<< Text Pages >> al-Tihamah - Standing Stones in Yemen

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 11 February 2013  Page Views: 4637

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: al-Tihamah Alternative Name: Tihâma
Country: Yemen Type: Standing Stones
Nearest Town: Al-Hudaydah  Nearest Village: Al-Mutaynah
Latitude: 14.143440N  Longitude: 43.102670E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 3
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Standing Stones in Tihamah,
Seven megalithic sites have been documented in the Tihâma. All are located along major wâdî systems. Most are along wâdî Zabîd and wâdî Rîma‘. Other prehistoric sites in the general area were originally occupied over the last 1000 years.

Carbon 14 dates from the site of al-Midamman seem to show that those megaliths date to somewhere between the end of the third millennium BC and the beginning of the second millennium BC. Additionally, copper tools seemingly associated with the same era as the construction of the stones were dated to 2400 - 1800 BCE. An older stone source and tool making site was found along with pottery sherds that were dated between 1200 to 800 BCE.

Note: The location is general for the megalithic site known as "al-Midamman."

Source:
Lamya Khalidi. "The late prehistoric standing stones of the Tihâma (Yemen): the domestication of space and the construction of human-landscape identity," Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée [En ligne], 121-122 | avril 2008, mis en ligne le 14 décembre 2011, consulté le 10 février 2013. The paper contains photos of multiple sites.

Note: Familiar landmarks to the local farmers, Standing Stones were unknown to outsiders.
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"al-Tihamah" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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According to Current Archaeology newsletter: Arabia's ... wait for it .... by bat400 on Monday, 11 February 2013
(User Info | Send a Message)
Andy B wrote:
Has just come up in Current Archaeology newsletter:

"Mysterious standing stones in Yemen’s semi-desert Tihamah Plain have earned themselves the nickname Arabia’s Stonehenge [AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH - not another one - exasperated MegP Ed].
Familiar landmarks to the local farmers, their presence was unknown to outsiders, until how. Their origins, however, remain an enigma."
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: According to Current Archaeology newsletter: Arabia's ... wait for it .... by Andy B on Monday, 11 February 2013
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    Thanks Bat - when were these in the Current Archaeology newsletter? (this is one from our news backlog!)
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: According to Current Archaeology newsletter: Arabia's ... wait for it .... by bat400 on Tuesday, 12 February 2013
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      Would have been last March.
      [ Reply to This ]

Yemeni Megaliths by bat400 on Monday, 11 February 2013
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A chance discovery of a group of megaliths on a coastal plain in western Yemen has sent scholars scrambling to explain why and how people were living there between ca. 2400 and 800 B.C. Known as al-Tihamah, the plain was thought to have been uninhabited until the eighth or ninth century A.D.

After a season studying a ninth-century A.D. mound outside the village of al-Mutaynah, Edward Keall, director of the Canadian Archaeological Mission of the Royal Ontario Museum, was directed to the new site by a local date farmer. "It was like going back to the nineteenth century in terms of the wonderment of discovery," says Keall, who found five 20-ton granite megaliths, three of which stood upright and measured eight feet tall. Another, more than 20 feet long, lay slanting out of the ground. Keall and his team investigated the adjacent areas and discovered more than a dozen other monoliths arranged in no obvious pattern.

"We don't know what was keeping people in this terribly marginal desert area," says Keall. "Was it a natural resource or a strategic position that prompted these people to invest such effort in erecting these remarkable monuments?" The absence of any archaeological materials in the region between 800 B.C. and A.D. 800 is also a conundrum. Keall is planning further surveys this winter.

Thanks to Andy B for the link. For more, see archive.archaeology.org.
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