Ma’layba, a settlement situated in the Aden hinterland (Yemen), was occupied from the end of the 3rd millennium to the 13th century BC. Here the joint German-Russian Archaeological Mission carried out an extended deep sounding. Hut foundations and irrigation channels were recorded at different stratigraphic levels attesting of the continuous occupation of the site. These channels are the first Bronze Age channels to have been excavated in Yemen. The excavation results and the typological study of the pottery are presented, fully illustrated and placed in the relative and absolute chronological frame. The material cultures of the Yemen Bronze Age are investigated, defining different archaeological facies and proposing a provisional periodization. Comparisons between the material cultures of Yemen and of neighbouring regions allow to better understand the nature of the Bronze Age relations between Yemen and the Levant and between the two coasts of the Red Sea.
The Bronze Age was first identified in Yemen at the beginning of the 80s. Since then, Bronze Age monuments have been identified in different regions of Yemen. Amongst the most important discoveries are those of Sabir and Ma’layba and of the shell-middens of al-Nabwa and Khawr al-’Umayra on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Aden made by the Joint German-Russian Archaeological Mission. The first part of the volume is dedicated to the site of Ma’layba. Chapter 1 reports the results of the excavation of the settlement (end 3rd millennium to 13th century BC). Data coming from a long, 14C dated stratigraphic sequence of the Yemen Bronze Age are available for the first time. The discovery of irrigation channels, the first Bronze Age channels to have been excavated in Yemen, demonstrates that the irrigation systems built later by the South Arabians were the refinement of skills developed since the Bronze Age. The chapter contains the complete description and illustration of the stratified pottery assemblage, presented in a typological frame. Chapter 2 summarizes the results of excavations and surveys in the nearby town of Sabir and in the shell-middens on the Gulf of Aden, including the description and illustration of the ceramics from al-Nabwa. In Chapter 3 a definition and periodization of the archaeological culture of the Gulf of Aden is proposed.
In the second part of the volume, Chapter 4 provides an updated overview of the Yemen Bronze Age. The material cultures from the end of the 4th millennium to the beginning of the 1st millennium are used to define different archaeological facies: Highlands and Lowlands, Coastal Plains, Hadramawt and Mahra. Chapter 5 proposes a provisional comprehensive periodization of the Yemen Bronze Age. The material cultures of Yemen are compared with those of neighbouring regions in Chapter 6. A better understanding of the nature of the relations between Yemen and the Levant and between Yemen and Eastern Africa during the Bronze Age argues in favour of the existence of an ancient common cultural background shared by South Western Arabia and the Levant.
This volume is addressed to researchers in the field of Bronze Age archaeology of South Arabia, the Levant and Eastern Africa
„Einer der Forschungsschwerpunkte der Außenstelle Sanaa des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts ist die Untersuchung der Wurzeln der altsüdarabischen Hochkulturen, die entweder der durch indigene Entwicklungen oder durch Einwanderungen bzw. Einflüsse von außen erklärt werden. Diesem Zweck dienen die umfangreichen Ausgrabungen in Sabir in der Küstenebene von Aden, die sich auch auf benachbarte kleinere Fundplätze wie Ma’layba erstrecken. Diese Fundstätte datiert ausschließlich in die Bronzezeit. Im vorliegenden Band wird neben den Grabungsergebnissen vor allem eine vergleichende typologische Untersuchung der Fundkeramik geboten. Der Vergleich läßt verschiedene archäologische Fazies unterscheiden, die sich auch durch unterschiedliche Arhcitekturen und Grabsitten voneinander abheben. Als Ergebnis der Arbeit stehen eine Periodisierung der Bronzezeit und die Kontextualisierung der Fazies innerhalb des bronzezeitlichen Jemen und im Vergleich zu seinen arabischen, afrikanischen und levantinischen Nachbarn.“
FD
in: Orbis Terrarum. Band 10 (2008-2011). S. 242.
Vittoria Buffa was born in Sanremo (Italy). She graduated in Ancient History at the Università degli Studi di Trieste in 1967. In 1977 she enrolled in the Scuola di Perfezionamento in Preistoria e Protostoria of the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza. From 1980 to 1990 she worked in the field of European Protohistory. Since 1987 she is a member of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Yemen. Since 1995 she is a member of the Joint German-Russian Archaeological Mission to the Province of La˜j (Yemen). In 2003 she obtained a PhD at the Université Aix-Marseille I (France) with a thesis on the Yemen Bronze Age.
Vittoria Buffa is currently teaching Near East Archaeology and Art History at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II.
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