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The Green Desert: pre-Islamic landscapes of southern Arabia

Julien Charbonnier (Centre français d'Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa)

Abstract

In Arabia, agriculture appeared around the 4th millennium B.C. In most parts of the peninsula, agriculture was only possible through irrigation and water management. Irrigation systems from pre-Islamic Arabia have been widely studied by scholars. Some of them tried to demonstrate that underground resources were exploited exclusively in the east, while in the west ancient populations harnessed surface flows. In Yemen, large oases, up to 10 000 ha, developed. They were irrigated by summer floods related to the Indian Ocean monsoon. In the Oman peninsula, underground galleries draining the aquifers (falaj) were in use since Iron Age (1st millennium B.C.). However, in the light of recent studies, past irrigation practices appear more diverse and more widely distributed over the region. We will present here an overview of landscapes of southern Arabia (Yemen, Oman and United Arab Emirates) before Islam, emphasizing their variety and their dynamism.