Archaeology and epigraphy at Tayma (Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Archaeological excavations by a Saudi‐Arabian‐German cooperation in the oasis of Tayma revealed stratified from the 2nd and 1st millennia BC until the Islamic period at a site marked by its specific environmentel setting. Political and cultural contacts of regional and supra‐regional scale are attested by archaeological and epigraphic sources from the centre of the city and its surrounding walls: pottery and sculpture as well as Aramaic and Taymanitic inscriptions. A newly discovered stele with a Mesopotamian royal representation and a Babylonian cuneiform text is attributed to the last Babylonian king Nabonidus who took residence in Tayma for ten years of his region.

Copper processing in the oases of northwest Arabia: technology, alloys and provenance

“…Since the Middle Bronze Age, Tayma was in contact with Syria and the Levant (AlHajiri, 2011); from the Late Bronze Age onwards, political and then commercial contacts with many other cultures including Egypt, the Mediterranean, Assyria and Babylonia are attested. The ten-year residence of the Late Babylonian king Nabonidus (556e539 BC) is evidenced by a stele with a Babylonian cuneiform inscription as well as some other fragmentary texts (Eichmann et al, 2006b;Hausleiter, 2011;Schaudig forthcoming). This episode was followed by the rule of the Achaemenids, at Tayma most prominently represented by the 'Tayma Stone' (Stein, 2014), before the Lihyanite Kingdom and then the Nabatean Kingdom took control of the site (Hausleiter, 2012) until its incorporation into the Roman Empire as part of Provincia Arabia (Tourtet and Weigel, 2015).…”

Optically stimulated luminescence dating of the city wall system of ancient Tayma (NW Saudi Arabia)

“…To date, an initial construction age between the late 3rd and the early 2nd millennium BC has been taken into consideration, deduced from flint and carnelian fragments included in the mud-bricks and a 14 C age of charcoal remains (Eichmann et al, 2006b;Schneider, 2010;Intilia, 2010), whereas the latest possible date for the upper sandstone construction is the late 2nd millennium BC (Eichmann et al, 2006a).…”

“…1) as well as the extended city wall system, peripheral burial sites, parts of the ancient water supply system which are distributed over the entire oasis, and also the adjacent sabkha landform, filled by a lake during the early Holocene (Eichmann et al, 2006a(Eichmann et al, , 2006bHamann et al, 2008;Hausleiter, 2010;Schneider, 2010;Wellbrock and Grottker, 2010;Engel et al, in press).…”

“…Earliest evidence of human activity is represented by Neolithic or post-Neolithic single and multiple flint drills which are attributed to cattle-breeding nomads populating the area during this time. Thus far, data collected from archaeological excavations indicate that the site was settled at least from the Middle Bronze Age (1st half of the 2nd millennium BC) to modern times (Eichmann et al, 2006a). More detailed evidence exists from the Early Iron Age (12th to 9th centuries BC) onwards, when Tayma obtained significant importance as a caravan station at a branch of the so-called Incense Road, linking South Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean, and because it became the temporary residence of the last Babylonian king Nabonidus (556e539 BC).…”

“…1) has a rich cultural heritage consisting of a large number of historic buildings and artefacts beginning with the late Neolithic. Throughout antiquity, the site owed its importance to the extensive perennial groundwater resources (Eichmann et al, 2006a). A highly sophisticated system of hydrotechnical installations, probably more than 3000 years old, provided access to water and an efficient use of resources (Hamann et al, 2008).…”