4,000-year-old city discovered in Saudi oasis

The discovery of the fortified town of al-Natah, a first in northwestern Saudi Arabia, reveals a mode of« slow urbanization » during the Bronze Age, more than four thousand years ago. In the setting of sand and black basalt of the Hejaz desert, the oasis of Khaybar has kept the trace of al-Natah “hidden” for millennia. Until the discovery of the remains of a 14.5 km long rampart, described at the beginning of the year in a study signed by Guillaume Charloux, CNRS research engineer at the Orient Méditerranée Laboratory. According to the archaeologist, who led a Franco-Saudi team, this is the “proof that the ramparts are organized around a habitat”.

The study estimates that the site is that of a large village, reaching up to perhaps 500 inhabitants and occupied over several periods, established around 2,400 BCE, and abandoned « without knowing why »about a thousand years later. When the town of al-Natah was born, Sumer, region and cradle of Mesopotamian civilization, in what is now Iraq, had already existed for a thousand years. The cities of the Levant, bordering the Mediterranean from present-day Syria to Jordan, flourished in these early days of the Bronze Age.

Terra incognita archaeologists until only 20 years ago, northwest Arabia was seen at that time as a desert area, punctuated by funerary sites and crossed by pastoral nomadic groups. 15 years ago, in the Tayma oasis, archaeologists identified a rampart dating from the Bronze Age. After this « first essential discovery »according to Guillaume Charloux, that of al-Natah provides that of a first village of the time.

“A relatively egalitarian society”

Planted in a hyper-arid part of the Hedjaz desert, its setting of black volcanic rocks hides its remains well, under piles of basalt. So much so that he “protected the site from illegal excavations”according to Guillaume Charloux. A novice does not « would see nothing ».

Unless you do like the archaeologists, or observe the site from the air to guess the layout of the paths separating the foundations of the houses. Before carrying out excavations over several seasons to measure them. This work which « remains preliminary in terms of understanding the occupation of the site »according to the archaeologist, reveals bases of black stones « powerful enough to easily support one or two floors » at least dwellings probably made of mud bricks.

The study, published in the journal PLOS One from the American science bookstore, draws a town perched on a promontory and equipped with its own wall. With a residential area of ​​around fifty houses, another part whose role is not entirely understood, and finally a necropolis. The tombs themselves contain some prestigious objects, metal weapons and semi-precious stones, betraying a social order which became more complex around – 2,000 years before our era. The numerous pottery remains identified in the floors of the dwellings suggest « a relatively egalitarian society »according to the study, with « a very pretty but very simple ceramic »adds Guillaume Charloux.

As for the ramparts, which could reach five meters high, they demarcate not only a zone of life but also of property and power. So many elements pointing to the existence of some sort of local authority.

The exploration of the site changes the view of archaeologists on a region still largely unexplored, by revealing a model of« slow urbanization ». With perhaps fortified oases connected to each other, in an environment largely dominated by pastoral nomadic groups and integrated into a trade network that would later support the incense route. Certainly, the small size of al-Natah’s population would have made it a modest village in Mesopotamia or Egypt at the time. Far removed from the city-state model, as Babylon would later be. But in this hyper-arid environment, it embodies « another path of urbanization, more modest, much slower, and entirely specific to the northwest of Saudi Arabia »concludes the archaeologist.