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The Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula 2Connecting the Evidence. Proceedings of the International Workshop held at the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Vienna on April 25, 2016
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The Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula 2, pp. 15-42, 2021/12/20
Connecting the Evidence. Proceedings of the International Workshop held at the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Vienna on April 25, 2016
Wadi Sharma 1 is a small Neolithic settlement at the north-western corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Ourrecent excavations have revealed some 60 ground- or semi-subterranean-type masonry structures, which were connectedto each other to form an elongated settlement with a total area of c. 0.1ha. The settlement was poor in materialculture and small finds centred around chipped stone artefacts, grinding implements and seashell/snail ornaments.The small settlement size and the scarcity of artefact variety, coupled with the custom of temporary entrance sealingattested throughout the settlement, suggest that the outpost-size settlement was used only on a seasonal basis. A total often 14C dates converge equally on the second half of the 8th millennium calBCE, indicating that the seasonal settlementdates back to the Late PPNB (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) of the Levantine chronology. The site is the first fully-excavatedPPNB settlement in the Arabian Peninsula and is expected to shed new light on the issue of the Neolithisation in thetrans-Levantine arid subcontinent. This paper summarises the research outcomes at the key site and briefly discussestheir archaeological implications in a broader context.
Keywords: Wadi Sharma 1; Hijaz; Saudi Arabia; PPNB; Neolithisation