Awsan

Kingdom of Awsan Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩥𐩯𐩬; Arabic: أوسان
8th century BC–7th century BC
Capital	Ḥajar Yaḥirr
Common languages	Old South Arabian
Religion	Arabian paganism
History
• Established	8th century BC
• Disestablished	7th century BC
Succeeded by Saba'
Today part of	Yemen

The Kingdom of Awsan, commonly known simply as Awsan (Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩥𐩯𐩬, romanized: ʾwsn; Arabic: أوسان, romanized: ʾAwsān), was a kingdom in Ancient South Arabia, centered around a wadi called the Wadi Markha. The wadi remains archaeologically unexplored. The name of the capital of Awsan is unknown, but it is assumed to be the tell that is today known as Hagar Yahirr (locally named Ḥajar Asfal), the largest settlement in the wadi. Hagar Yahirr was 15 hectares and surrounded by an irrigated area of nearly 7,000 hectares, indicating that it was a formidable power in its time.

The Kingdom of Awsan experienced two main periods of activity. The first began in the 8th century BC, but came to an end in the 7th century BC, as Awsan, under the leadership of a ruler named Murattaʿ, was obliterated during warfare by the Sabaean Kingdom, under the reign of its leader, Karib'il Watar. The tribal elite leading Awsan were slaughtered, and the palace of Murattaʿ was destroyed, as well as their temples and inscriptions. The wadi was depopulated, which is reflected in the abandonment of the wadi. Sabaean inscriptions claim that 16,000 were killed and 40,000 prisoners were taken. This may not have been a significant exaggeration, as the Awsan kingdom disappeared as a political entity from the historical record for five or six centuries.

The later kingdom of Awsan experienced a resurgence around or after the 2nd century BC, its independence waning and waxing against Qatabanic control of the area.

Capital

Hagar Yahirr was the center of an exceptionally large city for South Arabia, influenced by Hellenistic culture, with temples and a palace structure surrounded by mudbrick dwellings, with a probable site for a souq or market and a caravanserai serving camel caravans. One of its kings at this period was the only Yemeni ruler to be accorded divine honours; his surviving portrait statuette is dressed in Greek fashion, contrasting with those of his predecessors who are dressed in Arabian style, with kilt and shawl. There are Awsān inscriptions, in the Qatabānian language.

The siting of Ḥajar Yaḥirr is consistent with other capitals of petty kingdoms, at the mouths of large wādīs: Ma`īn in the Wādī al-Jawf, Ma'rib in Wādī Dana, Timna in Wādī Bayhān, and Shabwah in Wādī 'Irmah.

Destruction

In the late 7th century BC, the Kingdom of Awsan was destroyed by the Sabaean Kingdom at the advance of Karib'il Watar, its leader. Karba'il's victory is recorded in a lengthy inscription known as RES 3945, which records eight campaigns undertaken during his reign. The destruction of Awsan is found in the description of the second campaign, and reads:

When he crushed Awsān, killed sixteen thousand [16000] of them, captured forty thousand [40000]; devastated *Wusr from Lagiʾatum to Ḥammān; burnt all the cities of *Anfum; put to the torch all the cities of Ḥabbān and of *Dhayb; 5 devastated their irrigated zones; laid waste to Ns¹m, the irrigated area of Rs²ʾy, and Girdān; crushed {Awsān} in Datīnat and burnt all its cities; obliterated *Tafīḍ, destroyed it, put it to the torch, and laid waste to its irrigated areas; overwhelmed {Awsān} until reaching the coast, burnt all of its ci[ties] which lie by the coast; crushed {Awsān} in *Wusr, until routing Awsān and *Murattiʿ um its king, inflicting as punishment {the delivery} of the council chiefs of Awsān to S¹mht and inflicting as punishment 6 massacre and captivity; brought back the looting of his palace Miswar and removed all the inscriptions which [Karib]ʾīl seized {‘inflicted as punishment’} in his palace Miswar and the inscriptions of his deities’ temples; ...[18 letters] ... his palace Miswar; has caused to enter among the offspring of *Almaqah and his allies—his freemen and his serfs—{people} of the various territories of Awsān and of its cities, assigned to *Almaqah and to Sabaʾ S¹rm and its provinces, and Ḥmdn and its provinces, provided with an enclosure the 7 cities of S¹rm, had their irrigated areas cultivated and established Sabaʾ there.

Brief resurgence

First impressions in the mid-1990s, based on ceramics found by M. Saad Ayoub at the unexcavated site, date a resurgence of the city to the end of the 2nd century BCE lasting until the beginning of the 1st century CE (which corresponds quite well to the epigraphic data attesting the only deified South Arabian king that was just the king of Awsān precisely around this time). About 160,000 m² were encircled by walls, and the foundations of dwellings built of fired brick have been noted. Culture depended on annual flood irrigation in spring and summer, when flash floods down the wadis temporarily flooded the fields, leaving light silt that has since been wind-eroded, revealing the ancient patterns of fields and ditches. Radiocarbon dating of irrigation sediments in the environs suggest that essential irrigation was abandoned in the first half of the 1st century CE, and the population dispersed. This time the site was never rebuilt.

Sources

• Nebes, Norbert (2023). "Early Saba and its Neighbors". In Radner, Karen; Moeller, Nadine; Potts, Daniel (eds.). The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume V: the Age of Persia. Oxford University Press. pp. 299–375.
• Robin, Christian Julien (2015). "Before Ḥimyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia". In Fisher, Greg (ed.). Arabs and Empires Before Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 90–126.

Further reading

• Caravan Kingdoms: Yemen and the Ancient Incense Trade Freer Gallery, Washington, 2005. Exhibition of archeological objects from Yemen, setting Awsan in context. Catalogue.
• Robert Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (series Ancient Peoples)
• Freya Stark and Jane Geniesse The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut

External links

• Télédetection archéologique dans la Wadi Markha (in French)