Why did the cities of the Jawf valley collapse?
An arch aeo-geographical approach 1
Jérémie Schietteca tte2
Introduction
Pre-Islamic South Arabia is widely known for the events recounted in religious sources: the queen of Sheba bringing wealth to Solomon, described in the Bible (I King 10), or the breaking of the great dam of Ma’rib, mentioned in the Koran (Sura 34, 15-16). Through both events, the main components of this ancient area can be discerned: an aromatic bearing country, divided into several kingdoms, benefiting from a well irrigated agriculture. Historically, South Arabia covered the territory of present-day Yemen, overlapping southwestern Saudi Arabia (wâdî Najrân) and southwestern Oman (Dhufâr) (fig. 1). The emergence in this area, at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, of a common alphabet and identical architectural and artistic features lead the scholars to describe the period as well as the culture by the word “ South Arabian”. This culture lasted until the 6th century AD, fading away on the eve of Islam. During the 1st millennium BC, most of the South Arabian towns grew in these Lowlands, where the valleys open out on the inner desert, the Ramlat asSab‘ atayn. Such a context does not allow rain‑watered agriculture. It was therefore necessary to develop irrigation systems to make the most of the flood caused by the heavy showers on the Highlands during the rainy season (spring and summer). As these systems expanded, reaching 10 000 ha in the oasis of Ma’rib, the social complexity they required for their improvement and their maintenance increased. In this paper, we intend to focus on the Jawf valley, the most important one around the inner desert. This area was ideal for the settlement of sedentary communities and it is no accident that among the most ancient and largest cities in South Arabia were those of the Jawf. These towns are occupied at least from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. They took the form of small independent entities. The town, its territory and the tribe dwelling in and around the town were designated by a single name. This led me to refer to these entities as “ tribal city”. 3
1. This paper is the translation of an earlier contribution published in French in the journal M@ ppemonde, 84 (4-2006). I would like to thank Astrid Emery for the proofreading of this version. 2. CN RS, UMR 8167 •Orient et Méditerranée”, jeremie. schiettecatte@ mae. u-paris10. fr 3. These cities have also been called city states (M. Arbach, 2001, p. 14; M. Arbach, R. Audouin, 2004, p. 50; J. F. Breton, 1994, p. 165; C. Robin, 1991b, p. 52; H. von Wissmann, 1976, p. 337). Indeed, with only one exception they meet the conditions required by M. H. Hansen (2000, p. 19) to be defined as a city state: •A city-state is a highly institutionalised and highly centralised micro-state consisting of one town (often walled) with its immediate hinterland and settled with a stratified population, of whom some are citizens, some foreigners and, sometimes, slaves. Its territory is mostly so small that the urban center can be reached in a day’s walk or less, and the politically privileged part of population is so small that it does in fact constitute a face-to-face society. The population is ethnically affiliated with the population of neighboring city-states, but political identity is focused on the city-state itself and based on differentiation from other city-states. A significantly large fraction of the population is settled in the town, the others are settled in the hinterland, either dispersed in farmsteads or nucleated in villages or both. The urban economy implies specialisation of function and division of labour to such an extent that the population has to satisfy a significant part of their daily needs by purchase in the city’s market. The city-state
