Yalā / ad-Durayb [ancient Ḥafaray (?)]

Sabaean fortified urban settlement located 35 km south of Maʾrib, known for its role in the commemoration of the mukarrib (ruler) of Sabaʾ royal hunts and above all for the definition of the ancient South Arabian proto-historic and early-historic chronology.

Yalā is located along the homonymous wādī at the intersection with the Wādī Qawqa, both of which are affluents of the Wādī Dhana, and lies within the political boundaries of the kingdom of Sabaʾ. It was discovered on July the 25th, 1985 by A. de Maigret (1988), director of the Italian Archaeological Mission of IsMEO (Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente) in the Yemen Arab Republic (Fig. 1). The ancient place name is most probably suggested by a monumental inscription reused in a modern building inside the fortifications which commemorates and attributes to the Sabaean ruler Yadaʿīl (although a Yathaʿʾamar is also mentioned) the construction of the wall of Ḥafaray (Ḥfry, Garbini 1988: 38–39).

Yalā is a highly fortified and densely built-up settlement of 2.3 ha, enclosed by a 580-m-long wall, comprising a lower city and a citadel (Fig. 2). Moreover, a wide and segmented landscape is connected to the urban area. At the intersection of the Wādī Yalā and the Wādī Qawqa, along the al-Jafna alluvial plain, a dam and a complex of extra moenia residential, agricultural and possibly military buildings (de Maigret 1988: 5–10, pl. 15–28) define some of the socio-economic activities related to the city, heavily dependent on water management for intensive soil exploitation. In addition, from the upper course of the Wādī Qawqa, where the Shiʿb al-ʿAql gorge rises towards the peak of the Jabal as-Saḥl, a sanctuary is surrounded by inscriptions commemorating the sacred hunt performed by the two mukarrib of Sabaʾ, Yathaʿʾamar Bayin son of Sumhuʿalī and Karibʾīl Watar son of Dhamarʿalī, escorted by their court (Garbini 1988: 21–35).

The 1987 excavation of a residential building of the citadel (the so-called House A) provided paramount data for the definition of the chronology of ancient South Arabian cultures between the proto-historical and historical periods. In the 1980s, the chronology and origins of Southern Arabian history were still widely debated issues. Stratigraphic data and ¹⁴C archaeometric analyses, recently re-calibrated by Manzo (2005: 156–157), were carefully considered by only taking the earliest possible dates, revealing that the earliest occupation phases date back well before the mid-8th cent. BCE. They were followed by the so-called “literate” phase, marked by the occurrence of inscribed Sabaean vessels dated to between 750 and 570 BCE, and a final stage between 570 and 240 BCE. This early use of Sabaic script in a domestic private context, as well as the fact that the whole stratigraphic sequence contained pottery displaying typical Sabaean features, pointed to the great antiquity of Sabaean culture. This was subsequently confirmed after stratigraphic soundings at Barāqish, Raybūn, and Tamnaʿ, as well as the re-evaluation of the early 1950s stratigraphic results of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, at sites such as Hajar bin Ḥumayd in the Wādī Bayḥān, and Hajar al-Tamra, in the Wādī al-Juba (de Maigret 2010).

Romolo Loreto

References and suggested readings

• Garbini, G. 1988. The Inscriptions of Šiʿb al-ʿAql, al-Ğafnah and Yalā/ad-Durayb, in A. de Maigret (ed.) The Sabaean Archaeological Complex in the wādī Yalā (Eastern Ḫawlān aṭ-Ṯiyāl, Yemen Arab Republic). A Preliminary Report (IsMEO, Reports and Memoirs, XXI). Rome: 21–40.
• de Maigret, A. (ed.) 1988. The Sabaean Archaeological Complex in the wādī Yalā (Eastern Ḫawlān aṭ-Ṯiyāl, Yemen Arab Republic). A Preliminary Report (IsMEO, Reports and Memoirs, XXI). Rome.
• de Maigret, A. 2010. A Sabaean stratigraphy from Barāqish. Arabia 4: 67–95, 205–240.
• de Maigret, A. & C.J. Robin 1989. Les fouilles italiennes de Yalā (Yémen du Nord) : nouvelles données sur la chronologie de l’Arabie du sud préislamique. CRAI 1989 (Apr.-Jun.): 255–291. DOI: 10.3406/crai.2009.92443.
• Manzo, A. 2005. The stratigraphic sequence at Yalā (Yemen): a statistical evaluation. Radiocarbon 47(1): 147–158. DOI: 10.1017/S0033822200052267.

_{Alternate spellings: Yalā, Yalâ, Yala, Ḥafaray, Hafaray, Ḥfry, ad-Durayb, al-Durayb}