S-78
Name: اُم العرض (Umm al-ʿArḍ)
Site Type: Settlement
Periodization:
| Possible | Probable | Certain |
Modern: | | | |
Islamic: | |
Pre-Islamic: | | | |
Bronze Age: |
Neolithic: | |
Palaeolithic: |
Terrain: Scree
Site Condition: Fair
Coordinates: 1759808 N, 240744 E
Elevation: 653 MSL
Length: 70 m
Long Axis: E–W
Notes: Pre-Islamic settlement with possible earlier and later elements. Site is southeast of the mouth of Wadi Sarr, with a view directly into it. Most obvious feature of the site is a very large stone, precariously perched. Underside of the stone is covered in red-painted designs and figures. Around the base of the stone, a substantial shelter is built of piled stones. The shelter partially obscures the paintings, and is, therefore, later than them. The remains of a structure, now inaccessible, are visible atop the stone. To the west of the stone, on the scree, is the stone foundation of a Pre-Islamic house (A-30). Many ceramics were found in A-30, including an inscribed sherd from a lug-rimmed stoneware bowl (C-3). Two caves are visible in the slope to the east. The larger cave is about 6m in diameter, over 3m high at its interior peak, and with a ledge about 1.5m above the current floor running across its back walls. This cave is almost certainly a Pre-Islamic tomb. Bits of walls are visible in the slope behind A-30. Some encroachment upon the site by fields and modern houses—perhaps the site was larger in the past, but mostly removed for later fields. (However, this is only speculation.) Part of a stone censer (O-24) was found on the slope to the east of the site while I explored the slope in hopes of finding a temple.
|