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Anne Benoist, Jérémie Schiettecatte. Makaynūn. Thematic Dictionary of Ancient Arabia, 2024, https://ancientarabia.huma-num.fr/dictionary/definition/makaynun. 10.60667/tdaa-0074. hal-04860706

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MAKAYNŪN

Archaeological site in eastern Ḥadramawt, Yemen, occupied from the late 2nd mill. BCE to the 4th cent. CE.

Makaynūn is located in eastern Yemen, 40 km east of Tarīm, along the Wādī Masīla, in a deeply sunk valley in the Ḥadramawt limestone plateau.

The 600 × 400 m ancient settlement comprises a fortified central area surrounded by extra muros residential quarters (**Figs 1-2**). Three **temples** have been identified at the site, in addition to nine other temples scattered around the surrounding valley or on the slopes of the wādī.

The site was established in the middle of the alluvial plain of the Wādī Masīla, at the confluence of four tributaries. The bed of the Wādī Masīla was too deeply incised for its waters to be used for **irrigation** purposes. The fields were therefore watered by floods diverted from these tributaries (**Fig. 3**).

The occupation of Makaynūn began at the end of the second millennium BCE, with modest mud-brick houses (**Fig. 4**). The surrounding land was gradually brought under cultivation. In the 7th-6th centuries BCE, a first city-wall and the first tower houses were built in the central part of the city. Three centuries later, the **city wall** was replaced by a monumental one (**Fig. 5**), and a city gate (**Fig. 6**) led to an esplanade with two temples. Finally, from the 1st to the 4th centuries CE, the site was massively deserted and occupation was limited to a few buildings (**Fig. 7**).

During the first millennium BCE, Makaynūn was a provincial settlement with almost no trace of regular contacts beyond the inner Ḥadramawt. Paradoxically, when the occupation began to decline (1st-4th centuries), the number of artefacts with links to distant areas increased (Khawr Rūrī in Dhofar, Mleiha in Oman Peninsula).

Anne Benoist, Jérémie Schiettecatte

References

* Benoist, A., J. Charbonnier, M. Mouton & J. Schiettecatte 2014. Building G at Makaynūn: a late pre-Islamic settlement above the ruins of a South Arabian town. AAE 25: 80–95. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12036 CR.

* Benoist, A., O. Lavigne, M. Mouton & J. Schiettecatte 2007. Chronologie et évolution de l'architecture à Makaynūn : la formation d'un centre urbain à l'époque sudarabique dans le Ḥadramawt. PSAS 37: 17–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41224055

* Mouton, M., A. Benoist, J. Schiettecatte, M. Arbach & V. Bernard 2006. Makaynūn, an ancient South Arabian site in the Ḥadramawt. PSAS 36: 229–242. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223894

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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    <td>Ε</td>
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    <td>Ι</td>
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    <td>Λ</td>
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    <td>Ο</td>
    <td>Ρ</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>R</td>
    <td>S</td>
    <td>T</td>
    <td>U</td>
    <td>V</td>
    <td>W</td>
    <td>X</td>
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CREATION DATE

28/06/2023

CITATION

Benoist, A. & J. Schiettecatte, 2024. "Makaynūn". Thematic Dictionary of Ancient Arabia. Online edition 2024. Available online at https://ancientarabia.humanum.fr/dictionary/definition/makaynun (accessed online on 07 January 2025), doi: https://doi.org/10.60667/tdaa-0074

DOI

https://doi.org/10.60667/tdaa-0074

IMAGES / TABLES

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* Mouton, M., A. Benoist & J. Schiettecatte 2011. Makaynûn and its territory: the formation of an urban centre during the South Arabian period in the Hadramawt. *AAE* 22: 155–165. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.2011.00337.x [map image]

Alternate spellings: Makaynun, Twbt, Thawbat, Makaynun, Makainun, Makainūn, Makaynan, Makainan

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Under license CC BY 4.0

ANCIENT ARABIA