4,400-Year-Old Bronze Age Town Shows That Arabia Was Slow to Urbanize

A 4,400-year-old settlement found by archaeologists in the Khaybar Oasis of northwestern Saudi Arabia has revealed some eye-opening truths about the pace of urbanization on the Arabian Peninsula during the Bronze Age. In comparison to developments taking place at the same time in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Levant, a new study shows that the progress of urbanization in this part of the world was slow, although far from completely non-existent.

In an article just published in the journal PLOS One, an international team of researchers led by archaeologist Guillaume Charloux from the French research institute CNRS detail the results of their study of a small, fortified Bronze Age town known as al-Natah, which was discovered near the city of  Al-‘Ula in Saudi Arabia’s Hejaz region. This is the first settlement of its type found in this area, and for the time it existed its small size can be considered somewhat unexpected.

This settlement covered about 3.7 acres (1.5 hectares) of land, and featured a central public district and an adjacent residential district that were encircled by a system of protective ramparts. The peak population of al-Natah never surpassed 500, and it was apparently occupied between the years 2,400 and 1,500 BC.

At al-Natah, what the researchers claim they discovered is evidence of “‘low urbanization’ (or ‘slow urbanism’), indigenous to North Arabia, evidencing weak but increasing social complexity through the Early and Middle Bronze Ages.”

The ruins of a fortress found on the Khaybar Oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia. (Hardscarf/CC BY-SA 4.0).

“By comparison with neighboring oasis centers, we suggest that Northwestern Arabia during the Bronze Age—largely dominated by pastoral nomadic groups and already integrated into long-distance trade networks—was dotted with interconnected monumental walled oases centered around small fortified towns,” the researchers wrote in their PLOS One article.

This development pattern showed a lack of interest in constructing larger and more concentrated communities, in contrast to what was happening in neighboring regions.

The Unique Lives and Lifestyles of the People of al-Natah

The team of archaeologists who identified al-Natah have been performing excavations at the site, seeking to learn more about how the residents of the settlement lived in and around the year 2,000 BC.

In the residential area, they have found the remains of at least 50 ancient homes that were likely made from earthen materials. They have also uncovered significant quantities of pottery and grinding stones in this section of the town.

Moving on to the central area of the settlement, the archaeologists found two buildings that were probably utilized for administrative purposes. They discovered a necropolis in the western section of the central area as well, which featured tall and large circular tombs that they refer to as “stepped tower tombs.”

So far, the researchers have not found any examples of writing during their excavations. While they have only recovered a few traces of cereals at al-Natah, based on finds at similar sites they believe the residents of al-Natah would have grown and harvested at least some crops nearby.

Notably, al-Natah and its surrounding area were protected by a nine-mile- or 14-5-kilometer-long wall. This impressive structure would have helped residents defend themselves against raiding nomads, increasing their safety and security substantially.

In their study, Charloux and his colleagues explain that what they found at al-Natah reveals important data about how exactly the times were changing in Northwestern Arabia during the Bronze Age.

“The new archaeological evidence from Khaybar introduced in this article confirms a stage of major socio-economic transition from a mobile way of life to sedentarization and town life between the second half of the third millennium and the early second millennium BC (prior to the abandonment of Khaybar in the mid-second millennium BC),” they wrote.

Different views of the remaining ruins of the fortified settlement at al-Natah. (Charloux, et al., PLOS One/CC BY 4.0)

Because this transition was ongoing, and represented a fairly radical departure from the traditional lifestyles of the people, the level of urbanization in this part of the world at this time was relatively low.

“While urbanization began in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the 4th millennium B.C., our study tends to show that social complexity increased late in north-western Arabia,” Charloux said in a statement published by Live Science. Even in the early second millennium this process was still ongoing at al-Natah and on the Arabian Peninsula, revealing a pace of urbanization that was moving at a steady but deliberate speed.

Compared to the large Bronze Age cities in Mesopotamia or Egypt, places like al-Natah were built according to a completely different blueprint.

“These were small towns connected to networks of monumental ramparts surrounding the large local oases,” Charloux said, describing a system of societal organization that worked well for the people of Arabia during this transitional period.

Clearing Up the Confusion about Bronze Age Arabia

In an email interview with Live Science, Robert Andrew Carter, an archaeological expert currently employed by Qatar Museums, noted the significance of the new findings by Charloux and his colleagues.

“We have only a sketchy understanding of the Bronze Age and the origins of urbanism in the [Hejez area of western Saudi Arabia] and this study goes a long way to providing primary data, and improving our theoretical understanding,” he wrote.

Given the critical role that increasing urbanization played in the social, economic, and cultural development of ancient civilization, the kind of analysis produced by Charloux and his team is undoubtedly important and invaluable.

Top image: 3D virtual reconstruction of Bronze Age settlement of al-Natah, circa 2,000 BC.

Source: Charloux, et al.,PLOS One/CC BY 4.0

By Nathan Falde