Revealing Cultural Landscapes in North-West Arabia

Revealing Cultural Landscapes in North-West Arabia

Author: Rebecca Foote

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing

Published: 2023-08-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781803273945

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While Saudi Arabia's first inscribed World Heritage Site, Ḥegrā (al‑Ḥijr) -- Nabataean sister city of Petra -- may be the best-known archaeological site in north-west Saudi Arabia, the region is extremely rich in cultural heritage beyond it. The special sessionRevealing Cultural Landscapes in North-west Arabia, included in the 54th Seminar for Arabian Studies (delayed from 2020 to 2021), presented the latest findings at a range of sites in this critical but understudied area of Saudi Arabia, showcasing a deep and complex past through many millennia. Since the establishment of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) in 2017, a result of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, extraordinary attention and resources have been exacted on the study of the archaeological assets and cultural heritage of al‑ʿUlā County, within its oases and beyond, and shortly after of Khaybar, when parts came under RCU's jurisdiction. A strategy and initial programme of research projects were established, and in 2019 the French Agency for the Development of AlUla (Afalula), the key partner of RCU, began sponsoring archaeological research as well. Unsurprisingly, therefore, recent work in al‑ʿUlā and Khaybar predominate the volume. The results and analyses offered in the articles derive from survey, extensive targeted excavation at multiple sites, and intensive excavation and studies at single sites. Together the papers present a range of recent discoveries that demonstrate north-west Arabia's centrality to understanding the greater region and further, and to begin to clarify the extraordinary richness of life in this pivotal zone of the Arabian Peninsula from the Palaeolithic through to the Islamic period.


The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea

Author: Ian J. McNiven

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 1169

ISBN-13: 0190095644

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65,000 years ago, modern humans arrived in Australia, having navigated more than 100 km of sea crossing from southeast Asia. Since then, the large continental islands of Australia and New Guinea, together with smaller islands in between, have been connected by land bridges and severed again as sea levels fell and rose. Along with these fluctuations came changes in the terrestrial and marine environments of both land masses. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea reviews and assembles the latest findings and ideas on the archaeology of the Australia-New Guinea region, the world's largest island-continent. In 42 new chapters written by 77 contributors, it presents and explores the archaeological evidence to weave stories of colonisation; megafaunal extinctions; Indigenous architecture; long-distance interactions, sometimes across the seas; eel-based aquaculture and the development of techniques for the mass-trapping of fish; occupation of the High Country, deserts, tropical swamplands and other, diverse land and waterscapes; and rock art and symbolic behaviour. Together with established researchers, a new generation of archaeologists present in this Handbook one, authoritative text where Australia-New Guinea archaeology now lies and where it is heading, promising to shape future directions for years to come.


The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes

Author: Bleda S. Düring

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-03-29

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1107189705

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This book examines the poorly understood transformations in rural landscapes and societies that formed the backbone of ancient empires.


Under the Sea: Archaeology and Palaeolandscapes of the Continental Shelf

Under the Sea: Archaeology and Palaeolandscapes of the Continental Shelf

Author: Geoffrey N. Bailey

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-05-16

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 3319531603

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This book focuses on issues of method and interpretation in studies of submerged landscapes, concentrating on illustrations and case studies from around Europe with additional examples from other parts of the world. Such landscapes were once exposed as dry land during the low sea levels that prevailed during the glacial periods that occupied most of the past million years and provided extensive new territories for human exploitation. Their study today involves underwater investigation, using techniques and strategies which are clearly set out in these chapters. The underwater landscape provides a rich source of information about the archaeology of human settlement and long-term changes in environment, climate and sea-level. This book highlights how such information can be revealed and interpreted. The examples presented here and the focus on techniques make this book of worldwide relevance. Chapters describe examples of underwater archaeological investigation as well as collaboration with offshore industries and legal, management and training issues relating to underwater cultural heritage. Such studies point to the significance of this drowned landscape, and readers are invited to consider its human impact in terms of past settlement and population dispersal through palaeolandscape reconstruction and interpretation in relation to broader themes in human prehistory. This volume is based on work from COST Action SPLASHCOS, a four-year multi-disciplinary and multi-national research program supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) and has something to benefit all those with an interest in the sea floor of the continental shelf and the archaeological and social impact of sea-level change, including archaeologists, marine scientists, geographers, cultural-heritage managers, commercial and governmental organisations, policy makers and interested members of the public.


Roads of Arabia

Roads of Arabia

Author: Musée du Louvre

Publisher: Somogy Art Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 616

ISBN-13:

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Documenting the recent studies conducted on a highly original, beautiful, and long-neglected site by excavation teams, this exploration reveals the hidden treasures of a near-eastern civilization. More than 350 art masterpieces, mostly unknown to a foreign public and dating from prehistoric times to modern days, introduce the life and culture of a land of exchanges located at the crossroad of major civilizations--including the Mediterraneans, Mesopotamians, and Indians--which today constitutes Saudi Arabia. The numerous testimonies include the necropolis of Hegra, a smaller version of Petra inscribed on the UNESCO World heritage list; Mecqua, the fortress of Teima, which shows strong Mesopotamian and Egyptian influence; and the Dedan site, which is characterized by monumental sculpture of Ptolemaic inspiration. Precious dishes and jewelry, monumental sculptures, temples, and palaces ornate with frescoes fill the pages of this sumptuous examination.


Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space

Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space

Author: Douglas C Comer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-01-10

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1461460743

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Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space offers a concise overview of air and spaceborne imagery and related geospatial technologies tailored to the needs of archaeologists. Leading experts including scientists involved in NASA’s Space Archaeology program provide technical introductions to five sections: 1) Historic Air and Spaceborne Imagery 2) Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imagery 3) Synthetic Aperture Radar 4) Lidar 5) Archaeological Site Detection and Modeling Each of these five sections includes two or more case study applications that have enriched understanding of archaeological landscapes in regions including the Near East, East Asia, Europe, Meso- and North America. Targeted to the needs of researchers and heritage managers as well as graduate and advanced undergraduate students, this volume conveys a basic technological sense of what is currently possible and, it is hoped, will inspire new pioneering applications. Particular attention is paid to the tandem goals of research (understanding) and archaeological heritage management (preserving) the ancient past. The technologies and applications presented can be used to characterize environments, detect archaeological sites, model sites and settlement patterns and, more generally, reveal the dialectic landscape-scale dynamics among ancient peoples and their social and environmental surroundings. In light of contemporary economic development and resultant damage to and destruction of archaeological sites and landscapes, applications of air and spaceborne technologies in archaeology are of wide utility and promoting understanding of them is a particularly appropriate goal at the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention.​


The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia

The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia

Author: Peter Magee

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-05-19

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1139991639

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Encompassing a landmass greater than the rest of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean combined, the Arabian peninsula remains one of the last great unexplored regions of the ancient world. This book provides the first extensive coverage of the archaeology of this region from c.9000 to 800 BC. Peter Magee argues that a unique social system, which relied on social cohesion and actively resisted the hierarchical structures of adjacent states, emerged during the Neolithic and continued to contour society for millennia later. The book also focuses on how the historical context in which Near Eastern archaeology was codified has led to a skewed understanding of the multiplicity of lifeways pursued by ancient peoples living throughout the Middle East.


Arabian Deserts

Arabian Deserts

Author: H. Stewart Edgell

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-07-21

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 1402039700

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This is the first comprehensive survey of all the deserts of Arabia, based largely on the author’s 50 years of experience there. The text deals with every kind of desert in the region, from vast sand seas to clay pans and stony plains to volcanic flows. Along with dune types unique to the region the author outlines climatic changes, current ecology and human influence on desertification.


The Social Archaeology of the Levant

The Social Archaeology of the Levant

Author: Assaf Yasur-Landau

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-12-20

Total Pages: 941

ISBN-13: 1108668240

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The volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the archaeology of the southern Levant (modern day Israel, Palestine and Jordan) from the Paleolithic period to the Islamic era, presenting the past with chronological changes from hunter-gatherers to empires. Written by an international team of scholars in the fields of archaeology, epigraphy, and bioanthropology, the volume presents central debates around a range of archaeological issues, including gender, ritual, the creation of alphabets and early writing, biblical periods, archaeometallurgy, looting, and maritime trade. Collectively, the essays also engage diverse theoretical approaches to demonstrate the multi-vocal nature of studying the past. Significantly, The Social Archaeology of the Levant updates and contextualizes major shifts in archaeological interpretation.


Arabia and the Arabs

Arabia and the Arabs

Author: Robert G. Hoyland

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-09-11

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1134646348

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Long before Muhammed preached the religion of Islam, the inhabitants of his native Arabia had played an important role in world history as both merchants and warriors Arabia and the Arabs provides the only up-to-date, one-volume survey of the region and its peoples, from prehistory to the coming of Islam Using a wide range of sources - inscriptions, poetry, histories, and archaeological evidence - Robert Hoyland explores the main cultural areas of Arabia, from ancient Sheba in the south, to the deserts and oases of the north. He then examines the major themes of *the economy *society *religion *art, architecture and artefacts *language and literature *Arabhood and Arabisation The volume is illustrated with more than 50 photographs, drawings and maps.