The results of the first season of archaeological excavations at the small port site of Quseir al-Qadim on the Red Sea are presented in this volume. Archaeological evidence testifies to the importance of this port, then called Leukos Limen, for the Roman trade in the Indian Ocean in the first and second centuries a.d. After a millennium of abandonment, this trade was revived under the Mamluks (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries), when the trade reached East Africa, India, and China. This report presents copious illustrations of the artifacts of daily life in these two periods. A chapter by Martha Prickett presents the detailed results of a regional survey around Quseir and along the route leading to Luxor and the Nile valley.

Quseir Al-Qadim 1978: Preliminary Report (Miscellaneous Publications)

History

Whitcomb, Donald

Ancient Civilizations

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

This is a presentation of beautiful colored mosaics. They originate from buildings in the oasis of Jericho and all date from the first half of the eighth century, during the time of Umayyad caliphate of the early Islamic period. Many visitors have had the privilege of seeing the mosaics revealed, but no one has experienced the impact of all these pavements since they were first excavated in the 1930s and 1940s. A few have been published, but the presentation in Hamilton and Grabar (Khirbat al Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley, 1959) is only very fine aquarelle paintings from the originals. In 2010 the Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage uncovered, cleaned, and assessed the state of conservation of these mosaics. A series of high-quality digital photographs was prepared by a team from the Department, composed of M. Diab, N. Khatib, Said Ghazal, Rafaat Sharaia, and I. Hamdan, under the direction of Ḥ. Tāhā, from which the present selection is offered for study and appreciation of this triumph in early Islamic art. These images speak for themselves.

The Mosaics of Khirbet el-Mafjar: Hisham’s Palace

Arts & Photography

Tāhā, Ḥamdān

Religious

Between 1966 and 1973, the British Institute of Persian Studies conducted seven seasons of excavation and survey at Siraf, which was a major city on the Iranian shore of the Persian Gulf that played a leading role in the network of maritime trade that supplied Western Asia with the products of India, the Far East and Eastern Africa between A.D. 800 and 1050. This volume synthesizes the written evidence of the history of Siraf, and outlines what we know about the character of the city, the ways in which its inhabitants exploited the hinterland and its role in the maritime trade of the Indian Ocean. This volume introduces the excavations carried out at the site and the range of finds that were recovered (Chapter 1), the written evidence that relates to Siraf (Chapter 2), the cities' urban topography (Chapter 3), its hinterland (Chapter 4), the nature of settlement in the neighboring high valleys (Chapter 5) and Siraf's place in the wider historical and geographical contexts (Chapter 6). The volume also includes digital versions of the original maps of the site produced in the 1970s. This is the first volume in a new series that has been established by the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) in conjunction with Oxbow Books, which will publish archaeological research in Iran that has been sponsored by BIPS.

Siraf: History, Topography and Environment (British Institute of Persian Studies, Archaeological Monograph Series)

Wilkinson, T. J.

Petrie, Cameron A.

WHITEHOUSE, David

Middle East

Oxbow Books

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