Trilith stone monuments of South-Eastern Arabia - Roman Garba

“Trilith stone monuments of South-Eastern Arabia“ Dr. Roman Garba Department of Natural Sciences and Archaeometry, Archaeological Institute Prague, The Czech Academy of Sciences; Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy, Nuclear Physics Institute, The Czech Academy of Sciences. Organizers: Dr. Sophie Méry (CNRS) and Dr. Guillaume Gernez (Université Paris 1) 12th October 2022 (Sydney) (Abu Dhabi, Muscat) CET (Brussels, Rome, Paris, Berlin) (London) (New York) Abstract Triliths are stone monuments distributed in coastal flatlands and piedmonts of south-eastern Arabia, spreading from Ḥaḍramawt in Yemen eastwards to Raʾs al-Ḥādd in Oman. Three flat stones standing on a low stone platform form a tripod complemented by rows of parallelly arranged square-shaped boulders and large hearths. Trilith stone structures mark a space of yet-unknown pre-Islamic rituals. The lack of epigraphical sources and a material record within the monuments themselves challenge us to conceptualize a spiritual meaning that could explain their origin. This lecture will provide an overview of the past and the present research on these mysterious stone configurations. The recent research project on triliths consolidated a dataset of more than 1000 trilith sites in Yemen and Oman. The archaeological expeditions TSMO (Trilith Stone Monuments of Oman) and ARDUQ (Archaeological Landscape and environmental dynamics of Duqm and Nejd) sampled trilith hearths for 14C dating to revise trilith chronology. The lecture will present research outcomes and conclude with preliminary results on trilith interpretation.