Barāqish [ancient Yathill]

Ancient fortified city of the Jawf valley (Yemen) founded no later than the 12th cent. BCE and abandoned in the 1st/2nd centuries CE. It was initially part of the northern edge of the kingdom of Sabaʾ, and entered the kingdom of Maʿīn in the late 7th cent. BCE. It was surrounded by a large irrigated area and was one of the main caravan cities along trans-Arabian routes.

Location

Barāqish is located on the southern edge of the Jawf valley (Yemen), 100 km NE of Ṣanʿāʾ, 80 km NW of Maʾrib, and 12 km S of Maʿīn. The surrounding plain is watered by the Wādī Majzir and its tributaries: Wādī Shaqab, Malāḥāʾ, al-Farẓa, Baqlān, Salatān and al-ʿAṭf (Fig. 1).

Discovery and exploration

J. Halévy was the first to report the presence of imposing ruins of what he called ‘a religious city par excellence’ (Halévy 1872: 85). The site was later visited and surveyed by several archaeologists and epigraphers: M. Tawfiq in 1944-45 (Nāmī 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957); A. Fakhry in 1947 (Fakhry 1951); P. Grjaznevich in the 1970s (Bauer & Lundin 1998) and J. Schmidt in 1977 (W.W. Müller 1982).

Systematic surveys were carried out by the MAFRAY from 1976 onwards (Robin 1979), and the MAIRY (dir. G. Gnoli and A. de Maigret) from 1986 onwards (Gnoli & Robin 1992; Gnoli 1993).

Archaeological excavations by the MAIRY started in 1989 (dir. A. de Maigret) in religious, funerary and extra muros dwelling contexts (De Maigret & Robin 1993; De Maigret 2004; Antonini & Agostini 2010; De Maigret 2010; Fedele 2010).

Place name in the ancient sources

The ancient name of the site, Yathill (Yṯl), appears in the formula hgrn Yṯl, “the town of Yathill” (e.g., Ja 643). It was also the name of the tribe of its inhabitants (s²ʿb Yṭl / ḏ-Yṯl) (e.g., M 29). The ancient oasis of Yathill was divided into two irrigated plains named Dyṯ et S²mm (RÉS 3943).

D.H. Müller identified Ἄθρουλα (Strabo, Geog. 16.4.24) and Ἄθλουλα (Dio Cassius LIII.29.8) with Yathill (D.H. Müller 1896). Although Yṯl is currently vocalized Yathill, the Greek transliteration makes the vocalization “Yathull” more appropriate.

Archaeological remains

The rampart

Two successive ramparts were built. The older one was built during the reign of the Sabaean sovereign (mkrb) Karibʾīl Watār in the early 7th cent. BCE (RÉS 3946). It was possibly recognized in an extra muros trench (Fedele 2010).

From the late 6th–early 5th cent. BCE onwards, the Minaeans built a new rampart enclosing a smaller area than the previous one (4.5 ha). It is a 766-m-long, 14-m-high wall (Figs 2-3). A main gate was located on the south-western side, and a postern on the southern side provided access to the temple of Nakraḥ. The inscriptions reveal at least two phases of restoration under the rule of the kings of Maʿīn. This rampart was substantially reworked during the Islamic occupation of the site.

The temples

Two intra muros temples were excavated:

The temple Barrān dedicated to Nakraḥ (De Maigret & Robin 1993; De Maigret 2004) is a hypostyle temple with a tetrastyle pronaos built in the 6th cent. BCE. It was converted into a temple of dhū-Samāwī at the turn of the Common Era.

The temple Qabḍum, dedicated to ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ, is a hypostyle temple with an hexastyle pronaos (Agostini 2015) built in the 5th cent. BCE.

A third temple dedicated to Wadd is only known by the epigraphic record of its construction in the 5th cent. BCE (M 244).

Two extra muros sanctuaries were built in the irrigated area of Barāqish, the sanctuary Yahriq (Yhrq), dedicated to ʿAthtar dhū-Yahriq (See Shaqab al-Manaṣṣa) and the sanctuary Fathaʿān (Fṯʿn) dedicated to Nakraḥ (See Darb aṣ-Ṣabī).

The necropolis

A necropolis was excavated southwest of the site. It comprised a series of small funerary pits with no human remains. The excavators hypothesized the presence of cenotaphs. Each of them was associated with a rectangular funerary stele. It was dated to the 2nd-1st cent. BCE (Antonini & Agostini 2010).

The irrigated area

The oasis of Yathill received water from the Wādī Majzir and its tributaries. It spread to the south-western and southern side of the site. Several hydraulic structures were located there (dams, reservoirs, canals). The geomorphological study showed that a first irrigated area, SW of the site and 400 ha wide, was already cultivated in the 8th century BCE. Changes in the watercourse of the wādī led to its abandonment and replacement by a second irrigated area, south of the site, in the mid-1st mill. BCE (Marcolongo 1994).

History

The excavation of both Nakraḥ temple and the extra muros area revealed a long-lasting and durable occupation of the site from the 13th century BCE to the 1st century CE (De Maigret 2010; Fedele 2010).

The earliest epigraphic accounts, in the 8th cent. BCE, show that the city belonged to the cultural and political sphere of the kingdom of Sabaʾ. The pantheon was Sabaean, the language was Sabaic, the years were remembered by reference to the eponymous Sabaean priests, and the city was fortified at the initiative of the Sabean sovereign Karibʾīl Watār son of Dhamarʿalī at the beginning of the 7th century BCE.

The governing institutions of the city included a Council of Yathill (ms³wd Yṯl), comprising influential members of the local tribes, and a chief of Yathill (kbr Yṯl) (e.g., Y.90.DA 2), possibly the auxiliary of the Sabaean ruler.

Late in the 7th century BCE, the city and the tribe of Yathill became part of the kingdom of Maʿīn. The Minaic language was adopted. Decisions were made by the king of Maʿīn (mlk Mʿn) and the council of Maʿīn (ms³wd Mʿn), consisting of the notables of the tribes of Maʿīn and dhū-Yathill (e.g., RÉS 3009). Their decisions were executed by a chief of Yathill (kbr Yṯl). The inhabitants were then part of the vast tribe of Maʿīn and dhū-Yathill (s²ʿb Mʿn w-ḏ-Yṯl), a federation of all the clans of the Minaean kingdom.

In the 6th–5th centuries BCE, the great monuments of the city were built, mainly at the instigation of the dominant clan, Gabʾān: construction of the Minaean rampart and the temples of Nakraḥ, ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ, and Wadd. Yathill became a defensive place, a religious centre, an agricultural area and a major caravan stop on frankincense trading routes. The trading elite married wives in the cities and regions along the trans-Arabian caravan trade route: Dadan, Yathrib, Gaza, Sidon, Gerrha, Egypt, Ionia, etc. (Maʿīn 93-98).

In the account of Aelius Gallus’s military expedition to South Arabia, Strabo (Geog. 16.4.24) mentions the stationing and supply of the Roman army in the town of Yathill.

Traces of an ancient occupation after this date are tenuous. Later sources show a change of population. Members of the Amīr tribe, from the Najran area, occupied the city. Ḥalfān (Y.05.B.B 16) and dhū-Samāwī (Y.92.B.A 20, Haram 10), the gods of Amīr were worshipped in temples formerly dedicated to Nakraḥ and ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ.

After the 2nd century CE, no more inscriptions were written on the site and the excavation revealed a long-lasting interruption in occupation. Although Yathill is mentioned in a 3^rd-cent. inscription from Maʾrib (Ja 619), it was then probably deserted and simply mentioned as a landmark. It is not mentioned in the list of cities and tribes providing military contingents to the Sabaean king, nor as a site of origin for dedicants in the confederal temple Awām at Maʾrib.

The site was repopulated between the 12th and 18th centuries.

Jérémie Schiettecatte

References and suggested readings

Abbreviations

• MAFRAY: Mission Archéologique Française en République Arabe du Yémen
• MAIRY: Missione Archeologica Italiana nella Repubblica dello Yemen

Sources

• Dio Cassius LIII.29: Dio Cassius/Ed. Cary. 1925. Roman history. VIII, Books LXI-LXX with an English translation by Earnest Cary on the basis of the version of Herbert Baldwin Foster. (trans.) E. Cary & H.B. Foster. London, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
• Strabo Geog. 16: Seubert, P. 2020. Du Tigre au Nil, la Syrie et l’Arabie de Strabon : édition, traduction et commentaire du livre XVI de la Géographie. PhD, Paris: Sorbonne Université.

Studies

• Agostini, A. 2015. The excavation of the temple of ʿAthtar dhû-Qabḍ in Barāqish. Stratigraphic data and historical reconstruction. PSAS 45: 1–14. www.jstor.org/stable/43783617
• Antonini, S. & A. Agostini 2010. A Minaean Necropolis at Barâqish (Jawf, Republic of Yemen). Preliminary Report of the 2005-2006 Archaeological Campaigns. Rome: IsIAO.
• Antonini, S. & F.G. Fedele (eds) 2021a. Baraqish/Yathill (Yemen) 1986-2007. Volume 1: Excavations of Temple B and related research and restoration. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1mjqpth
• Antonini, S. & F.G. Fedele (eds) 2021b. Baraqish/Yathill (Yemen) 1986-2007. Volume 2: Extramural excavations in Area C and overview studies. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1mjqpth
• Bauer, G.M. & A.G. Lundin 1998. Южная Аравия. Памятники древней истории и культуры. выпуск 2, часть 2, Эпиграфические памятники древнего Йемена / Ûžnaâ Araviâ. Pamâtniki drevnej istorii i kulʹtury. vypusk 2, častʹ 2, Èpigrafičeskie pamâtniki drevnego Jemena. Saint Petersburg: Centr ‘Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie’.
• De Maigret, A. 2004. Baraqish, Minaean Yathill. Excavation and Restoration of the Temple of Nakrah (YACAR Papers, 1). Napoli.
• De Maigret, A. 2010. A Sabaean stratigraphy from Barāqish. Arabia 4: 67–96.
• De Maigret, A. & C.J. Robin 1993. Le temple de Nakrah à Yathill (Barâqish), Yémen. Résultats des deux premières campagnes de fouilles de la mission italienne. CRAI 1993: 427–496. DOI: 10.3406/crai.1993.15228.
• Fakhry, A. 1951. An archaeological Journey to Yemen (March-May 1947). 3 vols. Cairo: Government Press.
• Fedele, F.G. 2010. Barāqish, over-wall excavations 2005-2006: stratigraphy, environment and economy of the Sabaean-Islamic sequence. Arabia 4 (2007-2010): 97–161.
• Gnoli, G. 1993. Shaqab al-Manassa (Inventario Delle Iscrizioni Sudarabiche, Tomo 2). Paris, Rome: AIBL, IsMEO.
• Gnoli, G. & C.J. Robin 1992. Nouveaux documents sabéens de Barâqish. Yemen. Studi archeologici, storici e filologici sull’Arabia meridionale vol.1: 93–98.
• Halévy, J. 1872. Rapport sur une mission archéologique dans le Yémen. Journal Asiatique, 6e série XIX, jv-ju 1872: 5–98, 129–266, 489–547.
• Marcolongo, B. 1994. Le périmètre irrigué, grenier de l’antique Yathill, et les déplacements du wâdî Majzir. Saba 1: 60–62.
• Müller, D.H. 1896. Athrula, in Paulys Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, II, 2: 2071–72. https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Athrula.
• Müller, W.W. 1982. Bemerkungen zu einigen von der Yemen-Expedition 1977 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts aufgenommenen Inschriften aus dem Raum Mārib und Barāqiš, in J. Schmidt (ed.) ABADY I: 129–134. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Nāmī, K.H. 1954. Nuqūš ḫirbat Barāqiš ʿalā ḍawʾmajmūʿat Muḥammad Tawfīq (1) Majallat kulliyat al-ʾādāb 16: 1–21.
• Nāmī, K.H. 1955. Nuqūš ḫirbat Barāqiš ʿalā ḍawʾmajmūʿat Muḥammad Tawfīq (2) Majallat kulliyat al-ʾādāb 17: 1–22.
• Nāmī, K.H. 1956. Nuqūš ḫirbat Barāqiš ʿalā ḍawʾmajmūʿat Muḥammad Tawfīq (3) Majallat kulliyat al-ʾādāb 18: 1–36.
• Nāmī, K.H. 1957. Nuqūš ḫirbat Barāqiš ʿalā ḍawʾmajmūʿat Muḥammad Tawfīq (4) Majallat kulliyat al-ʾādāb 19: 93–124.
• Robin, C.J. 1979. A propos des inscriptions in situ de Baraqish, l’antique YTL (Nord-Yémen). PSAS 9: 102–112. www.jstor.org/stable/41223223

_{Alternate spellings: Barâqish, Baraqish, Barāqiš, Barâqiš, Baraqiš, Yathil, Yathull, Yathul}