Northwestern Arabia — the area between Mecca and Aqaba — through the Bronze Age was dotted with interconnected monumental walled oases centered round small fortified cities such because the recently-discovered city of al-Natah in Khaybar Oasis, the Saudi Arabian province of Medinah.
3D digital reconstruction of the Bronze Age city of al-Natah. Picture credit score: Charloux et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309963 / AFALULA-RCU-CNRS.
The event of enormous city settlements was a serious step within the evolution of human civilization.
This technique of urbanization has confirmed troublesome to check in northwestern Arabia, due partly to a scarcity of well-preserved archaeological websites within the area in contrast with higher understood areas such because the Levant and Mesopotamia.
In latest a long time, nevertheless, excavations have uncovered distinctive websites in northwestern Arabia that present insights into the early phases of urbanization.
In a brand new research, CNRS archaeologist Guillaume Charloux and colleagues centered on the Bronze Age city of al-Natah, occupied from round 2400-1500 BCE.
The city coated roughly 1.5 hectares, together with a central district and close by residential district surrounded by protecting ramparts.
In keeping with the researchers, al-Natah was residence to roughly 500 residents.
Its measurement and group is much like different websites of comparable age in northwestern Arabia, however these websites are smaller and fewer socio-politically complicated than up to date websites within the Levant and Mesopotamia.
The scientists counsel that al-Natah represents a state of ‘low urbanization,’ a transitional stage between cell pastoralism and sophisticated city settlements.
Archaeological proof up to now signifies that northwestern Arabia was dotted with small fortified cities through the Early-Center Bronze Age, at a time when different areas exhibited later phases of urbanization.
Additional excavations throughout Arabia will present extra particulars concerning the timing of this transition and the accompanying adjustments in societal construction and structure.
“For the primary time in northwestern Arabia, a small Bronze Age city (c. 2400-1300 BCE) related to an unlimited community of ramparts has been found by archaeologists, elevating questions concerning the early improvement of native urbanism,” the authors mentioned.
Their paper was revealed on-line October 30, 2024 within the journal PLoS ONE.
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G. Charloux et al. 2024. A Bronze Age city within the Khaybar walled oasis: Debating early urbanization in Northwestern Arabia. PLoS ONE 19 (10): e0309963; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309963
