Hajar al-ʿAdī [ancient Maryamatum]

Ancient city of the Wādī Ḥarīb (Yemen) founded no later than the 7th cent. BCE and abandoned during the 3rd century CE at the latest. For most of its history, it was a major town of the kingdom of Qatabān and an important caravan city along the trans-Arabian routes at the turn of the Christian era.

Location

The site of Hajar al-ʿAdī, the ancient Maryamatum (Sab., Qat.: Mrymtm), was an ancient settlement of the kingdom of Qatabān for most of its existence. It is currently located ca. 90 km southeast of Maʾrib and five kilometres to the east of Ḥarib district centre, on the banks of the Wādī Ḥarīb (Fig. 1). The modern village was built on top of the ruins of the ancient settlement.

The alluvial soil around the town watered by the Wadi Ablaḥ to the west and northwest of Maryamatum was fertile cultivable land. The location of the town in the region between high plateaus and the Empty Quarter contributed to the availability of water.

Archaeological remains

Maryamatum was one of the largest ancient South Arabian towns, surrounded by walls and towers from all directions. The plan of the town is semi-rectangular (Fig. 2), ca. 270 m from north to south; and ca. 260 m from east to west. Some vestiges still subsist up to the present day: the city wall towers in granite, and large buildings in the west, southeast and the middle parts of the town (Fig. 3).

The temple of the god Ḥawkam, on its western side, is one of the most important archaeological monuments of the city. It recently underwent looting and destruction, during which most of its stone and bronze artefacts were removed, mainly human statues, bronze ibex statues, and bronze inscriptions, and smuggled out of Yemen (Fig 4).

Maryamatum was located on the ancient caravan trade route running through the most ancient towns of inner Yemen. In the first millennium BCE and the first century CE, the city was a trading post on the edge of the kingdom of Qatabān and close to the territory of Sabaʾ.

The importance of Maryamatum inscriptions

The number of inscriptions in Maryamah town reaches almost 200, 100 of which were published in earlier studies (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 1–99 – al-Ḥajj 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2020, al-Ḥusnī 2015, Bron 2009, 2010, 2013, 2018, Jamme 1981, Maraqten 2014).

The content of the inscriptions clearly highlights the history of an important South Arabian town that emerged alongside the kingdom of Qatabān, in the first millennium BCE.

The earliest inscriptions date back to the 8th or 7th centuries BCE, and already mention the Qatabānian authority (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 25). Another mentions the priests of the god Ḥawkam in that earlier historical phase (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 24). The latest inscriptions (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdi 56, 58) date back to the end of the 3rd century CE since they seem to go back to the reign of the Ḥimyarite king Shammar Yuharʿish dhu-Raydān.

Most of the inscriptions are dedicatory texts referring to the religious, social, and economic affairs of the inhabitants, and their deep religious feeling towards their worshipped gods. The most important was Ḥawkam Nabaṭ, the tutelary god of the city. They also provide us with the names of a number of kings of Qatabān, including some previously unknown kings (e.g., Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 25; ATM 866; FB-Ḥawkam 7).

The construction inscriptions identify several buildings by their name (wall towers, religious and civil buildings), their builders’ names, the purpose and date of their building.

In addition, they yield information on the trade activities of the inhabitants, indicating connections in and beyond South Arabia, up to the land of the Nabataeans, Chaldea, Egypt and Greece (Maraqten-Qatabanic 1). In South Arabia, during the period between the 1st and 3rd centries CE, the people from Maryamatum traded with the cities of Ẓafār (Ja 2898), Raḥbatān (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 60), Shabwat (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 35), Shibām (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 60), ʿAdanum [Aden] (Ḥaj- al-ʿAdī 59), Tubnà (Haj- al-ʿAdī 59), as well as other previously unknown towns in ancient South Arabian inscriptions, such as Ḥykln, Ḫṣwt, Mrʿt (Ḥaj-al-ʿAdī 57).

Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Hajj

References and suggested reading

• Arbach, M., A. Bāṭāyiʿ & Kh. al-Zubaydī 2013. Nuqūš qatbāniyya ǧadīda (3). Raydān 8: 49–103.
• al-Hajj, M.A. 2013. Madīnat Šukuʿ wa-ʾarḍ Yuhanṭil fi ḍawʾ naqš qitbānī ǧadīd mūʾrraḫ bi-ʿahd al-malik Šahr Yagul Yurgib (al-ʿĀdī 21). al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Saʿūdiyya ʿabr al-ʿuṣūr. Silsilat mudāwalāt ʿulmiyya muḥakama li-l-liqāʾ al-sanawī li-jamʿiyyat, 3: 119–144.
• al-Hajj, M.A. 2014. Al-awḍāʿ al-siyāsiyat al-mamlaka Ḥaḍramawt wa ʿalā qutha bi-mamlaka Qatabān fī bidāyat al-Qarn al-āwal q.m. ʿAlām al-makhṭūṭāt wa-l-nawādir 19: 93–136.
• al-Ḥajj, M.A. 2015. Nuqūš Qatabāniyya min Haǧar al-ʿĀdī (Maryama qadīman). Dirāsa fī dalālāti-hā al-lughawiyya wa-l-dīniyya wa-l-taʾriḫiyya. Riyadh: King Saud University Press.
• al-Hajj, M.A. 2019. History of Maryamah town (Hajar-al-ʿĀdī) in Wādī Ḥarīb in the light of its musnad inscriptions (7th cent. BC – 3rd cent. AD). Adumatu 40: 7–40.
• al-Hajj, M.A. 2020. Fi tārīḫ al-yaman qabl al-īslam. Nuqūš musnadiyya min Hajar al-ʿĀdī bi-wādī Ḥarīb, Dirāsa lughawiyya taʾriḫiyya muqārana. Riyadh: Dār al-Wifāq li-l-našr wa-tawzīʿ.
• al-Ḥajj, M.A. 2021. A new Qatabanian inscription from the reign of Shammar Yuharʿish dhū‐Raydān and other new data on the history of the towns of Ẓafār and Maryamah at the end of the third century CE. AAE 32(1): 388–394. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12169.
• al-Ḥusnī, M.N. Jamāl 2015. Ṯalāṯa nuqūsh qatabāniyya jadīda taḏkur al-īlāh 'dhāt-Fnwtm', in M. Arbach & J. Schiettecatte (eds) Pre-Islamic South-Arabia and its Neighbours: new developments of research (BAR International Series, 2740): 43-48. Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Bron, F. 2009. Trois nouvelles dédicaces qatabanites à Ḥawkam. Orientalia 9: 121–126.
• Bron, F. 2010. Nouvelles inscriptions sud-arabiques. Sem. Clas. 3: 163–175. DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.1.100929.
• Bron, F. 2013. Nouvelles inscriptions sudarabiques. 2. Sem. Clas. 6: 187–194. DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.1.103731.
• Bron, F. 2018. Trois nouvelles inscriptions sudarabiques sur bronze. Sem. Clas. 11: 239–242. DOI: 10.1484/J.SEC.5.116810.
• Jamme, A. 1981. Pre-Islamic arabian Miscellanea, in R.G. Stiegner (ed.) Al-Hudhud, Festschrift Maria Höfner zum 80. Geburstag: 95–112. Graz: Karl-Franzens Universität.
• Maraqten, M. 2014. On the relations between Bilād al-Shām and Yemen in the preIslamic period [in Arabic], 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): 97–114. Rome: ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma.

_{Alternate spellings: Maryamat, Maryama, Maryamah, Mrymtm, Hajar al-ʿĀdī, Hajar al-ʿÂdî, Hajar al-ʿAdî, Hajar al-'Adî, Hajar al-Adî, Hajar al-Adi, Hajar al-'Adi, Hajar al 'Adî, Hajar al Adî, Hajar al Adi, Hajar al 'Adi, al-'Adî, al-Adî, al-Adi, al-'Adi}