Stratigraphic and chronological evidence for overlapping Bronze Age tomb types in the Khaybar region, Saudi Arabia

Résumé fourni par la source

• Stratigraphic evidence reveals overlapping Bronze Age tomb types in Khaybar. • New radiocarbon dates refine the regional funerary sequence in northwestern Arabia. • Combined excavation and architectural studies clarify tomb construction phases. • Results suggest coexistence of distinct mortuary traditions within one area. • Study redefines models of Bronze Age cultural dynamics in northwestern Arabia The excavation of five tombs on the basalt plateau of Harrat al-Natah offers new insights into the architectural diversity of protohistoric funerary monuments in the Khaybar region of Saudi Arabia. By combining architectural and stratigraphic observations with anthropological and chronological evidence, we propose initial hypotheses on changes and diversification of local funerary architecture between the end of the third millennium BCE and the first half of the second millennium BCE. Although the human remains are poorly preserved, the material still allows some evidence regarding the funerary practices and are the best way to date the use(s) of the burial chambers. Finally, the small assemblage of beads and lithic artifacts provides preliminary hypotheses regarding the grave goods of the deceased and their specific characteristics. This study of the Khaybar LDAP project outlines possible scenarios for the expansion (around 2200 BCE) and decline (after 2000 BCE) of “large tailed tombs” and “other tower-tombs” that developed along funerary avenues in northwestern Arabia. Previously unknown types of small alveolus tower-tombs, arranged in aggregates, began to appear in the first quarter of the second millennium (between 1900 and 1800 BCE) and continued to be used or reused until the middle of the second millennium. This is a new funerary tradition that seems to emerge only in the northern part of the oasis, and also reflects a concentration of occupation, particularly marked on the Harrat al-Natah plateau.

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