Aynuna: A Case Study of the Changing Functions of a Hijazi Coastal Settlement from the Nabatean to the Early Islamic Period
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/EtudTrav.35.002Keywords
Arabian Peninsula, Red Sea, Hijaz, Leuke Kome, Iotabe, trade, agriculture, long Late Antiquity, early Islamic periodAbstract
A recent study proved that Aynuna has been settled since at least the Hellenistic period and was the major settlement on the Arabian coast of the northern Red Sea in the Nabatean/Roman period, serving as the port of Petra. Scientific literature is mostly concerned with the identification of Aynuna with ancient Leuke Kome, leaving aside the later history of the site. In the late Roman/Byzantine period its significance as a trade centre slowly diminished, although it might have remained a tax collection point. In the early Islamic period, Aynuna served as a local agricultural centre and war port for the Arabian forces conquering the Eastern Desert. Later on, accessibility of fresh water made it a stop on the Egyptian Hajj Route, and antique Aynuna/Leuke Kome finally became Islamic ‘Aynūna. This paper aims to present a diachronic analysis of the changing functions of the site using published archaeological reports and Arabic written sources.
References
Adams, R.McC., Parr, P.J., Ibrahim, M., al-Mughannum, A.S. 1977: Saudi Arabian Archaeological Reconnaissance 1976. The Preliminary Report on the First Phase of the Comprehensive Archaeological Survey Program, Atlal 1, 21–40
al-Ghabban, A.I. 2011: Les deux routes syrienne et égyptienne de pèlerinage au nord-ouest de l’Arabie Saoudite, TAEI 44, Le Caire
al-Ghabban, A. 2017: Akra Kome, Loki Komi, and Amblone. Historical Ports on the Red Sea of Saudi Arabia (Achieving their Location in Light of the Results of Archaeological Research), Riyadh
al-Helwah, S., al-Shaikh, A.A., Murad, A.S. 1982: Preliminary Report on the Sixth Phase of the Darb Zubaydah Reconnaissance 1981 (1401), Atlal 6, 39–62
al-Mushari, S.M. 2001: Report on the Site of Doukara, Atlal 16, 89–90
André-Salvini, B., Juvin, C., Demange, F., al-Ghabban, A., Cotty, M. 2010: Roads of Arabia. Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Paris
Avni, G. 1996: Nomads, Farmers, and Town-Dwellers: Pastoralist-Sedentist Interaction in the Negev Highlands, Sixth-Eighth Centuries CE, Jerusalem
Baadj, A.S. 2015: Saladin, the Almohads and the Banū Ghāniya. The Contest for North Africa (12th and 13th Centuries), Studies in the History and Society of the Maghrib 7, Boston
Cameron, A. 2002: The ‘long’ late antiquity: a late twentieth-century model, [in:] Wiseman, T.P. (Ed.), Classics in Progress: Essays on Ancient Greece and Rome, Oxford, 165–191
Casson, L. 1989: The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Princeton, NJ
De Vries, B. 1990: Umm el-Jimal, Amman
De Vries, B. 2000: Continuity and Change in the Urban Character of the Southern Hauran from the 5th to the 9th Century: The Archaeological Evidence at Umm Al-Jimal, MeditArch 13, 39–45
Durand, C. 2012: Crossing the Red Sea: The Nabataeans in the Egyptian Eastern Desert, [in:] Agius, D.A., Cooper, J.P., Trakadas, A., Zazzaro, Ch. (Eds), Navigated Spaces, Connected Places. Proceedings of Red Sea Project V Held at the University of Exeter 16–19 September 2010, BAR-IS 2346, Oxford, 85–90
El-Shorbagy, A. 2010: Traditional Islamic-Arab House: Vocabulary and Syntax, International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering 10/4, 15–20
Facey, W. 2004: The Red Sea: the wind regime and location of ports, [in:] Lunde, P., Porter, A. (Eds), Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region: proceedings of Red Sea Project I held in the British Museum, October 2002, BAR-IS 1269, Oxford, 7–17
Fiema, Z.T., al-Qanoor, N.A., Durand, C., Kennedy, W., Abu Hassan, B., al-Dayel, I., al-Faqeer, M. 2020: The 2016 Season of The Al-Wajh – Al-ʿUla Survey Project: Preliminary Report, Atlal 29, 81–111
Gatier, P.-L., Salles, J.-F. 1988: Aux frontières méridionales du domaine nabatéen, [in:] Salles, J.-F. (Ed.), L’Arabie et ses mers bordières. I. Itinéraires et voisinages. Séminaire de recherche 1985–1986, TMO 16, Lyon, 173–190
Gawlikowski, M. 2018: A Nabataean Trading Station in the Northern Hijaz, ARAM-Period. 30/1–2, 395–402
Gawlikowski, M. 2019: Looking for Leuke Kome, [in:] Manzo, A., Zazzaro, Ch., De Falco, D.J. (Eds), Stories of Globalisation. The Red Sea and the Persian Gulf from Late Prehistory to Early Modernity, Selected Papers of Red Sea Project VII, Leiden-Boston, 281–291
Gawlikowski, M., Juchniewicz, K., al-Zahrani, A. 2020: The Saudi-Polish Excavations at Aynuna, a Nabataean Port on the Red Sea, Atlal 29, 66–77
Gawlikowski, M., Juchniewicz, K., al-Zahrani, A. (Eds) 2021: Aynuna. A Nabataean Port on the Red Sea. Seven Seasons of Saudi-Polish Excavations (2014–2018), Warsaw-Riyadh
Gawlikowski, M. 2022: Les Nabatéens à Aynouna sur la mer Rouge, [in:] Durand, C., Marchand, J., Redon, B., Schneider, P. (Eds), Networked Spaces. The Spatiality of Networks in the Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean, Archéologie(s) 8, Lyon, 97–106
Haiman, M. 1995a: Agriculture and Nomad-State Relations in the Negev Desert in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods, BASOR 297, 29–53
Haiman, M. 1995b: An Early Islamic Period Farm at Nahal Mitnan in the Negev Highlands ‘Atiqot 26, 1–13
Ingraham, M., Johnson, T., Rihani, B., Shatta, I. 1981: Preliminary Report on Reconnaissance Survey of the Northwestern Province, Atlal 5, 59–84
Isaac, B. 1984: Bandits in Judaea and Arabia, HSCP 88, 171–203
Juchniewicz, K. 2017: The port of Aynuna in pre-Islamic period: nautical and topographical considerations on the location of Leuke Kome, PAM 26/2, 31–42
King, G.R.D. 1994: Settlement in western and central Arabia and the Gulf in the sixth– eighth centuries A.D., [in:] King, G., Cameron, A. (Eds), The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. Volume 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns, Princeton, 181–212
Kirwan, L. 1979: Where to Search for the Ancient Port of Leuke Kome, [in:] Abdalla, A.M. (Ed.), Pre-Islamic Arabia. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Studies in the History of Arabia, Riyadh, 55–61
Knauf, E.A. 1984: Umm al-Jimāl: An Arab Town in Late Antiquity, RevBibl 91, 578–586
Magness, J. 2003: The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine, Winona Lake
Mayerson, Ph. 1995: A Note on Iotabê and Several Other Islands in the Red Sea, BASOR 298, 33–35
Musil, A. 1926: The Northern Hĕĝaz. A Topographical Itinerary, New York
Nappo, D. 2010: On the location of Leuke Kome, JRA 23, 335–348
Parker, S.T. 2013: The Roman port of Ayla and its economic hinterland, [in:] Hadidi, A. (Ed.), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan XI, Amman, 735–743
Pedersen, R.K. 2015: A Preliminary Report on a Coastal and Underwater Survey in the Area of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, AJA 119/1, 125–136
Power, T. 2012: The Red Sea from Byzantium to the Caliphate AD 500–1000, Cairo-New York
Seland, E.H. 2009: Shipwreck, Maroons and Monsters: The Hazards of Ancient Red Sea Navigation, [in:] Blue, L., Cooper, J., Thomas, R., Whitewright, J. (Eds), Connected Hinterlands. Proceedings of Red Sea Project IV Held at the University of Southampton, September 2008, BAR-IS 2052, Oxford, 179–185
Thareani-Sussely, Y. 2007: Ancient Caravanserais: An Archaeological View from ‘Aroer, Levant 39, 123–141
Vantini, G. 1975: Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia, Heidelberg-Warsaw
Walmsley, A. 2000: Production, Exchange and Regional Trade in the Islamic East Mediterranean: Old Structures, New Systems?, [in:] Hansen, I.L., Wickham, Ch. (Eds), The Long Eighth Century. Production, Distribution and Demand, Leiden-Boston-Köln, 265–343
Walmsley, A. 2007: Economic Developments and the Nature of Settlement in the Towns and Countryside of Syria-Palestine, ca. 565–800, DOP 61, 319–352
Ward, W. 2007: Aila and Clysma: The Rise of Northern Ports in the Red Sea in Late Antiquity, [in:] Starkey, J., Starkey, P., Wilkinson, T. (Eds), Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea, BAR-IS 1661, Oxford, 161–171
Ward, W.D. 2012: ‘In the Province Recently Called Palestine Salutaris’: Provincial Changes in Palestine and Arabia in the Late Third and Fourth Centuries C.E., ZPE 181, 289–302
Whitcomb, D. 1996: Urbanism in Arabia, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 7, 38–51
Zarins, J., Zahrani, A. 1985: Recent Archaeological Investigations in the Southern Tihama Plain (The Sites of Athar and Sihi, 1404/1984), Atlal 9, 65–107
Downloads
The publisher's shop:
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych Polskiej Akademii Nauk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 408
Number of citations: 0
