AlUla Old Town and Oasis: Preliminary Results from the Study of the Farms Conducted within the Framework of the AlUla Cultural Oasis Project (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

International audience ; The main objectives of the AlUla Cultural Oasis Project (UCOP), led by Archaïos, funded and steered by the French Agency for AlUla Development (AFALULA) on behalf of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), are to record long-term human occupation in the AlUla Valley (Hejaz region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and to gain a better understanding of the oasis’s long-term development in light of landscape archaeology. This is a research angle that has never been thoroughly developed to date. Archaeological structures were systematically recorded to create an accurate map of the oasis and enhanced documentation and detailed topographic surveys of significant architectural elements were conducted. This paper discusses one of the major components of the oasis, the farms, which are functional units comprising one or several cultivated plots and earthen buildings that serve both agricultural and domestic purposes according to previous ethnographic studies. They are now mostly abandoned. The spatial distribution of the farms in the oasis, their internal layout and organization, their structures, and their construction materials are presented and compared. Our work shows evidence that the 170 farms recorded so far are concentrated in three groups. It also confirms the domestic function of these farms, which comprise domestic units, reception areas, latrines, and, in some cases, baths. Furthermore, we highlight the fact that the distribution of most farms in two groups, separated from each other, demonstrates a social reality: the tribal structure of AlUla’s society.