Makaynūn

Archaeological site in eastern Ḥaḍramawt, Yemen, occupied from the late 2nd mill. BCE to the 4th cent. CE.

Makaynūn is located in eastern Yemen, 40 km east of Tarīm, along the Wādī Masīla, in a deeply sunk valley in the Ḥaḍramawt limestone plateau.

The 600 × 400 m ancient settlement comprises a fortified central area surrounded by extra muros residential quarters (Figs 1-2). Three temples have been identified at the site, in addition to nine other temples scattered around the surrounding valley or on the slopes of the wādī.

The site was established in the middle of the alluvial plain of the Wādī Masīla, at the confluence of four tributaries. The bed of the Wādī Masīla was too deeply incised for its waters to be used for irrigation purposes. The fields were therefore watered by floods diverted from these tributaries (Fig. 3).

The occupation of Makaynūn began at the end of the second millennium BCE, with modest mud-brick houses (Fig. 4). The surrounding land was gradually brought under cultivation. In the 7th-6th centuries BCE, a first city-wall and the first tower houses were built in the central part of the city. Three centuries later, the city wall was replaced by a monumental one (Fig. 5), and a city gate (Fig. 6) led to an esplanade with two temples. Finally, from the 1st to the 4th centuries CE, the site was massively deserted and occupation was limited to a few buildings (Fig. 7).

During the first millennium BCE, Makaynūn was a provincial settlement with almost no trace of regular contacts beyond the inner Ḥaḍramawt. Paradoxically, when the occupation began to decline (1st-4th centuries), the number of artefacts with links to distant areas increased (Khawr Rūrī in Dhofar, Mleiha in Oman Peninsula).

Anne Benoist, Jérémie Schiettecatte

References

• Benoist, A., J. Charbonnier, M. Mouton & J. Schiettecatte 2014. Building G at Makaynūn: a late pre-Islamic settlement above the ruins of a South Arabian town. AAE 25: 80–95. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12036.

• Benoist, A., O. Lavigne, M. Mouton & J. Schiettecatte 2007. Chronologie et évolution de l’architecture à Makaynūn : la formation d’un centre urbain à l’époque sudarabique dans le Ḥaḍramawt. PSAS 37: 17–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41224055

• Mouton, M., A. Benoist, J. Schiettecatte, M. Arbach & V. Bernard 2006. Makaynūn, an ancient South Arabian site in the Ḥaḍramawt. PSAS 36: 229–242. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223894

• Mouton, M., A. Benoist & J. Schiettecatte 2011. Makaynûn and its territory: the formation of an urban centre during the South Arabian period in the Hadramawt. AAE 22: 155–165. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.2011.00337.x.

_{Alternate spellings: Makaynun, Ṯwbt, Thawbat, Makaynun, Makainun, Makainūn, Makaynan, Makainan}