Northwestern Arabia — the establish of abode between Mecca and Aqaba — all around the Bronze Age used to be dotted with interconnected huge walled oases centered around microscopic fortified cities such because the no longer too long in the past-realized town of al-Natah in Khaybar Oasis, the Saudi Arabian province of Medinah.
3D virtual reconstruction of the Bronze Age town of al-Natah. Image credit ranking: Charloux et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309963 / AFALULA-RCU-CNRS.
The attain of enormous city settlements used to be a critical step in the evolution of human civilization.
This system of urbanization has proven no longer easy to glide looking out for in northwestern Arabia, due in segment to a lack of successfully-preserved archaeological sites in the establish of abode in contrast with better understood areas such because the Levant and Mesopotamia.
In most up-to-date decades, on the different hand, excavations include uncovered distinctive sites in northwestern Arabia that offer insights into the early phases of urbanization.
In a brand current look for, CNRS archaeologist Guillaume Charloux and colleagues targeted on the Bronze Age town of al-Natah, occupied from around 2400-1500 BCE.
The town lined approximately 1.5 hectares, including a central district and within sight residential district surrounded by conserving ramparts.
In accordance with the researchers, al-Natah used to be residence to approximately 500 residents.
Its size and group is equivalent to diversified sites of linked age in northwestern Arabia, but these sites are smaller and no longer more socio-politically complex than up to date sites in the Levant and Mesopotamia.
The scientists point out that al-Natah represents a order of ‘low urbanization,’ a transitional stage between cell pastoralism and complex city settlements.
Archaeological proof to this level means that northwestern Arabia used to be dotted with microscopic fortified cities all around the Early-Center Bronze Age, at a time when diversified regions exhibited later phases of urbanization.
Additional excavations across Arabia will present extra particulars concerning the timing of this transition and the accompanying adjustments in societal construction and architecture.
“For the principle time in northwestern Arabia, a microscopic Bronze Age town (c. 2400-1300 BCE) linked to an huge network of ramparts has been realized by archaeologists, elevating questions concerning the early pattern of native urbanism,” the authors stated.
Their paper used to be printed online October 30, 2024 in the journal PLoS ONE.
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G. Charloux et al. 2024. A Bronze Age town in the Khaybar walled oasis: Debating early urbanization in Northwestern Arabia. PLoS ONE 19 (10): e0309963; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309963
