Khaybar

Khaybar is an oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia, about 150 kilometres (95 mi) north of Medina. It has been inhabited for thousands of years.

Khaybar is well known among Muslims because it appears in the Koran. A town there mainly occupied by Jews was attacked by Muhammad and his followers in 628 AD, an event traditionally called the Battle of Khaybar. Above is a depiction of the battle from a medieval Persian manuscript.

Various online sources, including wikipedia, say that legends about the Jews of Khaybar endured for a thousand years. Some stories said they retreated into the desert and waged a long-term struggle against Islam from a hidden fortress. According, again, to less-than-perfect online sources, some medieval Christian crusaders tried to contact these Jewish tribes as possible allies.

Online material about Khaybar falls mostly into two categories: posts by those interested in Islamic history, and posts from volcanologists. This part of the Arabian peninsula has been volcanically active for most of the past 2 million years, leaving a vast landscape of cinder cones, lava fields, and the like. The last volcanic eruption was in the 7th century AD. The hills on which the various forts and settlements around the oasis sit are all volcanic features, and until recent times one of the region's exports was grinding stones made from the local basalt.

According to local tour guides, some of the old stone houses that appear in tourist photos were occupied into the 1970s. When, one assumes, oil money allowed the residents to move to air-conditioned digs in Riyadh.

Khaybar made the news this week because of a major publication from French archaeologists who have been exploring the site for years (news story, original article). They call themselves the Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project, with the acronym AFALULA-RCU-CNRS. They say that have documented a Bronze Age town at a site called al-Natah dating to around 2400 to 1500 BC.

Plan of the settlement. Notice that this town is walled on only one side. That is because the walls actually extended around the whole oasis, running a distance of 14.5 km and surrounding an area of 1100 hectares. There is even a term for this kind of site, the Walled Oasis, and this article mentions two others in this part of Arabia. Obviously that water was very much worth protecting, especially considering that there were only about 500 people living in this town.

Reconstruction. Our archaeologists write:

The nucleated dwellings were constructed following a standard plan and were connected by small streets. By comparison with neighboring oasis centers, we suggest that Northwestern Arabia during the Bronze Age−largely dominated by pastoral nomadic groups and already integrated into long-distance trade networks−was dotted with interconnected monumental walled oases centered around small fortified towns. 

The ratio between the large size of the walled area and the small town raises lots of questions. The archaeologists say there may have been Bronze Age camps within the walled area, although they can't be certain of this. What we should probably imagine is that each oasis belonged to a tribe most of whose members were nomadic, with the walled oasis as their refuge in times of drought or war. 

What a fascinating glimpse of a very different world.