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Settlement, Culture-Contact and Interaction along the Red Sea Coastal Plain, Yemen: The Tihamah cultural landscape in the late prehistoric period (3000-900 BC) Lamya Khalidi To cite this version: Lamya Khalidi. Settlement, Culture-Contact and Interaction along the Red Sea Coastal Plain, Yemen: The Tihamah cultural landscape in the late prehistoric period (3000-900 BC). Humanities and Social Sciences. University of Cambridge, 2006. English. tel-02278430 HAL Id: tel-02278430 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02278430 Submitted on 18 Oct 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Settlement, Culture-Contact and Interaction Along the Red Sea Coastal Plain, Yemen: The Tihamah cultural landscape in the late prehistoric period, 3000-900 BC Lamya Khalidi Newnham College University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006-03-08 Settlement, culture-contact and interaction along the Red Sea coastal plain, Yemen: The Tihamah cultural landscape in the late prehistoric period, 3000-900 BC Lamya Khalidi The rise and fall of the rival South Arabian kingdoms (900 BC – AD 600) has been widely documented through excavation and epigraphic data. This period witnessed the growth of complex societies, each with its pantheon, a written language, and monumental architecture. These kingdoms prospered along the desert fringe of Yemen as a result of organized large- scale agricultural systems and the overland trade in aromatics between India and Africa, and the Mediterranean. Yet the developments that led to the growth of these kingdoms have not been adequately studied, leaving large discontinuities in our reconstruction of the regional, chronological and cultural record. These gaps are partially the result of outdated perspectives, methodologies and theoretical overviews that have dominated scholarly research in the region for half a century. What has developed is a fragmented and unbalanced field of study that has marginalized prehistory and minimized the importance and contribution of alternative socio- economic communities as well as the regions they inhabited. This dissertation addresses these gaps in the archaeological record of Yemen by focusing on Red Sea coastal cultures in the late prehistoric period (3000-900 BC) and by tracing inter- regional interaction between the coast and three adjacent zones. Multiple sources have been utilized including archaeological surveys, material from previously excavated sites, ethnographic and environmental research and historical sources. The variability and changes in settlement strategy and cultural interaction are documented systematically within different micro-environments of the Tihamah coastal plain. In order to address the regional imbalances in our reconstruction of Yemen, this coastal region is compared to that to its east, namely the adjacent western escarpment and the central highlands beyond it, and to its westerly neighbours along the Horn of Africa littoral across the Red Sea. This research illuminates the inextricable link that existed between humans and their landscape and how each cultural landscape gradually formed according to its physical and perceived limitations and potentials. Using the coastal communities – which existed at the balance of two divergent landscapes – as a point of departure, the intricacies and levels of cultural interaction by sea on the one hand, and by land on the other, are elucidated. Furthermore, it is shown that the variations of such interactions were in part responsible for changes in settlement pattern and strategy, and for the introduction of a number of ideologies and technologies that enabled large sedentary towns to expand and thrive prior to the emergence of the South Arabian kingdoms. This dissertation concludes by demonstrating how systematic survey strategies can reveal the continuities which link regions and periods to one another, even if indirectly, and how the long-term effects of small-scale interaction between groups and the perceived limitations of certain landscapes can have long-lasting implications for cultural development. Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. This dissertation does not exceed the word limit for the Degree Committee of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Lamya Khalidi Settlement, Culture-Contact and Interaction Along the Red Sea Coastal Plain, Yemen: The Tihamah cultural landscape in the late prehistoric period, 3000-900 BC Lamya Khalidi Newnham College University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Table of Contents Dedication xvi Acknowledgements xvii List of Tables xix List of Figures xx Chapter I 1-47 Introduction 1.1 Navigating Perspectives on Yemen 1 Politics/Geography History/Prehistory Chronology/Regionality Yemen/Periphery Scientific Methodology 1.2 Introduction to the Research 9 1.3 Discussion 14 1.4 Prehistoric Chronology: A Discussion of the Terminology 15 Geological Periods ‘Classical’ Archaeological Periods Material Technology Ages Terminology Used for this Dissertation 1.5 The Yemen Chronology: 21 The Prehistoric and Historic Backdrop for the Research v The Classical and Medieval Sources History of Previous Archaeological Work: Pre-History in Yemen 1.6 The Definition of a Prehistory for Yemen 26 The Palaeolithic Period (ca. 1.8Ma-10,000 years ago) The Early Holocene ‘Neolithic’ Period (ca. 8000-3000 BC) The Late Prehistoric ‘Bronze Age’ (ca. 3000-900 BC) The Highlands The Desert Fringe and Hadramawt The Coastal Plains Late Prehistoric to Early Historic Transition (ca.1200 – 900 BC) The Early Historical Period: Early literate societies in South Arabia and Abyssinia Chapter II 48-78 The Physical Context: Geography and Climate 2.1 Introduction 48 2.2 Coastal Geography: The Southern Red Sea Plains 52 The Tihamah Climate The Red Sea Littoral Red Sea Winds and Currents Corals and Wetlands Aeolian Landforms Coastal Land-Use Red Sea Islands vi 2.3 Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia: The Coastal Plain and Highlands 61 2.4 Highland Geography 64 The Western Escarpment and Central Highlands Climate Resources Highland Land-Use 2.5 The Westerly River Systems 69 Wadi Zabid Wadi Rima’ Wadi Kuway’ 2.6 Past Geography and Climate 74 2.7 Conclusion 77 Chapter III 79-124 Archaeological Landscape Survey: The Methodological approach 3.1 Introduction 79 3.2 Methods in Landscape Archaeology: Historical Background 80 3.3 The Current State of Archaeological Landscape Studies in Yemen 83 3.4 Techniques and Analysis in Defining the Ancient Cultural Landscape 87 Site Characteristics Site Description and Designation Site Label Site Size Site Periodization Sampling and Collection Techniques vii Archaeological Landscape Features Natural and Perceived Landscape Features Environmental Data Site and Landscape Taphonomy Effects of Cultural Processes on Sites and the Landscape Ethno-Archaeological and Anthropological Data Influence of Political, Social and Economic Factors on Sites and the Landscape 3.5 Data Analysis 103 3.6 Scientific Analysis 103 3.7 The Study Regions 103 3.8 The Lowland Example 104 The Central Tihamah Survey Archaeological Impact Surveys Lowland Site Categories Shell Middens Artifact Scatters Mounds Megalithic Complexes Tombs, Graves and Cemeteries 3.9 The Mid-Altitude Example 112 Mid-Altitude Site Categories Standing Architecture Rubble Mounds Tombs, Graves and Cemeteries viii Artifact Scatters 3.10 The Highland Example 118 Re-assessment of the Highland Chronology 3.11 Conclusion 123 Chapter IV 125-184 Material Culture of the Tihamah Coastal Plain 4.1 Introduction 125 4.2 Shell 125 Diet Terebralia palustris/ environmental reconstruction Other Shell Shell as Tools and Ornaments Waste Living surfaces 4.3 Faunal remains 131 Equids Other fauna Bone tools 4.4 Lithic Technology and Typology 135 ix 4.5 Early Holocene Lithic Technologies 136 Bifaces: Type A Tools 4.6 Other tools 146 4.7 Late Prehistoric Lithic Technologies 146 Geometric Microliths: Type C tools Pièces esquillées: Type D lithics Al-Midamman: A technological case-study The Tihamah Survey Experimentation Tool Distribution 4.8 Carnelian and Obsidian Bead Manufacture 164 4.9 Ceramic Assemblage 164 Pottery Identification Ma’alaybah: The Early Ceramic Sequences Sabir, Midamman, Sihi and Kashawba’: The Late Ceramic Sequences 4.10 Terracotta Figurines and Objects 183 Chapter V 185-215 Strategies of Subsistence: Prehistoric Sites of the Tihamah Coastal Plain 5.1 Introduction 185 5.2 Site Typology: 188 Strategies of Subsistence along the Tihamah Coastal Plain x Shell Middens: Refuse versus Habitation Type 1 Site: Aceramic Early Holocene shell middens (ca. 7th millennium BC) Ash-Shumah: A Comparative Study Type 2 Site: Holocene scatters Type 3 Site: Aceramic Early Holocene shell middens (6th-5th millennia BC) Gahabah (JHB) and al-Madaniyah (MAD): A Comparative Study Type 4 Site: Late to Mid-Holocene Sites