Prehistoric small scale monument types in Hadramawt (southern Arabia): convergences in ethnography, linguistics and archaeology
Abdalaziz Ja'afar Bin 'Aqil & Joy McCorriston
This paper is published in full in Antiquity 83 no. 321 September 2009. Here we publish an accompanying photo essay.
Figure 1. Map of Hadramawt showing the Jol (Plateau) bisected by the Wadi Hadramawt-Wadi Masila. Click to enlarge.
Figure 2. Qubr Rukamy. Stone pile forming a tumulus, presumed in most cases to contain a burial within a constructed chamber. The term "Qubr Rukamy" refers to the present-day appearance as a heap of stones. Remnants of a central chamber may be evident. Click to enlarge.
Figure 3. Qubr Rudhumy. Readily identified as a High Circular Tomb by archaeologists, these monuments are fashioned around a central chamber and use tabular or blocky stone (not regularly dressed or shaped) in construction. This technique may account for the differences between rukam and rudhum appearance. Both types may be rujm. Matthew Senn as scale. Click to enlarge.
Figure 4. Multiple Islamic graves on low terrace near the wadi bed. This cluster is in current use and contains more than 30 distinct burials, each slightly over a meter in diameter. Click to enlarge.
Figure 5. Detail of Islamic (Al-Aly Bedouin) grave showing shahed, or upright stone. Grave mound is just over one meter diameter. Click to enlarge.
Figure 6. Qubr 'Arumiy located on high plateau overlooking and visible from wadi bed. Click to enlarge.
Figure 7. Detail of a tail element from Qubr 'Arumiy. Click to enlarge.
Figure 8. Raybun camel burial, remnant of baliya practice, excavated by the Yemeni-Soviet expedition in front of 3rd century BC tombs. Click to enlarge.
Figure 9. Tomb number 56 camel burial at Raybun. [Records of the Yemeni-Soviet Expedition]. Click to enlarge.
Figure 10. Camel burial placed into and re-using qubr rukamy in the Wadi Harou. Click to enlarge.
Figure 11. Trilith in Wadi Sana later modified for runoff water diversion. The ring of stones around the hearth in foreground has been robbed to create a low wall incorporating in-situ standing stones of the trilith elements. Click to enlarge.
Figure 12. Trilith element and hearths behind in partial view of a well-preserved trilith monument. Note on the right the pair of solitary standing stones flanked by trilith uprights. Four boulders lie beyond, and two of the parallel line of hearths may also be seen in the background (center, far right). Khalid BaDhofary as scale. Click to enlarge.
Figure 13. Madhba, or hearth for roasting meat. The elements of the hearth are terms used also for groups of people as components of a larger group of people. We argue that there is a strong link between the location of hearths for roasting meat and territorial rights. Trilith monuments with their symbolic alignments of stones and hearths signaled territorial rights just as hearths do for the groups that still use them today. Click to enlarge.
Figure 14. Meat roasting pit in Wadi Sana silts, dated 6000-5000 years ago. Click to enlarge.
Figure 15. Tribesmen roasting meat at tribal gathering site where community feasts take place each year. Photograph from the 1960s by Hadrami photographer Ahmad Sa'id BaJunayd. Click to enlarge.
Figure 16. Group around a madhba. Photograph from the 1960s by Hadrami photographer Ahmad Sa'id BaJunayd. Click to enlarge.
Figure 17. Al-Aly bedouin around a madhba in Wadi Sana. Click to enlarge.
Figure 18. Al-Aly bedouin guard set up a hearth to which family and visitors came each evening at the RASA Project camp in Wadi Sana. The camp cook's hearth and kitchen tent are in the background. Click to enlarge.
Figure 19. Tomb of a Wali (Saint) in Wadi Sakhdan. Note the Islamic appropriation of an older qubr rukamy. Click to enlarge.
Authors
- Abdalaziz Ja'afar Bin 'Aqil
General Organization of Antiquities and Museums, P.O. Box 8686, Al-Mukalla, Hadramawt Governate, Republic of Yemen
(Email: khuzmah@yahoo.com)
(Corresponding author for Arabic) - Joy McCorriston
Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 4034 Smith Laboratory, 174 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210, USA
(Email: mccorriston.1@osu.edu)
(Corresponding author for English)
