The Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula 2, pp. 43-88, 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
Excavations carried out by the German Archaeological Institute and the Saudi Commission for Tourism andNational Heritage (now Heritage Commission at the Ministry of Culture) at the oasis of Tayma since 2004 evidencedpottery production at the site from the late 4th/early 3rd millennium BCE onwards. The paper presents, for the first time,the chronostratigraphic pottery sequence at Tayma based on the latest excavation results. Comparative evidence of theceramic material suggests that the relations between north-western Arabia and the Levant were closer than with anyother adjacent region. On the other hand, results of archaeometric analyses of Middle to Late Bronze Age ceramicsfrom both Tayma and Qurayyah indicate a technological autonomy of individual oases in pottery production alreadyduring the late 2nd millennium BCE. Existence of the oasis’s long-distance contact during subsequent periods is evidencedby imports, e.g. Attic pottery and Nabataean Fine Ware from Petra.
Keywords: Tayma; north-western Arabia; pottery; chronology; archaeometry; chemical analysis; Matrix Group by Refiring (MGR) analysis
