English abstract
This paper reports on a cemetery (WTN13) located in the canyon of Wādī Tanūf, the Ad Dākhilīyah Governorate. Archaeological documentation of 40 tombs with superstructure revealed a prehistoric mortuary landscape as follows. The tombs are classified into four types. Types 1 and 4 are free-standing tombs, while Types 2 and 3 were built either leaning against boulders or in rock shelters. These tombs are well preserved in general, but only a few objects have been collected from the surface. Alternatively, a morphological comparison of the tomb superstructure suggests that the free-standing tombs (Type 1), dominant in the cemetery, probably date back to the Wādī Sūq period (Middle Bronze Age), while the tombs built in rock shelters (Type 3) possibly belong to the Early Iron Age. Types 2 and 4 could presumably date back to the Wādī Sūq period. Type 1 tombs are possibly contemporary with the short-term (i.e. seasonal or temporal) occupation of the cave in WTN01, located upslope. This unique local mortuary landscape in Wādī Tanūf, comprising tombs with well preserved superstructure and natural rock monuments on the high terrace in the canyon, should be re-evaluated in a broader cultural context of Southeast Arabia.
