Oriental Institute Investigations in Yemen: Progress Report

As we write this account in late June 1996, there are reports of floods in Yemen. Marib and Shabwa are prominently mentioned, although there is no indication of damage to any archaeological sites. The reports remind us of the destructive potential that resides in the monsoon rains that are essential for cultivation in the mountains of Yemen. The still-visible remnant of the dam at Marib is only one of many examples of magnificent engineering that have been shattered by extraordinary natural events. But, when seen in context, more important than these dramatic failures are the hundreds of smaller dams (fig. 1), water-diversion structures, and the thousands of terraces that have remained intact for hundreds of years, allowing the mountain areas of Yemen to support a large population in villages throughout the millennia. It is the recording and analysis of manmade structures, both ancient and contemporary, in their natural setting that is the core of the Oriental Institute's Archaeological and Environmental Survey in the Dhamar area of Yemen. Having decided to postpone our third season of work from the spring until the fall of 1996, we have had time to analyze and process data from earlier seasons. As a result it is now possible to provide a considerable amount of additional information on the development of the archaeology of this little-known area of highland Yemen. Building upon the pioneering work of Raymond Tindel, whose Oriental Institute dissertation tackled the chronology of the Himyarite period of the plateau (first centuries B.C. to sixth century A.D.; see fig. 2), as well as more recent work by an Italian team in the area of Wadi Yanaim some 60 km to the northeast, we can now offer an updated picture of the archaeology of highland Yemen for roughly the past seven-thousand years. The primary aim of the Oriental Institute investigation in the Dhamar area has been to provide an archaeological context for the magnificent suites of terraced fields that the blanket valley sides in this moist part of highland Yemen. Therefore in addition to attempting to provide a date for the fields, we are locating the settlements of the people that farmed the fields, demonstrating how the fields related to the natural environment of the region, and how the local economy functioned. Here however we will simply show how analysis of the survey data can now provide a much more complete framework for the chronological development of archaeology in the Dhamar region than was hitherto possible. Figure 1. Long dam in Wadi Shalalah