Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – A vast fortification, which is one of the longest known going back 4,000 years was just discovered by a team of scientists from the CNRS1 and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU).

Location map of the Khaybar walled oasis (red and white circle) and other major sites in north-western Arabia, © G. Charloux, ESRI.

This new walled oasis is, along with that of Tayma, one of the two largest in Saudi Arabia. While a number of walled oases dating back to the Bronze Age had already been documented, this major discovery sheds new light on human occupation in north-western Arabia, and provides a better grasp of local social complexity during the pre-Islamic period.

The fortification is enclosing the ancient Khaybar Oasis, home to a wealth of plant and animal life.

The North Arabian Desert oases were inhabited by sedentary populations in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE.

Digital reconstruction of the rampart network from the northern section of the Khaybar walled oasis 4,000 years ago. Credit: Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project, M. Bussy & G. Charloux

Cross-referencing field surveys and remote sensing data with architectural studies, the team estimated the original dimensions of the fortifications at 14.5 kilometres in length, between 1.70 and 2.40 metres in thickness, and approximately 5 metres in height.

Preserved today over a little less than half of its original length (41%, 5.9 km and 74 bastions), this colossal edifice enclosed a rural and sedentary territory of nearly 1,100 hectares.

The fortification’s date of construction is estimated between 2250 and 1950 BCE, on the basis of radiocarbon dating of samples collected during excavations.

While the study confirms that the Khaybar Oasis clearly belonged to a network of walled oases in north-western Arabia, the discovery of this rampart also raises questions regarding why it was built as well as the nature of the populations that built it, in particular their relations with populations outside the oasis.

This archaeological discovery, whose results will be published on 10 January in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (JASREP), paves the way for major advances in understanding the prehistoric, pre-Islamic, and Islamic past of the north-western Arabian Peninsula.

Paper: Journal of Archaeological Science : Reports, January 10, 2024.
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104355

Provided by CNRS

Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer