Tayma

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Aramaic inscription from Tema (6th century BC)

Tayma (or Taima , Tema ) ( Arabic تيماء, DMG Taymāʾ ) is a large oasis in Saudi Arabia with a long history of settlement. It is located in the northeast of the Hejaz , roughly at the point where the old incense route begins to cross the Nefud desert as a trade route between Yathrib ( Medina ) and Dumah . Tayma is located 264 kilometers southeast of the city of Tabuk (also belongs to the province of the same name) and about 400 kilometers north of Medina.

topography

Tayma, about 830 m above sea ​​level , lies in a depression between the eastern foothills of the Hejaz Mountains in the west and the Nefud (desert) in the east. To the north of today's settlement there is a fossil lake in front of which, however, only very rarely water collects. The lake developed into a salt flat ( Arabic sabcha ), which existed 20,000 years ago as a considerable lake and was probably in the fifth millennium BC. Chr. Dried up. The mud from the salt flats was used to make mud bricks that were used to build the ancient city ​​walls.

In the deepest places the groundwater is only 1.5 m below the surface, in other places it is a good 40 m. The oasis was one of the most important palm oases for thousands of years . Thanks to artificial irrigation, it now has a number of 80,000 date palms , four times the area compared to the 1950s.

Stone age

Numerous rock carvings in the vicinity of Tayma with depictions of people and animals prove the presence of humans in the area as early as the Neolithic .

Nomads and Jews

The scientists of the German Archaeological Institute who are researching the oasis (see web link) assume that Bedouins have been living in the area since the 3rd millennium BC because of the water resources. Visited.

From the 1st to the 6th century AD there was a Jewish community in Tayma. In the 6th century, the prince and poet Samaw'al lived here, who became known as the loyal host of the poet Imru 'al-Qais . The Jewish traveler Benjamin von Tudela described the Jewish presence in Tayma and the neighboring Chaibar around 1170 .

Egyptians

In July 2010, according to a report from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), archaeologists found the first ancient hieroglyphic inscription on Saudi territory near Tayma. She carries the cartouches of Pharaoh Ramses III. who lived until 1156 BC. Ruled. Archaeologists assume that at that time an important trade route ran through Tayma, which connected the Nile Delta with the Red Sea. Were transported incense , copper, gold and silver.

City foundation and city wall

When the area followed the new urban development in Sumer and the northern Levant Coast is unknown. However, from the 2nd millennium BC An outer wall made of clay and sandstone about 10 meters high, which enclosed an area of ​​about 20 hectares, which represented the livelihood of the residents: an extensive palm oasis. This first wall was expanded in the following centuries and finally reached a length of 15 kilometers. The fortification impressed the Arab historian Abu Abdullah Al-Bakri in the 11th century .

Grave finds inside the wall and directly on the outer wall made of wood and ivory with artistic decorations point to the end of the Bronze Age of the late 2nd millennium BC. Chr.

Inner wall

The construction of an inner wall with towers at a distance of about 100 meters from the outer wall during the 1st millennium BC. The archaeologists interpret this as an indication of armed conflicts with regional competitors such as B. the kingdom of Lihyan with the oasis Dedan (ancient Dadanu), which is about 150 km southwest of Tayma.

Settlement history in the Iron Age

Eye stele with Aramaic inscription, Tayma Museum

In the protected core area of ​​the settlement there are five building layers, easily distinguishable by ceramics and other finds, which accumulated over six meters and cover a period of eight centuries since the middle of the first millennium. This Iron Age settlement is characterized by stone houses. Most of them were small and medium-sized houses, in which there are traces of food processing and manual work as well as a large representative building of 500 square meters with a portico. The head of a once three-meter-tall statue that was made as a monolith, another statue of this size that is now in the city's museum, as well as other objects in the building, as well as comparative finds from nearby Dedan, suggest that it is acted a temple. In the rubble of this building there was also an arched stele with a king standing in front of astral symbols, whose imagery and fragmentary cuneiform text (without preserved name inscription) indicate King Nabonidus . It is unclear whether the Achaemenids later incorporated the oasis into their rule.

Tiglat-Pileser III. received tribute from Tayma and Sennacherib designated one of the gates of Nineveh as the desert gate through which the "gifts of the Sumu'anites and Teymeiten arrived". Assyrian sources mention that a local Arab dynasty ruled Tayma at that time. The names of two queens of the eighth century BC Chr. Are handed down as Shamsi and Zabibei.

The so-called " Harran inscription " mentions how the Babylonian king Nabonidus at the end of the third year of reign around 553 BC. Moved his seat of government to Tayma. During the campaign with which he established his rule in the region, he also subjugated the places Yathrib (today's Medina) and Dedan . The verse poem of Nabonidus also tells of his departure to Tayma with a large army. The further information in the stanza poem, however, has a propaganda character, which is why the further truth content appears questionable. The Nabonidus Chronicles confirm his stay in Tayma for his 7th to 11th year of reign. There are gaps in the text for the first six years. Nabonid's interest in this region in what is now northern Saudi Arabia was presumably of an economic nature, for example to gain control of the incense trade.

Cuneiform inscriptions have been found in Tayma dating from the 6th century BC. Could come from BC. From the time around 500 BC Some Aramaic text finds come from BC . A rock inscription in Lihyanite script comes from Al-Mushamrakhah, a few hills southwest of Tayma . It contains, among other things, the sequence of letters "NBND / MLK / BBL" which is interpreted as "nabend malik babel", in German: "Nabonid King of Babylon".

According to Arab traditions, Tayma was ruled by a Jewish dynasty in late antiquity, although it is not clear whether these were exiled Jews or the Arab descendants of converts. In the 630s the city fell to the Muslims and the residents were treated as dhimmis . Many residents were later expelled.

In the summer of 1181, Renaud de Châtillon attacked a Muslim caravan near Tayma on the road from Damascus to Mecca, thereby breaking the armistice that had been concluded with Saladin in 1180 .

Ancient world of gods

The inscriptions discovered in Tayma refer to the worship of the divine triads Ṣalm, Sengalla and Aschima . The highest of these three is Ṣalm . It is mentioned in connection with three place names: mchrm , hgm and rb (or db ), the pronunciation and localization of which is uncertain. Her symbol is a (winged) sun. Sengalla, on the other hand, is assigned to the moon (and possibly the name is to be understood in connection with the Assyrian moon deity Sin ). Ashima is symbolized by the star of Venus .

Biblical mentions

In the Old Testament Tema is mentioned several times ( Hi 6,19  EU ; Isa 21,14  EU ; Jer 25,23  EU ). In the 7th century BC The place is said to have been rich and proud enough to induce Jeremiah to prophesy against them ( Jer 25,23  EU ).

In the Bible one of the sons of Ishmael was called Tema ( Gen 25.15  EU ; 1 Chr 1.30  EU ). The German Archaeological Institute has been involved in local excavation campaigns since 2004.

Caravans and incense trade

Tayma was the most important oasis on one of the most important trade routes of antiquity, the Frankincense Route , which connected southern Arabia with the Levant . The camel caravans that carried the incense from southern Arabia northwards use the palm oases of Arabia as a resting place and for trade.

Attractions

  • The castle Qasr Al-Ablaq located in the southwest of the city. It was built by the Jewish Arab poet and warrior Samuel ibn 'Adiya (Samaw'al ibn Adiya) and his grandfather' Adiya in the 6th century.
  • The Qasr Al-Hamra Palace was built in the 7th century.
  • The old Tayma is surrounded on three sides by an archaeologically significant city wall, which was built in the 6th century BC. Was built.
  • Qasr Al-Radhm
  • Fountain of Haddaj , (Bir Haddaj), reputedly the largest fountain on the Arabian Peninsula. The fountain has a diameter of 18 meters and is surrounded by around 70 scoops. A "bucket (gharb)" is used by a draft animal, usually a camel, to transport the water to the surface from a depth of about thirteen meters using a rope that is deflected over a wheel attached to the edge of the well system. In 1962 there were already six pumps and the old scooping devices were slowly deteriorating. In the nineties, the entire complex was repaired at the instigation of the Governor of the Tabuk region, Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abd al-Aziz, and under the guidance of Mohamed Al-Najem, head of the local Museum of Archeology and Ethnography surrounded by a park-like facility.
  • graveyards
  • Many inscriptions in the area in Aramaic , Lihyanite , Thamudic , Nabataean
  • The Al Naslaa megalith , broken in two, is a geological curiosity.
  • Qasr Al-Bejaidi
  • Hill Al-Hadiqah
  • Many museums

Archaeological research

The oasis has been archaeologically researched since 2004 by a team from the DAI under the direction of Ricardo Eichmann . There the old trade routes crossed, contacts with the empires of Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia and South Arabia existed. The oasis lay over a basin of groundwater reservoirs, some of which could be reached at a depth of one meter. Since the nearest water point was 150 kilometers away, all the traffic on the incense route around the oasis could not be avoided. Tayma was well fortified with a 14 kilometer long wall, the inner district was protected by several walls. The foundations of numerous temples and other buildings have been discovered. Weapons from mercenaries from Lebanon , Syria, and northern Mesopotamia were found, some dating from around 2000 BC. There are also inscriptions from Aramaeans and other peoples from the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. A stele confirms that Nabonidus , the last Babylonian king, lived in the middle of the 6th century BC. BC probably because of the caravan trade resided there. The archaeologists intend to move the entire Arab region more into the focus of science from here.

literature

  • Klaus Beyer, Alasdair Livingstone: The latest Aramaic inscriptions from Taima. In: Journal of the German Oriental Society. 137: 285-296 (1987).
  • Arnulf Hausleiter : The ancient Tayma: an oasis in the contact area of ​​cultures . In: Roads of Arabia - Archaeological Treasures from Saudi Arabia. [Exhibition catalog]. Ed .: Museum for Islamic Art - State Museums in Berlin. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88609-721-0 , pp. 103-123.
  • Arnulf Hausleitner: Tayma - an early oasis settlement . In: Archäologie in Deutschland Heft 3/213, pp. 14-19
  • Walter W. Müller; Said F. Al-Said: The Babylonian King Nabonid in Taymanic inscriptions. In: Biblical Notes. 107/108 (2001), pp. 109-119.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Arab News: Supplement on German Cultural Weeks: Archaeological Excavations at Tayma , June 14, 2008 & Ricardo Eichmann , Arnulf Hausleiter, Thomas Götzelt: once an der Weihrauchstrasse . In: research . tape 31 , no. 4 , December 2006, pp. 4–9 , doi : 10.1002 / fors.200690044 ( PDF ).
  2. ↑ Rodolfo C. Estimo Jr .: Pharaonic inscription found in Saudi Arabia . ( Memento of November 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Arab News , November 7, 2010.
  3. ^ A b Abdelrahman R. Al-Ansary: Tayma, Crossroads of Civilization . 2005, ISBN 9960-9559-4-X .
  4. ^ Written in Stone: Pre-Islamic Exhibit: Lihyanite (3) . Description and interpretation on the website of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education - Deputy Ministry of Antiquities and Museums; accessed on March 20, 2015.
  5. ↑ Beyer / Livingstone: Inscriptions from Taima ; Pp. 286-288.
  6. ↑ Hans Jansen : Mohammed. A biography. (2005/2007) Translated from the Dutch by Marlene Müller-Haas. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56858-9 , p. 244.
  7. ^ Abdelrahman R. Al-Ansary: Tayma, Crossroads of Civilization . 2005, ISBN 9960-9559-4-X , pp. 51-53.

Coordinates: 27 ° 37 ′ 15 "  N , 38 ° 32 ′ 10"  E