Direction
Solène Marion de Procé (Université Paris 1 / AnHiMA UMR 8210 / LabEx Dynamite /Archaïos)
Muḥammad al-Malki (Heritage Commission, Saudi Ministry of Culture)
How Eveha Participates
Excavation
Drone flight
Location
Saoudi Arabia
The 2023 campaign took place from January 30 to March 1, 2023. For this campaign, the team focused on two main objectives: completing the archaeological survey of the southeastern part of the island of Farasān al-Kubra and continuing the excavations of the Roman military fort at al-Quṣār in order to identify its boundaries and various components.
Surveys
The surveys conducted by S. Marion de Procé and G. Davtian filled in the missing areas in the southeastern part of the main island. Once the data analysis phase is complete, this inventory will be used to produce thematic and chronological maps that will reveal the settlement patterns according to period. Preliminary results already show a high density of sites dating from the late Bronze Age to the early South Arabian period (15th–6th centuries BCE). These initial observations raise questions about the evolution of settlement in this area, which appears to have been largely abandoned after this period, probably due to changes in the landscape in this changing environment.
Excavations
Excavations were carried out exclusively at the al-Quṣār site. The aim was to identify the layout of the rampart and uncover the layout of the fort.
The 2023 campaign identified the rampart on three of the four sides: to the north, east (where it had been uncovered in 2021) and south. The layout of the western rampart remains unknown for the time being. No gates or towers have been identified so far.
Excavations carried out in the soldiers’ barracks area have refined our understanding of the site’s history. Significant levels of fire damage were identified during the 2022 campaign, located in the eastern part of the fort. During the 2023 campaign, Cyril Driard was able to link these violent fires to a seismic event: a fault opened up from north to south in the rock, causing significant damage to the fort. The identification of this crucial episode in the site’s history has enabled us to understand the hasty reconstruction of plastered walls on fired brick pavements.
In the southeastern part, latrines were identified against the rampart in an area of the fort where the layout remains to be discovered.
In the western part of the fort, a new street and new rooms in the barracks area have been uncovered. The preservation of the remains offers an exceptional insight into the daily life of the soldiers within the fort: a small oratory in a dormitory, fireplaces, millstones, a brick kitchen built in the street, and an elaborate drainage system.
Study of material
During the 2023 campaign, the documentation of objects continued with the drawing and photographing of diagnostic elements and objects from the excavations. The corpus of the Wadi Matar site was completed with a view to publishing the results. Documentation of the al-Quṣār site continued after an intermediate study campaign organized in the fall of 2022.
The archaeozoological study focused on the al-Quṣār corpus in order to reveal the dietary habits of the Roman contingent.
