Landscape History of Hadramawt

Joy McCorriston and Michael J. Harrower

Series: Monumenta Archaeologica 43

ISBN: 978-1-950446-12-4

Publication Date: May 1, 2020

Price: Hb $89.00

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Winner of the AIA 2022 Anna Marguerite McCann Award for Fieldwork Reports

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.

Table of Contents

Part I Research Objectives, Geological and Environmental Context

  • 1 Introduction Joy McCorriston 
  • 2  Geological and Environmental Background Joy McCorriston 
  • 3  Paleohydrology, Geomorphology, and Paleoecology Eric A. Oches, Joshua Anderson, Joy McCorriston, Kenneth Cole, and Michael J. Harrower

Part II Archaeological Survey: Methods and Site Distributions

  • 4  History of the RASA Survey Joy McCorriston and Michael J. Harrower 
  • 5  Topic-Specific Survey Approaches Joy McCorriston, Michael J. Harrower, and Rémy Crassard 
  • 6  Survey Results and Landforms: A Statistical Analysis Joy McCorriston 

Part III Pleistocene to Early Holocene: Hunter-Foragers and the Introduction of Domesticates 

  • 7 Middle Paleolithic Populations of Wādī Sanā Rémy Crassard 
  • 8 Manayzah: A Terminal Pleistocene—Early Holocene Rockshelter Occupation Rémy Crassard, Joy McCorriston, Louise Martin, and Thomas Dye 
  • 9 Early Holocene Forager Encampments Joy McCorriston, Rémy Crassard, Dawn Walter, and Louise Martin 

Part IV Middle Holocene: A Pastoralist Landscape

  • 10 The Kheshiya Cattle Skull Ring and Neolithic Monument Joy McCorriston 
  • 11 The Kheshiya Cattle Skull Ring: Zooarchaeological Analyses Louise Martin with a contribution by Joe Roe 
  • 12  Neolithic Stone Platforms Joy McCorriston 
  • 13  Water Management and Irrigation along Wādī Sanā Michael J. Harrower 

Part V Middle to Late Holocene: The Social Life of Pastoralists

  • 14  Survey and Excavation of Small-Scale Monuments in Hadramawt, Yemen Joy McCorriston, Michael Harrower, Tara Steimer-Herbet, Kimberly Williams, and Jennifer Everhart  
  • 15 Rawk: Statues-Menhirs and Anthropomorphic Statues of Ancient Wādī ʿIdim Tara Steimer-Herbet 
  • 16 Testing at Munayder Joy McCorriston 
  • 17 Graffiti and Pictographs Joy McCorriston, ‘Abdalʿazīz Bin ‘Aqīl, and Alessia Prioletta 

Part IV Synthesis and Conclusions

  • 18 A Bayesian Approach to Chronology of the Southern Jol Joy McCorriston and Thomas S. Dye 
  • 19 Conclusions: A Landscape History of the Southern Jol Joy McCorriston

Landscape History of Hadramawt

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