DHB-Origins and Development of Tribal Social Identities and Territorial Behaviors in Ancient Southern Arabia

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This project examines changes in the tangible markers of Yemen's mobile herders during ancient times and the role that profound changes in the natural and political environments played in the onset of strong tribe-based societies and territories such as seen today. Despite widely varying definitions of a tribe, most scholars agree that tribal societies are marked by social bonds of kinship as the basis for political and territorial groups. The project will investigate the formation of these groups over a very long time span that only archaeology can provide, giving a unique and important baseline for modern geo-politics involving tribal societies in the Middle East. In order to understand ancient social identity, examination of material remains of kin-based social identity is crucial. Territories and changes in territorial geography over time provide the necessary manifestation of tribal dynamics. Previous research has established that territories in Southern Arabia were marked with distinctive cairns and monuments as symbols of tribal rights, rites, and routes. This group of investigators, with expertise in archaeology, geographic information science, and statistics, will map these ancient territories and changes in boundaries, correlating them to the chronology of environmental and political change in the region. The investigators will use high resolution satellite images to identify cairn locations and types in the region; they will field an archaeological team for several seasons in southern Yemen's remote highlands to locate and verify the cairns located on the images; and they will develop appropriate statistical methodology for estimating spatio-temporal distribution of cairns. This project highlights the collaborative efforts of Americans, French, and Yemeni scholars in this international scientific endeavor. It will train graduate students in interdisciplinary science, bridging the gaps that emerge with hyper-technical disciplinary focus, to foster a new generation of scholarship in the landscape of human social dynamics.