Ḥinū az-Zurayr
Editor: Jérémie Schiettecatte
Aerial view
Doe 1971: 114
Image free from copyright
Doe 1971: 114
Image free from copyright
- Aerial view
Doe 1971: 114
Image free from copyright - Site plan
Breton 1994 c: pl. XXX
Image free from copyright - Archaeological Map of Shabwa Governorate. Districts of Bayhân and Nisâb ©J.-F. Breton
By kind permission of J.-F. Breton
SITE INFORMATION
| Ancient name | Hrbt |
| Country | Yemen |
| Geographical area | Wādī Ḥarīb |
| Governorate | Shabwa |
| Kingdom | Qataban |
| Coordinates | Latitude: 14° 53' 33.4" Longitude: 45° 30' 50.66" |
| Coordinates accuracy | certain |
| Type of site | Settlement |
| Tribe | Tribe: ḏ-Hrbt Tribe: ʾhrbn (nisba) Tribe: Ḥlzwm Tribe: Qtbn Lineage: ʾbrn Lineage: ʾs²s² Lineage: ʾys²r Lineage: ʿs³bm Lineage: Bʿgm Lineage: ḏ-Ḥmym Lineage: Ḏrʾn Lineage: Hbʾ Lineage: Hbrrm Lineage: Hfn ʾlnʾd Lineage: Ḫmrn Lineage: Ḫs²n Lineage: Ḫtynm Lineage: Ḫwln Ḥr Lineage: ḥbn Lineage: Ḥys¹n Lineage: Lms¹m Lineage: Mʿhr Rt Lineage: Mdhm Lineage: Mḥḍrm Lineage: Mwyn Lineage: Ngrn Lineage: Qfln Lineage: Qḥḏm Lineage: S²ḥz Lineage: S²yṭm Lineage: 2Ṣfydn Lineage: Ṣmt |
| Deities | ʾnby ʾṯrt ʿm ʿm ḏ-Rymtm ʿm ḏ-S²qr ʿm Ryʿn ʿṯtr Bs³rm ḏt Ḥmym ḏt-Rḥbn ḏt-Ṣntm ḏt-Ẓhrn Ḥrb ḏ-Wʿrm Ḥwkm Ḥwkm Nbṭ S²ms¹ Wd |
| Structures | Dwelling (indeterminate) Dwelling (concentrated) Light hydraulic structure (ex. canal, well) Building with political function Rampart Small temple Large temple Rock inscriptions |
| Language | Qatabanic |
| General description | Extension: 3 ha. The site lies on the left side of wādī ʿAyn at 34 km SW from Hajar Kuḥlān. Its strategic position commands the western end of the Mablaqa Pass. The site was completely walled in a trapezoidal shape, measuring about 250 x 100 m. Other structures have been erected outside of the northern limit. According to the first visitors it was a centre of metallurgic activities. |
| Chronology | The site has never been excavated and very rarely visited. According to inscriptions, the visible part is to be attributed to the last phase of Qatabanian kingdom, thus in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC. It is known that a vast community originating from this site later moved to the Highland (viz. Ẓafār). |
| Classical sources | Pliny the Elder, Nat. Hist. VI, 32, 160 (1st cent. AD): Caripeta |
| Identification | 1890s: C. de Landberg [G. Bury] |
| Travellers | 1948: N. Groom 1960s: A.F.L. Beeston 1970s: B. Doe |
| Archaeological missions | 1987: Mission Archéologique Française |
MAP
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NOTES
| [By A. Agostini] Even in absence of scientific diggings, the site can be easily described because it is free from blown sand. The city walls have been realized by the junction of the most external structures, sometimes linked by ramparts, thus recalling some of the most ancient wall rings in other South Arabian sites (e.g. Yalā). However, the oldest inscriptions so far referring to construction works on the city walls go back to the 3rd century BC. The vast majority of the visible structures were probably houses and they consist of massive stone basements of rectangular shape, with orthogonal walls at the interior, some of them have used a more refined ashlar masonry while others have more rough hewn stones. The southern edge of the walls, that facing the lower external settlement, is characterized by some structures close to each other, irregularly positioned, thus leaving some narrowing passages between them. In this area some external independent towers have been erected just outside the site limit (at a distance of about 3 m) in order to protect those passages in front of which they were standing. According to the more refined technique here used, they must have been erected only at a later stage in respect to the ramparts of the rest of the walls. The main passage was probably that on the western limit of the site, which was later enlarged outward. At the SW corner of the site an imposing building stands: it is a rectangular basement with two large bastions at the rear corners, the entrance is through a paved court and steps are leading W from the city level. This building, probably a temple, was once extra-muros and only in a later phase has been included within the enlarged site. |
RELATED SITES
| north-west of Jabal Qarn ʿUbayd (Unknown) |
RELATED MATERIAL
| Epigraphs
in CSAI Objects in CSAI |