices at Wadı Ḍebayʿan, northern Qatar Archaeological survey by the Qatar National Historic Environment Record Project Aurea Izquierdo Zamora1, (QNHER) in 2009, led to the discovery of a Neolithic flint scatter, a settlement and an Richard Thorburn H. Cuttler1, ancient, raised shoreline associated with higher, mid-Holocene sea levels at Wadı Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi2, Ḍebayʿan, north-western Qatar (Al-Naimi et al. 2010, 2011; Cuttler, Tetlow & Al-Na- Lawrence S. Owens3 imi 2011). The QNHER project is a collaboration between Qatar Museums and the 1Qatar National Historic University of Birmingham, which over the past five years has developed a national Environment Record Project, geospatial database for the recording of archaeological sites and historic monuments Department of Classics, Ancient in Qatar. A significant aspect of the project involved archaeological survey and History and Archaeology, The excavation in advance of major construction projects. Between 2012 and 2014 University of Birmingham, excavations at Wadı Ḍebayʿan revealed a burial of a typology previously unknown in Edgbaston, Birmingham, Qatar, the unmarked graves (Cuttler, Al-Naimi & Tetlow 2013). B15 2TT 2Department of Antiquities, Qatar Keywords: Arabia, ʿUbaid, pre-Islamic, Qatar, burial archaeology Museums, Doha P.O. Box 2777, Qatar 3Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck College, University of London, 27-28, Russell Square, London WC1B 5DQ e-mails: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Introduction normally the case with prehistoric burials in Qatar. The The discovery of an ancient raised shoreline and inter- spatial morphology of the cemetery indicates the pres- tidal, lagoonal area within Wadı Ḍebayʿan (Fig. 1) ence of a previously unrecorded funerary typology in (Cuttler, Tetlow & Al-Naimi 2011) prompted a pro- Qatar, comprising burials with no evidence of surface gramme of systematic test pitting in an attempt to find markers such as a stone cairn. features associated with the raised shoreline. This pro- The burial was that of a very tall and physically robust gramme of test pitting unexpectedly discovered a previ- adult female placed in the foetal position. She was buried ously unknown prehistoric inhumation and led to at the base of a small, oval pit, and covered with sand, further open-area excavation within the immediate sur- rocks and cobbles. While no finds were discovered that roundings. This revealed a further five inhumations might be conclusively associated with the original intern- located within a 10 x 10 m area in what appears to be ment, fragments of ʿUbaid-type ceramics were found a small Neolithic cemetery. This cemetery has no within the fill of the grave, providing a terminus post quem surface expression, such as a cairn or mound, as is for the burial in the fifth millennium BC. 1 A.I. ZAMORA ET AL. Fig. 1. Location map and sites mentioned in the text. Samples of the bone were sent to Beta Analytic for 1988, 1994; Schreiber et al. 2009), with more recent radiocarbon dating, but this was unsuccessful due to an surveys suggesting that the number of this kind of funer- absence of surviving collagen. The upper stratigraphy of ary monument may be in the region of several tens of the burials had been truncated by hearths that produced thousands (Fig. 2) (Cuttler, Al-Naimi & Tetlow 2013). two radiocarbon determinations, placing the pits in the The chronology and typology of these cairns, however, second millennium BC and providing a terminus ante has been poorly understood and until recently it was quem for the burial. This second-millennium BC date was assumed that the level of construction of these monuments further confirmed by fragments of burnt, Dilmun-period increased significantly around the Seleucid period, with pottery recovered from the hearths. This suggests an most prehistoric burials dating between c.350 BC and c. archaeological sequence comprising late Neolithic burials AD 300). From the results of excavations to date, three overlain by Bronze Age temporary occupation, possibly essential characteristics can be determined: associated with coastal trade. • most pre-Islamic burials have primarily been dated by their association with artefacts found either within the burial chamber, under the burial mound Pre-Islamic burial practices in Qatar or within the environs of the site; Due essentially to its ‘visibility’, the stone-built burial • all the previously documented burials have a surface cairn or tumulus has been a major focus for investigations demarcation that allows their visual identification. into the prehistory of Qatar by archaeological researchers This surface expression consists of a mound or since the mid-twentieth century. Foreign missions and accumulation of stones, commonly termed a cairn; local researchers documented significant numbers of cairns • a significant number (possibly more than two (Glob 1957, 1959; Kapel 1967; de Cardi 1978; Tixier thirds) of the burial cairns excavated were found to 1980; Midant-Reynes 1985; Konishi, Gotoh & Akashi 2 PREHISTORIC FUNERARY PRACTICES IN NORTHERN QATAR it is hoped that future survey work across Qatar will shed more light on the distribution of these monuments. Thanks to the efforts of the previous foreign missions it was possible to establish a chronological basis for burials in Qatar, although at present only two main chronological periods have been recorded. Firstly, the oldest cairns corre- spond to the fifth millennium BC or to the late ʿUbaid per- iod (Inizan 1979; Tixier 1980; Midant-Reynes 1985; Al- Naimi & Arrock 2010). This period is characterised by sites primarily associated with either semi-nomadic or temporary occupation, which contain ceramics of imported ʿUbaid pottery and a local ware of unknown ori- gin known as Arabian Coarse Ware (ACW). Such sites are evident along the western Gulf coast from the early sixth millennium and throughout the fifth millennium BC (Cut- tler 2013). Secondly, a significant number of cairns have been dated, on the basis of the associated material culture, from the Seleucid (c.300 BC) to the Sasanian (c. AD 300) periods, when the Qatar peninsula was influenced by empires in Persia (de Cardi 1978; Konishi, Gotoh & Ak- ashi 1988, 1994; Schreiber et al. 2009). Cultures associated with the ʿUbaid appear to come to an abrupt end in eastern Arabia in c.3800 BC. This leaves an archaeological ‘vacuum’ during the fourth and third millennia BC, a phenomenon also evident within other areas of the Arabian Peninsula and often termed the ‘Dark Millennium’ (Uerpmann M. 2003). This date coincides Fig. 2. with a period of declining lake levels, dune reactivation Burial cairns and cairn clusters in Qatar (after Cuttler, Al-Naimi & Tet- and desertification, favouring a semi-nomadic rather than low 2013). a sedentary lifestyle. The ‘vacuum’ theory is based on the absence of finds and is particularly relevant to funerary have been plundered in antiquity. Of the undis- archaeology. Work at Wadı Ḍebayʿan, however, may sug- turbed cairns, most were found to have been heav- gest this ‘vacuum’ may also relate to a change in funerary ily affected by the geochemical processes of the practices resulting in an absence of surface expression and Qatari soil, which led to the partial or total disinte- the ‘invisibility’ of sites within the modern landscape. gration of the human remains. The digenetic effects Given the relatively low numbers of burials dated to the on the bone after burial have often altered the pro- Neolithic period, and the absence of burials between the portions of organic collagen and inorganic compo- fourth and second millennia BC, two hypotheses have nents to such an extent that radiocarbon dating is been proposed to explain the large number of burial cairns normally not possible. attributed to the Iron Age in Qatar (Cuttler, Al-Naimi & Burial cairns and markers occur throughout the Qatar Tetlow 2013): peninsula. Archaeological research suggests a higher den- 1. The cairns represent an increase in population dur- sity of these monuments in the north of Qatar, although ing the late Iron Age due to favourable weather the north-west of Qatar has been subject to more extensive conditions or technological innovations. survey than the rest of the country. Furthermore, large 2. The cairns date to a much wider time span and sand dunes in the south present a significant hindrance to therefore represent a relatively consistent demo- extensive archaeological survey and excavation. graphic; chronological markers, however, are not Survey data available from the QNHER geospatial data- being detected or are incorrectly attributed, either base would suggest that such conclusions are correct, but because of the absence of absolute dating tech- 3 A.I. ZAMORA ET AL. niques or because of assumptions that similar cairn lia and the Middle East is traditionally thought to have morphologies represent similar periods. declined from the fifth millennium BC. This would tenta- tively place the site in the fifth millennium BC (Midant- Neolithic burials in Qatar Reynes 1985). Of the burials associated with the fifth millennium BC in A total of twenty-six burial cairns were excavated Qatar only one group of cairns on the east coast of Qatar around the fringes of Wadı Ḍebayʿan and to the west at at Simaisma (Fig. 2), have so far produced absolute dates Ra’s ‘Ushayriq (Fig. 2), a small peninsula located west (Al-Naimi & Arrock 2010). of the wadi, by a team from QNHER during the 2010 A total of fourteen burial cairns were excavated, with to 2011 season. Most of these monuments were approx- several found to contain human remains in poor states of imately 2 m in diameter with a maximum height of preservation. Most of the cairns within Area A were dated 0.4 m.