Bronze Age Town of Al-Natah Represents ‘Slow Urbanism,’ Archaeologists Say

Northwestern Arabia — the region between Mecca and Aqaba — during the Bronze Age was dotted with interconnected monumental walled oases centered around small fortified towns such as the recently-discovered town of al-Natah in Khaybar Oasis, the Saudi Arabian province of Medinah.

3D virtual reconstruction of the Bronze Age town of al-Natah. Image credit: Charloux et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309963 / AFALULA-RCU-CNRS.

The development of large urban settlements was a major step in the evolution of human civilization.

This process of urbanization has proven difficult to study in northwestern Arabia, due in part to a lack of well-preserved archaeological sites in the region compared with better understood areas such as the Levant and Mesopotamia.

In recent decades, however, excavations have uncovered exceptional sites in northwestern Arabia that provide insights into the early stages of urbanization.

In a new study, CNRS archaeologist Guillaume Charloux and colleagues focused on the Bronze Age town of al-Natah, occupied from around 2400-1500 BCE.

The town covered approximately 1.5 hectares, including a central district and nearby residential district surrounded by protective ramparts.

According to the researchers, al-Natah was home to approximately 500 residents.

Its size and organization is similar to other sites of similar age in northwestern Arabia, but these sites are smaller and less socio-politically complex than contemporary sites in the Levant and Mesopotamia.

The scientists suggest that al-Natah represents a state of ‘low urbanization,’ a transitional stage between mobile pastoralism and complex urban settlements.

Archaeological evidence so far indicates that northwestern Arabia was dotted with small fortified towns during the Early-Middle Bronze Age, at a time when other regions exhibited later stages of urbanization.

Further excavations across Arabia will provide more details about the timing of this transition and the accompanying changes in societal structure and architecture.

“For the first time in northwestern Arabia, a small Bronze Age town (c. 2400-1300 BCE) connected to a vast network of ramparts has been discovered by archaeologists, raising questions about the early development of local urbanism,” the authors said.

Their paper was published online October 30, 2024 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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G. Charloux et al. 2024. A Bronze Age town in the Khaybar walled oasis: Debating early urbanization in Northwestern Arabia. PLoS ONE 19 (10): e0309963; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309963