TY - JOUR
T1 - Dating the Pendant Burials of North-west Arabia
T2 - First Radiometric Results from the Khaybar Oasis, Saudi Arabia
AU - Kennedy, Melissa
AU - McMahon, Jane
AU - Thomas, Hugh
AU - Boyer, David D.
AU - Repper, Rebecca
AU - Dalton, Matthew
AU - AlKhaldi, Khalid
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - The monumental stone structures of the Arabian Peninsula have been notoriously difficult to date. Due to their visibility in the landscape, they have suffered from extensive robbing and later reuse, which has compromised dating methodologies. In particular, our understanding of when the elaborate ‘pendants’ (also known as ‘tailed cairns/tower tombs’) of northwest Arabia were first constructed has remained incomplete. Recent work undertaken by the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Khaybar project provides some of the first radiometric dates for the pendants of Saudi Arabia. These structures can now be dated as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE, revealing for the first time a hitherto undocumented, large-scale, monumental funerary landscape dating to the “Early Bronze Age”. These radiocarbon dates bring the advent of the pendant building tradition in line with funerary developments across the wider Arabian Peninsula, and may mark a profound reconfiguring of the wider Harrat Khaybar landscape during the 3rd millennium BCE.
AB - The monumental stone structures of the Arabian Peninsula have been notoriously difficult to date. Due to their visibility in the landscape, they have suffered from extensive robbing and later reuse, which has compromised dating methodologies. In particular, our understanding of when the elaborate ‘pendants’ (also known as ‘tailed cairns/tower tombs’) of northwest Arabia were first constructed has remained incomplete. Recent work undertaken by the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Khaybar project provides some of the first radiometric dates for the pendants of Saudi Arabia. These structures can now be dated as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE, revealing for the first time a hitherto undocumented, large-scale, monumental funerary landscape dating to the “Early Bronze Age”. These radiocarbon dates bring the advent of the pendant building tradition in line with funerary developments across the wider Arabian Peninsula, and may mark a profound reconfiguring of the wider Harrat Khaybar landscape during the 3rd millennium BCE.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112628337&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/aae.12199
DO - 10.1111/aae.12199
M3 - Article
SN - 0905-7196
VL - 32
SP - 183
EP - 197
JO - Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy
JF - Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy
IS - S1
ER -