Funerary Landscapes, Contacts and Mobility in Bronze Age Northwest Arabia

青铜时代阿拉伯西北部的丧葬景观、联系和流动性

• 批准号: 428031328
• 负责人: Dr. Arnulf Hausleiter, since 12/2020
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Referat Naturwissenschaften an der Zentrale
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/428031328?language=en
• 关键词: Funerary; Landscapes; Contacts; Mobility; Bronze

The interdisciplinary project is aimed at investigating systematically for the first time an extended cemetery area of a north-western Arabian oasis. Its focus lies on a funerary landscape with burials of the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age (c. 3000 – 1500 BCE), a period of fundamental changes in societies all over the ancient Near East. In the surroundings of the oasis of Tayma (Saudi Arabia), a major commercial hub on the subsequent Incense Road, thousands of graves visible on the modern surface are preserved. Until today, they have not been object of systematic investigations or study. A number of graves which have been recently excavated in the frame of salvage operations contained weapons which are known mainly in Syria and the Levant as indicating the social status of the deceased. These new discoveries raised a debate on the circumstances of their appearance in north-western Arabia and their meaning. In this context, the supra-regional mobility of groups or individuals as well as the wide distribution of certain ritual burial practices have been called into discussion and are in need of in-depth research.The present investigation, by using a wide range of methods, aims at identifying archaeological and biological factors relevant to the social differentiation within a Bronze Age oasis society in north-western Arabia, exploring and exposing the burials’ social biases. The completed excavations in the settlement of Tayma provided already some evidence for the social organisation of the oasis. The project is also oriented towards reconstructing lifestyle and subsistence strategies of the population living in the ancient oasis and its surroundings. At the same time the interconnections between sedentary oasis dwellers and mobile groups will be investigated.Since ancient or recent manipulations and disturbances of graves may hamper interpretation, these phenomena, in a preparatory phase of the project will be carefully investigated in order to test the validity of the archaeological and biological sources and the applied methodology for further, more intensive research.In the context of a continuous destruction of the graves due to the expanding modern settlement, the project contributes to the preservation of an outstanding cultural landscape. On the long run, connecting the evidence from burials with the excavation results from the settlement will allow for a reconstruction of socio-biological processes of adaptation within the environmental context of a north-western Arabian oasis.

这个跨学科项目旨在首次系统地调查阿拉伯绿洲西北部的一个扩展的墓地区域。它的重点在于早期青铜时代和中期青铜时代（公元前3000 - 1500年）的墓葬景观，这是整个古代近东社会发生根本变化的时期。在泰马绿洲（沙特阿拉伯）的周围，一个主要的商业中心在随后的香路上，数千个坟墓可见的现代表面被保存下来。直到今天，它们还没有成为系统调查或研究的对象。最近在打捞行动中挖掘的一些坟墓中含有武器，这些武器主要在叙利亚和黎凡特被认为表明了死者的社会地位。这些新发现引发了关于它们在阿拉伯半岛西北部出现的环境及其意义的争论。在这种情况下，群体或个人的跨区域流动以及某些仪式埋葬习俗的广泛分布已经引起讨论，需要深入研究。本研究采用多种方法，旨在确定与阿拉伯西北部青铜器时代绿洲社会社会分化相关的考古和生物学因素，探索和揭露墓葬的社会偏见。在泰马定居点完成的挖掘工作已经为绿洲的社会组织提供了一些证据。该项目还旨在重建生活在古绿洲及其周围地区的人们的生活方式和生存策略。同时，还将调查久坐的绿洲居民和流动人群之间的联系。由于古代或最近对坟墓的操纵和干扰可能妨碍解释，因此将在项目筹备阶段仔细调查这些现象，以检验考古和生物来源的有效性以及用于进一步更深入研究的适用方法。由于现代定居的不断扩大，坟墓不断遭到破坏，该项目有助于保护杰出的文化景观。从长远来看，将埋葬的证据与定居点的挖掘结果联系起来，将允许在阿拉伯绿洲西北部的环境背景下重建社会生物适应过程。