| Popis: |
The Khaybar oasis is a hotbed of local history in northwest Saudi Arabia. It has been preserved for millennia, and its human occupation seems to have been uninterrupted from earliest prehistoric times to the present day. The new Khaybar archaeological survey and excavation project (Khaybar from Prehistory to Modern Times - Archaeological reconstruction of an oasis over the longue durée [2020-2024]), supported by the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and the French Agency for the Development of AlUla (AFALULA), began in October 2020 and will last until the end of 2024.This session at the Seminar for Arabian Studies is the first-ever opportunity to present the archaeology of this major oasis in the Arabian Peninsula. This lecture aims to introduce the objectives and methods of our project and to bring to light some preliminary results of our field survey inside the RCU oasis core zone at Khaybar. Furthermore, we will highlight major advances on prehistoric occupation, identification of specific patterns of local desert kites, the discovery of a long pre-Islamic rampart and of a new pre-Islamic site, as well as the significant amount of rock art and inscriptions. |
