Archaeological Geology of Jurash, ʿAsīr Province, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The Jurash archaeological site is located on Wādī Bīshah near the city of Khamīs Mushayt in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It has a fort and other remains from the pre‐Islamic period (third century bc to early seventh century ad) and a settlement with two mosques from the Early Islamic period (early seventh to early 11th centuries ad). A survey was conducted for the purposes of identifying the building materials and determining their geographic sources, and also investigating the building methods. It was found that all materials were locally derived and that the fort's outer wall is a typical example of South Arabian fortifications of the first millennium bc. An examination of the site stratigraphy revealed that Jurash has been repeatedly inundated by destructive flash floods from Wādī Bīshah. The timing of these events was largely controlled by global climatic fluctuations, including the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age.