Natural sacred places

Locations referred to as sacred places are located in peculiar natural environments where rituals and cultual activities were performed in Southern Arabia from the early 1st mill. BCE to the 4th cent. CE.

The South Arabian cultic landscape is composed of a diversity of places. Most of them were built following a canonical plan and located in or near settlements. Some, however, were established close to natural elements with a sacred connotation. Such a category was included in M. Jung’s typology of South Arabian religious buildings (Jung 1988: 181–182). These elements can be large monoliths, springs, gas emanations, or remarkable viewpoints, overlooking crops or a caravan track for example. The most common characteristic of the sacred place however is a location on a mountain summit (see Robin 1981) or atop a hill (Fig. 1). Sacred places are found throughout the south-western Arabian Peninsula and, contrary to regional sanctuaries or temples, no specific plan is applied when it comes to building associated structures. The topography of each landscape dictates a specific layout of buildings.

Based on the Ancient South Arabian inscriptions found in or near these sacred places, a variety of rituals appear to have taken place there (sacred hunts, ritual meals, sacrifices, pilgrimages, alliance pacts, oracles). Some sites are associated with funerary structures and reflect funerary/mortuary cults rather than a cult to a deity linked to a natural feature. In terms of chronology, the earliest sites can be dated to the Ancient South Arabian Period (8th-6th cent. BCE) while inscriptions dated to the 1st cent. BCE to the 3rd cent. CE attest to renewed frequentation. However, it appears likely that these practices were inherited from earlier Bronze Age rituals. Such examples are found at Shiʿb al-ʿAql and in the Jabal Balaq al-Janūbi (rock-cut pools at the foot of a boulder overlooking Bāb al-Falāj). Jabal al-Lawdh, located in the Jawf, is the most spectacular example of a mountain-top sacred place. The site hosted ritual meals, processions along the 6-km-long trek up the mountain and offerings, and was composed of a lower area (banqueting buildings) and an upper area where walls were built around a large rock. Other mountain-top places were discovered during surveys of built structures and/or inscriptions. Some are only known by inscriptions. The texts often mention a deity master of a mountain, for instance ʿAthtar Master of the Mount Ḍanʾan (ʿṯtr bʿl ʿrn Ḍnʾn, CIH 105), Taʾlab of the Mount ʿAdaf (Tʾlb ḏ-ʿrn ʿdf, MAFRAY-al-ʿAdan 10+11+12), Wadd Master of the Mount Bishārān (Wdm bʿl ʿrn Bs²rn, az-Zubayrī-Bishār 1). Deities associated with sacred places are varied and the names encountered include, but not exclusively, the names of national deities: Almaqah, ʿAmm, ʿAthtar, Dhat Ẓahrān, Dhu-Samāwī, Kahl, Ḥawbas, Shams, Taʾlab, Wadd. The highest concentration of sacred places (13 locations) is in the Yemeni highlands. One example was identified in Ḥaḍramawt (al-ʿUqla, rock-cut pools on terraces, Fig. 1). The Yemeni Jawf hosts the major site of Jabal al-Lawḏ mentioned above. Two examples are known in the lowlands on the western Ramlat as-Sabatʿayn (Shiʿb al-ʿAql and Jabal Balaq al-Janūbī). Three additional sites are found in southern Saudi Arabia: ʿĀn Ḥalkān (Arbach et al. 2012, Fig. 2), Kaʿbat Najrān (Zarins et al. 1981: 24, pl. 9), and Khashm Qaryah (Charloux et al. 2023). Overall, about 19 locations can be identified through their topography, associated buildings and inscriptions.

Solène Marion de Procé

References and suggested reading

• Arbach, M., G. Charloux, C.J. Robin, S.F. al-Saʿīd, J. Schiettecatte & S. Âl Murih 2012. Un sanctuaire rupestre au dieu dhū-Samāwī à ʿān Halkān (Arabie Saoudite), in C.J. Robin & I. Sachet (eds) Dieux et déesses d’Arabie. Images et représentations (O&M, 7): 119–128. Paris: De Boccard.
• Charloux, G. et al. 2023. The Protohistoric and Antique Landscapes of Qaryat al-Faw. The Saudi Heritage Commission Archaeological Mapping Project (2021-2022). PSAS 52: 45–69.
• Darles, C. 1998. Le sanctuaire d’al-ʿUqla, in J.-F. Breton (ed.) Fouilles de Shabwa III : architecture et techniques de construction (BAH, 154): 163–169. Beirut: IFAPO.
• Jung, M. 1988. The Religious Monuments of Ancient South Arabia. A Preliminary Typological Classification. AION 48: 177–218.
• Robin, C.J. 1981. Les montagnes dans la religion sudarabique, in R.G. Stiegner (ed.) Al-Hudhud, Festschrift Maria Höfner zum 80. Geburstag: 263–281. Graz: Karl-Franzens Universität.
• Robin, C.J. 2012. Matériaux pour une typologie des divinités arabiques et de leurs représentations, in C.J. Robin & I. Sachet (eds) Dieux et déesses d’Arabie. Images et représentations (O&M, 7): 7–118. Paris: De Boccard.
• Zarins, J., A. Murad & Kh. al-Yaish 1981. The Second Preliminary Report on the Southwestern Province. Atlal 5: 9–42.

_{Alternate spelling: Sacred mountain}