About the Book
The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the longest continually running academic forum for the presentation of cultural heritage research on the Arabian Peninsula. Meeting for the first time in 1968, the Seminar covers a wide range of subjects including but not limited to archaeology, epigraphy, history, ethnography, art, architecture, linguistics, and literature from prehistory to the early twentieth century.
The 54th Seminar for Arabian Studies consisted of 73 papers and 6 posters presented over the course of two weekends. These papers included four special sessions: a session on the recent research in North West Arabia, two sessions on the historical and cultural relations between Iberia and Arabia, and one session on maritime practices. The special sessions on North West Arabia and Iberian-Arabian interactions will be published as supplemental volumes while many of the papers submitted on maritime practices are included in the present issue.
Table of Contents:
Editor’s Foreword ;
In memoriam Alasdair Livingstone, 1954–2021 ;
The sixteenth-century Portuguese Suma Oriental and the Arab pilots: a comparative summa orientalis? – Juan Acevedo ;
Neolithic settlement patterns and subsistence strategies on Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi Emirate,
United Arab Emirates – Mark Jonathan Beech, Noura Hamad Al Hameli, Richard Thorburn Cuttler, Kevin Lidour, Howell Roberts, Rémy Crassard, Nurcan Yalman & Talfan Davies ;
The stars in sixteenth-century nautical literature: a comparative study – Inês Bénard ;
Multi-species analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from Qalʿat al-Baḥrayn – Caitlin Bonham Smith & Judith Littleton ;
Petrographic analysis of ceramics from Murwab, an early Islamic site in Qatar – José C. Carvajal López, Alexandrine Guérin & Myrto Georgakopoulou ;
Al-Arid, an Early Bronze Age settlement site in the interior of the Oman peninsula.
Results of the second season’s excavations (2020) – Corinne Castel, Jacques É. Brochier, Olivier Barge, Blandine Besnard, Elsa Ciesielski, Lionel Darras,
Yasmine Kanhoush, Georges Mouamar, Frédéric Rivière, Séverine Sanz, Margareta Tengberg & Pauline Vézy ;
Traditional architecture of Ras al-Khaimah: digital mapping and characterization of a key heritage resource – David Connolly & Hana Kdolska ;
New evidence from excavations at the Iron Age settlement of Shimal (Ras al-Khaimah) – Michel de Vreeze, Samater Ahmed Botan, Tibor Paluch & Stefan Weijgertse ;
Late Bronze and Iron Age animal exploitation in Masāfī, Fujairah, UAE – Delphine Decruyenaere, Marjan Mashkour, Kevin Lidour, Karyne Debue, Thomas Sagory, Maria Paola Pellegrino, Julien Charbonnier & Anne Benoist ;
Renewed excavations at Tell Abraq, Umm al-Quwain, 2019–2020 — insights into the site’s occupation from the mid-second millennium BC to the late pre-Islamic period – Michele Degli Esposti, Federico Borgi, Maria Paola Pellegrino, Simona Spano, Camille Abric & Rania Houssein Kannouma ;
Walk the line: the 2020 field season of the Al-Mudhaybi Regional Survey – Stephanie Döpper ;
Boats, horses, and moorings: maritime activities at al-Balīd in the medieval period – Alessandro Ghidoni & Alexia Pavan ;
Settlement patterns in Qatar during the early Islamic period (7th–10th century) — house, mosque, and complex in the North Qatar Region – Alexandrine Guérin ;
Mapping the Shimal plain, Ras al-Khaimah: introducing the Shimal Plain Palm Gardens Project – Hana Kdolska & David Connolly with contributions from Michel de Vreeze, Therese McCormick, Andrew Blair, Samatar Ahmed Botan & Tibor Paluch ;
Study and mapping of wells in the oasis of al-ʿŪla (poster) – Céline Marquaire, Julien Charbonnier, Gaël Gourret, Ahmad Fraidoon Said, Vincent Bernollin & Yasmin Kanhoush ;
Documentation and evaluation of maritime endangered archaeology in the Kingdom of Bahrain (the MarEA project) – Rodrigo Ortiz-Vazquez, Robert Carter, Lucy Blue & Salman Al-Mahari ;
Eleventh–twelfth century — political and economic balances in the western Indian Ocean in the light of historical and ceramic evidence from the site of Banbhore/Daybul – Valeria Piacentini Fiorani & Agnese Fusaro ;
The inscriptions in Ancient South Arabian script from Ḥimā: a preliminary historical and cultural appraisal – Alessia Prioletta ;
From raw materials to finished products: pottery production at Sumhuram (Khor Rori, Sultanate of Oman) – Carlotta Rizzo, Stefano Pagnotta, Marco Lezzerini, Alexia Pavan & Giulia Buono ;
On the root NḪY in Ancient South Arabian inscriptions: an etymological and contextual study – Irene Rossi ;
Funerary archaeology in Qatar: old data and new discoveries – Ferhan Sakal, Marica Baldoni, Muna Al-Hashmi, Sara Tomei, Cristina Martinez-Labarga & Faisal Al Naimi ;
Kalba: new insights into an Early Bronze Age trading post on the Gulf of Oman – Christoph Schwall, Michael Brandl, Mario Börner, Katleen Deckers, Susanne Lindauer, Ernst Pernicka, Eisa Yousif & Sabah A. Jasim ;
Al Ain Museum: an ancient landscape beneath the carpark – Peter Sheehan, Timothy Power, Steve Karacic & Sophie Costa with Mohammed Khalifa, Hamad Fadel, Abdullah Al Kaabi, Ali Al Meqbali, Jaber Al Merri, Peter Magee, Anne Mortimer, Waleed Omar, Firas Othman, Dia Al Tawalbeh, Malak Al Ajou & Ona Vileikis ;
Navigating the Gulf: Aḥmad b. Mājid’s poem on Gulf navigation – Eric Staples ;
Foodstuffs and organic products in ancient south-east Arabia: preliminary results of ceramic lipid residue analysis of vessels from Hili 8 and Hili North Tomb A, al Ain, United Arab Emirates – Akshyeta Suryanarayan, Sophie Méry, Arnaud Mazuy & Martine Regert ;
A new example of proto-hamzah in the early Islamic graffiti of Wādī al-Khirqah (poster) – Risa Tokunaga ;
The Jabal al Yamh tombs (Hatta, Dubai, UAE): the architecture, spatial distribution, and reuse of prehistoric tombs in south-east Arabia – Tatiana Valente, Fernando Contreras, Bernardo Vila, Adrián Fernández, Domingo Lopez, Ahmed Mahmud, Mansour Boraik Radwan Karim, Mahra Saif Al Mansoori & Hassan Mohammed Zein ;
Cross-cultural maritime technological exchange in the first-millennium Indian Ocean – Tom Vosmer ;
Reconstructing a changing landscape of human activities in the Iron Age II at Saruq al-Hadid (Dubai) – Zuzanna Wygnańska, Otto Bagi, Joanna Rądkowska, Iwona Zych, Sidney Rempel, Karol Juchniewicz & Mansur Radwan Boraik ;
Titles of papers read at the Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 2–4 and 9–11 July 2021
