Syllabus
1. Iron Age on the Arabian Peninsula: context, regions, chronology
2. The beginnings of Iron Age in Yemen: ethnogenesis and the dominance of Saba; Qataban, Hadramaut and Ma’in
3. Dhofar and the long-distance trade in aromatics
4. Dedan, Lihyan and Nabatea: Arabian Northwest
5. Tayma and Dumat: Oases of the North
6. Iron Age in the Gulf
7. Greeks and Romans in Arabia; Arabia and India
8. Arabian “Hellenism”: Arab kingdoms outside the Peninsula
9. Late Antiquity on the Arabian Peninsula: Himyar and Axum
10. Late Antiquity on the Arabian Peninsula: Ghassanids and Lakhmids/Jafnids and Nasrids
Annotation
The lectures introduce important cultural complexes predominating in material assemblages across the archaeologically most remarkable regions of the Arabian Peninsula, in between the late 2nd mill. BC and the period of the rise of Islam during the early 7th c. AD. The focus will successively shift across the areas of modern- day Yemen, the Saudi Arabian North-West, the oases territories in the Eastern Province, and the Maka region comprising roughly of the UAE and northern Oman. Iron Age on the Arabian Peninsula was a turbulent era bearing witness to gradual rise and fall of civilizations developing unique and intrinsical socio-cultural syntheses under the influence of their well-known neighbouring empires. The course directs its attention towards the changing function of these regions and civilizations within the framework of available epigraphical records, basic historical context, and remnants of material culture. Assessment of the most significant archaeological sites, summaries of previous relevant researches and introduction of the ongoing archaeological investigations will all be treated as an integral part of the latter.
The course Archaeology of Iron Age Arabia is eligible and suitable for both BA and MA students, as well as for visiting students as a part of the Erasmus+ programme.