ARCHEOLOGY IN SOUTH ARABIA — ^VAN BEEK, COLE, AND JAMME 525 



the nature of the disturbance of debris and the process of erosion ; at 

 another, soil samples were taken from the exposed silt beneath one 

 of the earliest towns to provide data on the environmental situation 

 at the time the silt was deposited. Graffiti and mscriptions were 

 recorded by means of scale drawings and by both black-and-white 

 and colored photographs. 



For this interim report, each archeologist prepared a paper describ- 

 ing liis area of research; these papers were edited and assembled by 

 the senior author to form this article. 



PREHISTORY 



Stone artifacts are widespread and abundant in the Hadhramaut. 

 Except on the broad alluvial flat in the main wadies, sporadic flakes 

 and other artifacts can be picked up anywhere from the limestone 

 rubble and gravel flanking the flat, up to and including the plateau 

 surface over 300 meters above. Collections of artifacts were made from 

 110 localities extending from the Tarim area on the east to Qarn 

 Qaimah, some 130 kilometers to the west. All artifacts were collected 

 from the surface. Apart from pre-Islamic village sites, no place was 

 seen which would appear promising for archeological excavation. 

 Any Pleistocene deposits which exist must be buried in the deep silt 

 fill of the wadi system.^ 



The geology of that portion of the Hadhramaut investigated is 

 strikingly similar throughout. One is everywhere confronted with 

 Eocene limestones, which form precipitous cliffs. These overlay 

 Cretaceous sands and silts, forming low spurs and outliers which pro- 

 trude into the wadies. These lower deposits usually are capped with 

 rather thick breccias (cemented talus, up to 10 meters thick in one 

 measured section) apparently graded to a level well below that of the 

 present wadi floors. Traces of an earlier phase of wadi erosion seem 

 to be found in the relatively slight inclination of the breccia-capped 

 tops of some of the spurs and outliers. These "flat*' tops, commonly 

 strewn with stone artifacts, evidently relate to a wadi floor at a higher 

 level than that of the present. The generalized section given in 

 figure 2 is everywhere applicable except that in the smaller tributaries, 

 where the alluvial silt flat is not present, the wadies are floored by 

 more or less irregular gravel and rubble spreads, alluvial fans, talus 

 material, and channel gravels which are locally incised and terraced. 

 Also, the occurrence of spurs and outliers is more exceptional than 

 characteristic; a section taken at random is more likely to have a 

 breccia- capped or talus slope extending from below the lower cliff- 

 forming limestone directly to the wadi floor (dotted line, fig. 2), 

 fringed at its foot by talus and outwash material. 



^ Caton Thompson and Gardner (1939) regard certain terrace deposits along tbe modern 

 channel cut In Wadi 'Amd near Hureldha as being of Pleistocene age. 



