Maʾrib [ancient Marib/Maryab]

Ancient city founded no later than the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE and abandoned in the late 6th/early 7th century CE. It was the capital city of the kingdom of Sabaʾ. Its surrounding oasis was the largest in pre-Islamic Arabia. It was watered by the 700-m-long dam. The extra muros temple Awām, dedicated to Almaqah, was a major place of pilgrimage in South Arabia.

Location

The site of Maʾrib is located at the mouth of the Wādī Dhana, the Wādī al-Jufayna and the Wādī al-ʿAlīb, taking advantage of a major catchment area of Yemen (ca. 9.000 sq. km). Maʾrib is located on the left bank of the Wādī Dhana, 7 km downstream of the jabal Balaq al-Awsaṭ, a limestone outcrop, and south of the Quaternary volcanic flow of al-Dish al-Khashab (Fig. 1).

Discovery and exploration

The site was discovered by the French chemist Thomas Arnaud in 1843. Maʾrib attracted many travellers, epigraphists and archaeologists on account of its major role: J. Halévy and his guide H. Habshush (1870); Eduard Glaser (1887–88), N. al-ʿAzm (1938), A. Fakhry (1952), G. van Beek (1964), Ch. Robin (1975), J. Dayton and R. Serjeant (1979).

Wendell Phillips initiated the first archaeological exploration of the extra muros temple Awam (1951-52), a project resumed by the American Foundation for the Study of Man from 1997 to 2008 (Bowen Jr & Albright 1958; Jamme 1962; Glanzman 1998; Maraqten 2015; Zaid 2014).

The rest of the oasis and the ancient city were explored by the Deutsches archäologisches Institut (1975-2008) (Schmidt et al. 1982; Brunner 1983; Schmidt et al. 1987; Schmidt & Herberg 1988; Hehmeyer & Schmidt 1991; Vogt et al. 2000; Gerlach 2002; Vogt et al. 2003; Eichmann & Hitgen 2003).

Place name in the ancient sources

From the 8th cent. BCE to the 3rd cent. CE, the Sabaic name of the city was Maryab (Mryb). The name Marib (Mrb) gradually replaced it by the 2nd cent. CE (Fig. 2).

In the classical sources, several toponyms are equated with Maʾrib: Μαρίαβα, a metropolis (Strabo, Geog. 16, 4, 2 and 19), Mariba, an oppidum (Pliny the Elder, H.N. VI, 32, 160), Mareliabata, a capital city (Pliny the Elder, H.N. VI, 32, 155), Μαράβα or Μαρά, a metropolis (Ptol., Geog. 6.7.37), Baraba, a city (Amm. Marc., Hist. XXIII, 6, 47).

History and archaeological remains

The town of Maʾrib was inhabited from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, at the latest, until the end of the pre-Islamic period. At its largest, the fortified city was shaped like an irregular pentagon with an area exceeding 100 ha.

The rampart was built in several stages during the 1st millennium BCE. The most ancient works are attested during the reign of the Sabaean mukarrib Yathaʿʾamar Bayān son of Sumhuʿalī, in the 8th cent. BCE (al-Khobar 1). The following building phases are credited to the Sabaean kings of the 7th–6th cent. BCE (RÉS 3943) and the 2nd–1st cent. BCE (Fa 91+92). Restorations took place under the reign of the ḥimyarite king Shamar Yuharʿish, at the end of the 3rd cent. CE (Ja 651), after he had annexed the kingdom of Sabaʾ.

The fortified area includes four large mounds, the most important being the 12-m-high tell of Maʾrib, in the south-eastern corner of the site. This tell results from medieval and contemporary settlement (15th–20th cent.). The other mounds attest to the presence of monumental structures. Sabaic inscriptions mention at least eight monumental tower houses, including the royal residence Salḥin. The palace Salḥin (S¹lḥn/S¹lḥm) has not been precisely located but was, according to epigraphy, the residence of the Sabaean kings from the 7th cent. BCE (RÉS 3946) to the 3rd cent. CE (Ja 877). It also served as a provincial royal residence for the Himyarite kings in the 1st cent. CE, when both Sabaʾ and Ḥimyar were united under their authority (e.g., Ja 644). After the final annexation of Sabaʾ by Ḥimyar, the palace hosted a Himyarite governor (Ja 652, Ir 37) before being abandoned. The name Salḥin survived in the title of the Aksumite kings Kālēb and Ezana in the 6th cent. CE (RIEth 191).

There were at least seven intra muros temples, including the temple Ḥirwān (Ḥrwn) dedicated to Almaqah, and temples dedicated to ʿAthtar dhu-Dhibān, Hawbas, and dhu-Samāwī.

In the surrounding oasis, at least nine temples were open not only to the local population but also to the wider Sabaean community, including the temple of Wadd dhū-Masmaʿim on the jabal Balaq, founded in the 8th cent. BCE, and the two major temples of Almaqah: Barʾān (Brʾn/Brʾm), southwest of Maʾrib (10th cent. BCE-4th cent. CE), and Awām (ʾwm), south of Maʾrib (8th cent. BCE–4th cent. CE). The latter — known today as the Maḥram Bilqīs — was connected to the city by a 3-km-long processional road. It combines a square peristyle hall opening onto a wide oval enclosure surrounded by a high limestone wall. Reorganized during the reign of the mukarrib Yadaʿʾīl Dhariḥ son of Sumhuʿalī, in the middle of the 7th cent. BCE, this temple became the main sanctuary of the tribe of Sabaʾ, hosting the pilgrimage of Almaqah — Almaqah Thahwān, from the 1st cent. CE onwards — in the month of dhu-Abhī. The pilgrimage and inscriptions were made by people from the different regions of the kingdom of Sabaʾ: Jawf valley, Maʾrib region, northern and central highlands of Yemen. Around the temple Awām, a cemetery with carefully built mausoleums was a burial place for the Sabaean upper class (Gerlach 2002). Both the sanctuary and the necropolis were abandoned in the 4th cent. CE.

At its largest, the oasis of Maʾrib measured 22 km from west to east and 8 km from north to south. It was divided into two parts by the Wādī Dhana: the southern oasis, Yasrān (Ys¹rn), extended over 5.300 ha; the northern oasis, Abyan, over 3.750 ha. In addition, the irrigated areas of the Wādī al-Jufayna and the Wādī as-Sāʾila were ca. 550 ha wide. Based on the thickness of sedimentation, the beginning of agricultural irrigation has been dated to the end of the 3rd millennium BCE (Brunner 1983).

A set of monumental hydraulic structures were built at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, downstream of the Maʾrib dam: Bau A, Bau B, and Bau C.

Later, an earthen dike with a monumental water inlet in stone at both ends was built upstream (Fig. 3). It is known as ʿArimān (ʿrmn, Ar. al-ʿarim). Works began in the 7th cent. BCE (CIH 623). The ḥimyarite kings carried out major reconstructions between the 4th and the 6th cent. CE (Ja 671+788; CIH 540; Garbini/Shuriḥbiʾīl Yaʿfur A; CIH 541; DAI GDN 2002-20) (Darles et al. 2011).

For most of its existence, the fate of Maʾrib was closely connected to that of the Sabaean kingdom (Schiettecatte 2009; 2011: 104–16). At the beginning of the 3rd cent. CE, Ṣanaʿāʾ competed with Maʾrib as a result of the increasing role of the tribal aristocracy in the highlands and the foundation of a second Sabaean royal palace, Ghumdān (Ġmdn). After the annexation of the kingdom of Sabaʾ by Ḥimyar, in ca. 275 CE, Maʾrib became a provincial political centre where governors and members of the tribal aristocracy resided. The pagan temples were all abandoned in the 4th cent CE. Owing to its former political and agricultural importance, the city remained an important centre. It was mentioned as one of the seven major cities in Arabia Felix by Amm. Marc. (Hist. XXIII, 6, 47). Himyarite kings continued the policy of monumental building: Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin financed the construction of a synagogue in the early 5th cent. CE (Ja 856), and more significantly, the breaches of the dam were repaired as part of public works policies.

In the 6th century, Maʾrib became a Christian centre, with a church (CIH 541) and an active Christian community (Book of the Himyarites, XXI). This is the place chosen by Abraha, the Aksumite-born Himyarite king, to hold the diplomatic conference bringing together embassies from Aksum, Byzantium, Persia, and Arab principalities in 547 CE.

The inability to repair the last breach of the dam in the late 6th cent. CE progressively led to the depopulation of the oasis and the abandonment of the city. In the Koran, the surah Sabaʾ (34:15–16) refers to this past disaster.

Jérémie Schiettecatte

References and suggested reading

Sources

• Amm. Marc. XXIII: Ammien Marcellin/Ed. Galletier et al. 1968-1999. Ammien Marcellin, Histoire. Ed., transl. and annot. by E. Galletier, G. Sabbah, J. Fontaine, M.-A. Marié. 6 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
• Book of the Himyarites: see Moberg, C.A. (ed.) 1924. The Book of the Himyarites: fragments of a hitherto unknown Syriac work. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup.
• Ptolemy, Geog.: Stückelberger, A. & G. Grasshoff (eds) 2006. Klaudios Ptolemaios. Handbuch der Geographie. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.
• Pliny the Elder, H.N.: Rackham, H. (ed.) 1941. Pliny’s Natural history. With an English translation. Volume II. Libri III-VII. Cambridge MS, London: Harvard University Press, W. Heinemann.
• RIEth 191: see Bernand, É., A.J. Drewes, R. Schneider & F. Anfray 1991. Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite. Paris: De Boccard: 271–274.
• Strabo, Geography, book 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.

References

• Bowen Jr, R.L. & F.B. Albright 1958. Archaeological Discoveries in South-Arabia (Publications of the AFSM, II). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
• Brunner, U. 1983. ABADY II. Die Erforschung der antiken Oase von Mârib mit Hilfe geomorphologischer Untersuchungsmethoden. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Darles, C., C.J. Robin, J. Schiettecatte & G. El Masri 2011. Contribution à une meilleure compréhension de l’histoire de la digue de Maʾrib au Yémen, in F. Baratte, E. Rocca, & C.J. Robin (eds) Regards croisés d’Orient et d’Occident : les barrages dans l’Antiquité tardive (O&M, Archéologie, 14): 9–70. Paris: De Boccard.
• Eichmann, R. & H. Hitgen 2003. Marib, Hauptstadt des sabäischen Reiches, in I. Gerlach (ed.) 25 Jahre Ausgrabungen und Forschungen im Jemen, 1978-2003 (Hefte Zur Kulturgeschichte des Jemen, Band 1): 53–61. Sana’a.
• Gerlach, I. 2002. Der Friedhof des Awâm-Tempels in Mârib. Bericht der Ausgrabungen von 1997 bis 2000, in ABADY IX: 41–58. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Glanzman, W.D. 1998. Digging deeper: the results of the first season of activities of the AFSM on the Mahram Bilqis, Marib. PSAS 28: 89–104. www.jstor.org/stable/41223616
• Hehmeyer, I. & J. Schmidt (eds) 1991. ABADY V. Antike Technologie - Die sabäische Wasserwirtschaft von Mârib. Teil 1. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Jamme, A. 1962. Sabaean Inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis (Marib) (Publications of the AFSM, III). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.
• Maraqten, M. 2015. Sacred spaces in ancient Yemen - The Awām temple - Maʾrib: A case study, in M. Arbach & J. Schiettecatte (eds) Pre-Islamic South Arabia and its Neighbours: New Developments of Research. Proceedings of the 17th Rencontres Sabéennes held in Paris, 6–8 June 2013: 107–134. Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Schiettecatte, J. 2009. Shabwa, Maʾrib et Ṣanʿāʾ. Le devenir des capitales sudarabiques à la veille de l’islam, in J. Schiettecatte & C.J. Robin (eds) L’Arabie à la veille de l’Islam: bilan clinique: 251–81 (O&M, 3). Paris: De Boccard.
• Schiettecatte, J. 2011. D’Aden à Zafar. Villes de l’Arabie du Sud préislamique. (O&M, Archéologie, 6). Paris: De Boccard.
• Schmidt, J., U. Brunner, M. Gerig, W.W. Müller & R. Schoch 1982. Mârib. Erster vorläufiger Bericht über die Forschungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts in der Umgebung der Sabäerhauptstadt, in J. Schmidt (ed.) ABADY I: 5–89. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Schmidt, J., B. Finster, W. Herberg, M. Klaus & W.W. Müller 1987. Zweiter vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen und Forschungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts Ṣanʿāʾ in Mārib und Umgebung, in J. Schmidt (ed.) ABADY III: 1–95. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Schmidt, J. & W. Herberg 1988. Mârib. Dritter vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in der Sabäerhauptstadt und Umgebung, in J. Schmidt (ed.) ABADY IV: 97–142. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
• Vogt, B., W. Brettschneider, U. Brunner, W. Herberg & N. Röring 2003. Der Große Damm von Marib, Republik Jemen. Neue archäologische und bauhistorische Forschungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 2002. BAVA 23: 49–74.
• Vogt, B., W. Herberg & N. Röring 2000. ʿArsh Bilqis. Der Tempel des Almaqah von Barʾān in Marib. Sana’a.
• Zaid, Z. 2014. Awām Temple Annex: History of Construction, in Z. Kafafi & M. Maraqten (eds) A Pioneer of Arabia. Studies in the Archaeology and Epigraphy of the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula in Honor of Moawiyah Ibrahim(ROSAPAT, 10): 382–393. Rome: ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma.

_{Alternate spellings: Marib; Mârib; Mārib; Maryab; Mrb; Mryb; Mareb; Ma’rib; Meriaba}