Landscape History of Hadramawt

The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) Project 1998-2008

by Joy McCorriston and Michael J. Harrower

Book cover: Landscape History of Hadramawt

Extent: 554 pages

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Subjects: Ancient Near East

Series: Monumenta Archaeologica

Series volume number: 43

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2020)

ISBN: 9781950446124

Price: $89.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(April 2020)

ISBN: 9781950446186

Price: $72.00

Winner of AIA’s 2022 Anna Marguerite McCann Award for Fieldwork Reports The rugged highlands of southern Yemen are one of the less archaeologically explored regions of the Near East. This final report of survey and excavations by the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) Project addresses the development of food production and human landscapes, topics of enduring interest as scholarly conceptualizations of the Anthropocene take shape. Along with data from Manayzah, site of the earliest dated remains of clearly domesticated animals in Arabia, the volume also documents some of the earliest water management technologies in Arabia, thereby anchoring regional dates for the beginnings of pastoralism and of potential farming. The authors argue that the initial Holocene inhabitants of Wadi Sana were Arabian hunters who adopted limited pastoral stock in small social groups, then expanded their social collectives through sacrifice and feasts in a sustained pastoral landscape. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience of archaeologists including not only those working in Arabia, but more broadly those interested in the ancient Near East, Africa, South Asia, and in Holocene landscape histories generally.

  • By (author) Michael J. Harrower
  • By (author) Joy McCorriston