The Bronze Age of Highland Yemen : Chronological and Spatial Variability of Pottery and Settlement

Abstract

Bronze Age occupation of highland western Yemen can now be documented over the nearly two millennia between roughly 2 800 and 1 200/1 000 ВС. An Italian project in К hawlan and an American project in Dhamar have studied regional settlement pattern, architecture and intra-site arrangement, and radiocarbon-dated cultural assemblages for two highland districts about 50 km apart. Comparison of excavated pottery from five sites reveals strong regional continuities (the Bronze Age tradition of the western highlands), but also a degree of contemporaneous regional variability and chronological change. More pronounced differences of site arrangement and architectural form distinguish the Khawlan and Dhamar settlements. Sites in the two areas describe divergent developmental trajectories and also essentially different economic orientations : Khawlan hosted an extensive and perhaps transhumant orientation that truncated soon after 2 000 ВС, while Dhamar witnessed the growth of town life and modest agricultural intensification, setting a course toward complex societies of the Iron Age that arose indigenously in the highlands after 1 000 ВС.

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