Umm Daraj

The site of Umm Daraj is a mountaintop sanctuary located in the al-ʿUlā oasis (north-western Arabia) and connected to the ancient city of Dadan. It was in use during the second half of the first millennium BCE, under the dynasty of the kings of Liḥyān. Hundreds of Dadanitic inscriptions suggest that it was home to specific rituals, ḥgt and ẓll, held in honour of the god Dhū-Ghābat.

The sanctuary known today as Umm Daraj (the “mother of the stairs”) lies at the top of an oval-shaped sandstone mountain overlooking the al-ʿUlā valley, opposite the ancient city of Dadan (fig. 1). It was named after a series of long staircases carved into the slopes of the mountain and leading to its summit. The sanctuary consists of a dense group of ruined buildings spread across the summit, accompanied by a series of rock-carved cisterns, hundreds of inscriptions and a large number of scattered cultic objects. Due to the erosion of the staircases, it is very difficult to access the sanctuary today.

The site was first surveyed by A. Nasif (1988: 24–25). After that, two seasons of survey and rescue excavations were conducted by the Saudi Department of Antiquities (in 2001) and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Archaeology (in 2016) under the supervision of H. Abu al-Hassan (2001, 2002, 2005). The excavations focused on the main terrace of the summit, to the northwest, and revealed a large building which the excavators interpreted as a temple dedicated to the main god of the Dadan oasis, Dhū-Ghābat (fig. 2). They yielded many archaeological finds, including various cultic objects (incense burners, altars) and more than 3000 fragments of human statuettes and statues, most of which do not exceed 15 cm in height (fig. 3).

The inscriptions from the site published by H. Abu al-Hassan (2002) are mostly in Dadanitic but a few Minaic (Abu al-Hassan 2005) and Aramaic texts are also reported. Many Dadanitic inscriptions commemorate particular ceremonies — ḥgt and ẓll — held in honour of Dhū-Ghābat. While the former clearly refers to a pilgrimage, the latter is more enigmatic: it was recently interpreted as a ritual performed on behalf of crops, possibly with a legal function related to taxes or property rights (Kootstra 2022). They are dated to the reigns of several kings of Liḥyān.

Based on the mention of these kings, Abu al-Hassan proposed to date the site to the second half of the first millennium BCE. A recent reassessment of the pottery from the excavations (Durand & Bauzou 2022) has confirmed this broad dating, but further research is required to better understand the chronology, development, and organization of this major site of the al-ʿUlā oasis.

Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani

References and suggested reading

• Abu al‐Hasan, H. 2001. Taqrīr mabdaʾī ʿan al-masḥ al-atharī li-mawqiʿ Umm Daraj bi-muḥāfaḏat al-ʿUlā. Atlal 16: 271–275 (with English summary p. 97–98).
• Abu al‐Hasan, H. 2002. Nuqūsh Liḥyānīyya min mintaqat al‐ʿUla: Dirasa tahlīlīyya muqārana. Riyadh: Maktabat al‐Malik Fahd al‐waṭanīya.
• Abu al‐Hasan, H. 2005. Dirāsa taḥlīlīyya li-naqsh maʿīnī jadīd min al-ʿUlā. Adumatu 12: 29–38.
• Durand, C. & T. Bauzou 2022. Ḥegrā (al-Ḥijr), a Lihyanite caravan city? A reassessment of the early settlement in Ḥegrā/Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ, in R. Foote, M. Guagnin, I. Périssé & S. Karacic (eds) Revealing Cultural Landscapes in North-West Arabia (Supplement to Volume 51 of the PSAS): 191–209. Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Kootstra, F. 2022. The ẓll of Ancient Dadan: Ritual and Documentary Practice. AAE 33(1): 178–187. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12205.
• Nasif, A.A. 1988. Al-ʿUlā: An historical and archaeological survey with special reference to its irrigation system. Riyadh: King Saud University.