Taymā’: Multidisciplinary Series on the Results of the Saudi-German Archaeological Project – serie

Archaeological investigations in the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula has increased during the last 15 years. One of the major sites in the region is the ancient oasis of Taymā’, known as a commercial hub on the so-called Incense Road connecting South Arabia with the Eastern Mediterranean. In the context of this new research a multidisciplinary project by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) and the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) has been investigating the archaeology and ancient environment of Taymā’ since 2004. A major aim of this project was the development of new perspectives of the site and the region, characterised by elaborating the local socio-cultural and economic contexts. So far, Taymā’ has been known mainly through exogenous sources.The present volume is the first of the publication series of the Saudi-German archaeological project and focuses on three fundamental aspects of research at Taymā’: the current archaeological exploration of the oasis is contextualised with previous and ongoing research within the region, while at the same time offering a first overview of the settlement history of the site, which may have started as early as more than 6000 years ago. New information on the palaeoenvironment has been provided by multiproxy- analysis of sediments from a palaeolake immediately north of the settlement. The results indicate an Early Holocene humid period in the region that is shorter than the so-called African Humid Period. The abrupt aridification at around 8 ka BP, known from other regions in the Near East, is also attested in north-western Arabia. The reconstruction of the past vegetation of the site and its surroundings demonstrates that oasis cultivation at Taymā’ started during the 5th millennium BCE with grapes and figs, rather than with the date palm. According to hydrological investigations on water resources, groundwater aquifers provided the main source of local water supply. These were exploited through wells, some of which have been identified in the area of the ancient oasis. Finally, since the time of early travellers to Northwest Arabia evidence of cultural contacts has been observed in the records from the site, which had been occupied by the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (556–539 BCE) for ten years. A historical-archaeological essay on Egypt and Arabia as well as a study on the ambiguous relationship between Assyria and Arabia – characterised by conflict and commerce – shed new light on the foreign relations of ancient Taymā’.

Taymāʾ II is a Catalogue which contains all the inscriptions discovered during the 24 seasons of the Saudi- German excavations at Taymāʾ from 2004–15 which were funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The 113 objects carry inscriptions in different languages and scripts, illustrating the linguistic diversity of the oasis through time. Although the majority are fragmentary, they provide an important source for the history of the oasis in ancient and mediaeval times.The Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions in this volume confirm for the first time the ten-year sojourn at Taymāʾ of the last Babylonian king Nabû-na’id (556–539 BC). In addition, Imperial Aramaic inscriptions dated by the reigns of Lihyanite kings, based at Dadan (modern al-ʿUlā), reveal for the first time that they ruled Taymāʾ at a period in the second half of the first millennium BC.As well as editing the volume, Michael C. A. Macdonald edited the Imperial Aramaic inscriptions found from 2010–15, plus those in the form of the Aramaic script which developed in Taymāʾ, and the Nabataean, Dadanitic, and Taymanitic texts. In addition, Hanspeter Schaudig edited the cuneiform inscriptions; Peter Stein, the Imperial Aramaic texts found from 2004–09; and Frédéric Imbert, the Arabic inscriptions. Arnulf Hausleiter and Francelin Tourtet provided archaeological contributions, while Martina Trognitz curated the virtual edition of many of the texts recorded by RTI. The indexes contain the words and names from all known texts from the oasis, including those in the Taymāʾ Museum and other collections which will be published as Taymāʾ III.