Jabalī (al-) [formerly al-Raḍrād]

Yemeni silver-mining site active from late Antiquity to the 10th century.

Location

The mine of al-Jabalī is located between 1850 and 2050 metres above sea level, on the edge of Wādī al-Jawf, ca. 60 km northwest of the city of Maʾrib, in Yemen (15°37’N - 44°47’E). It is one of the few silver mines in the Arabian Peninsula.

The mine of al-Jabalī was formerly known as al-Raḍrād. The encyclopaedist Al-Hamdānī was the first to gather data on this mine in his 10th-century treatise Kitāb al-Ǧawharatayn al-ʿatīqatayn al-māʾiʿatayn aṣ-ṣafrāʾ wa-ʾl-bayḍāʾ (al-Hamdānī/ed. Toll 1968).

History of research

The deposit of al-Jabalī was rediscovered in 1981-1982 during surveys conducted by the French Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM) and the Yemeni geological services. In the face of the evidence of ancient exploitation, the geologists called upon C.J. Robin who established a connection between this place and the description given by al-Hamdānī. The first radiocarbon analysis tentatively dated the exploitation between the 7th and 11th centuries CE. From 2003 to 2009, a French archaeological mission led by Florian Téreygeol (CNRS), in collaboration with the Deutsches Bergbau Museum (DBM), aimed to understand the exploitation of the deposit from extraction to obtaining metals (lead and silver).

Archaeological data

This mine was exploited in several phases between the 5th and 12th centuries CE. The underground remains consist of several mining chambers whose present voids reflect the size of the mineral stock. These chambers were accessed through circular shafts about 15 metres deep and a little over a metre in diameter. The shafts comprise a series of notches to facilitate circulation without ropes or ladders. There are also horizontal entrances leading directly into the outcrops on the mountain slope. The site stands out as an impressive area dedicated to the dressing ore process. The volume of the remaining dressing waste is estimated at over 100,000 cubic metres. In Wādī Khāniq, further down, a village matches the one mentioned by the Yemeni encyclopaedist al-Hamdānī. Finally, directly in the bed of the wādī, there are still more than 70 hectares of slag heaps related to lead and silver metallurgy. As with the dressing area, this waste attests to the important extractive metallurgy carried out in the vicinity of the mine. However, no traces of silver refining were found, even though Al-Hamdānī mentions the regular export of silver shipments. In addition to the stone tools used for crushing ore, objects related to the work and daily life of the miners were discovered in the mining networks: a gourd, a lamp, spart and leather baskets, and clay bowls. The ceramic corpus collected in the village shows the use of a dish covered with a turquoise blue glaze dating from the 9th–10th centuries imported from Iraq, thus confirming the description given by Al-Hamdānī.

Today, following the renewal of mining operations, the mining site and the dressing area have disappeared. The village and some slag heaps are still visible.

Florian Téreygeol

References and suggested reading

Sources

• al-Hamdānī / ed. Toll 1968: Kitāb al-Ǧauharatain al-ʿatīqatain al-māʾiʿatain aṣ-ṣafrā’ waʾl-baiḍāʾ, Die beiden Edelmetalle Gold und Silber, ed. and transl. Ch. Toll (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia, I). Uppsala: Almqvist & Wilksells Boktryckeri.

Studies

• Christmann, P., P. Lagny, J.-L. Lescuyer & A. Sharaf Ad-Din 1983. Résultats de trois années de prospection en République arabe du Yémen. Découverte du gisement de Jabalī (Zn-Pb-Ag) dans la couverture jurassique. Chronique de Recherche Minière 473: 25–38.
• Peli, A. & F. Téreygeol 2007. Al-Raḍrād (al-Jabalī): a Yemen silver mine, first results of the french mission (2006). PSAS 37: 187–200. www.jstor.org/stable/41224066.
• Deroin, J.-P., F. Téreygeol & J. Heckes 2011. Evaluation of very-high and moderate resolution multispectral satellite imageries for geoarchaeology in arid regions, case study from Jabalī, Yemen. JAS 38: 101–114. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2010.08.015.
• Téreygeol, F. (dir.) 2014. Du monde franc aux califats omeyyade et abbasside : extraction et produits des mines d’argent de Melle et de Jabalī. Bochum: Deutschen Bergbau-Museum.
• Téreygeol, F., 2016. La mine de Jabalī : produire l’argent dans le Yémen médiéval, in G. Charloux & J. Schiettecatte (eds) Yémen, Terre d’archéologie: 250-257. Paris: Geuthner.
• Merkel, S., A. Hauptmann, T. Kirnbauer, F. Téreygeol, 2016. Silver Production at al-Radrad: Archaeometallurgical Analysis of Ore, Slag, and Technical Ceramics from Early Medieval Yemen. AAE 27: 107-126. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12070.

_{Alternate spellings: al-Jabalī, al-Jabalî, al-Jabali, al-Raḍrād, al-Radrâd, al-Radrad}