An integrated approach to protohistoric monumental tombs in the Arabian Peninsula – ARABIANCAIRNS

ARABIANCAIRNS aims to analyze the large-scale megalithic phenomenon of cairn tombs, emblematic of protohistoric Arabia (c. 5500-300 BCE). Considered as territorial markers, they are still visible today by hundreds of thousands over an immense territory. They appear in a context of climatic aridification after the Holocene Climatic Optimum and seem to be linked to the development of production economies (pastoralism then agriculture). Because of the virtual absence of settlements for this period, these tombs constitute essential archives for understanding the societies that occupied Arabia for millennia, at such crucial moments in their evolution. Above all, these monuments testify to a profound socio-cultural reconfiguration as they mark the development of interregional economic and cultural networks that would later flourish in Arabia. However, the fragmented nature of the research carried out so far prohibits a global apprehension of this phenomenon as well as an understanding of regional interactions.
Based on a large and well-distributed corpus, on the acquisition of new data, and relying on a strong expertise on these monuments, ARABIANCAIRNS aims at reconstructing the history of these tombs and their builders through an integrated, multiscalar and interdisciplinary approach combining archaeology, biological anthropology, isotope geochemistry, paleoproteomics, geoarchaeology and spatial analyses. Our goals are to (1) characterize the cultural identities, subsistence strategies, lifestyles, and interconnections of the societies that erected these tombs; (2) define a reliable chronological framework for understanding the temporal diffusion of this megalithic phenomenon; (3) create a GIS for necropolises and associated metadata throughout the Arabian Peninsula in relation to their environment and provide a geoarchaeological framework for tracking exchange networks.