Murwab ( ar, مروب) is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

in northwest

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

. A sizable village at one point, it was occupied from the beginning of the Abbasid Period until being abandoned in the late ninth century at the start of the Qarmatian Revolution. The site consists of 250 ruined houses, a fort and two mosques. Burial sites have been discovered near several of the houses.

Etymology

Deriving its name from the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

term "''rhoub''", which refers to a milk-based product formed with

curd Curd is obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet or any edible acidic substance such as l ...

s and

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of har ...

, the area was so named due to ''rhoub'' being produced en masse by the shepherds to grazed their goats here.

Location

Murwab is situated in northwest Qatar; 4 km off the coastline and 15 km north of the closest city,

Dukhan Dukhan ( ar, دخان) is a city in the western municipality of Al-Shahaniya in the State of Qatar. It is approximately west of the capital, Doha. Dukhan is administrated by Qatar's state oil agency QatarEnergy and is the site of the first oi ...

. It is close to the archaeological site of Umm Al Maa.

Discovery and excavations

Murwab was discovered by a Danish archaeological team headed by Geoffrey Bibby in 1959. Under the leadership of C. Hardy-Guilbert, a French team excavated the site in 1984. This was followed by an archaeological team led by Alexandrine Guérin in 2009.

Findings

Wares

Excavators discovered 6,948 potsherds at the site. Most of the potsherds dated to 805–885 AD and they were divided into groups of glazed wares and common wares. Of the 6,948 potsherds, common wares comprised 4,697 sherds whereas glazed wares accounted for the other 2,251 sherds. A study conducted by Faisal Al-Nuaimi and Alexandrine Guérin hypothesizes that the villagers were sold the wares in exchange for their

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s. Most common wares are characteristically defined by their round shapes. At least 18% of the common ceramics carried traces of attempted repair. Scattered hearths containing bitumen traces found in ruined houses indicate that they were repaired in situ. Al-Nuaimi and Guerin contrasted the glazed wares, varying in design and color, with those found at the archaeological site of Susa in present-day

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. They hypothesized that a portion of the glazed wares may have been imported directly from Susa. They further remarked that some of the glazed wares dating to the eighth and ninth centuries may have been derived from

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

and Samarra. The study noted the absence of Chinese wares, which are commonly found in other archaeological sites in Qatar.

Fort

Marwab fort is the oldest known fort in the country and was built over the ruins of a previous fort which was destroyed by fire. It is rectangular in shape and is thought to have served as a palatial residence. The structure is similar to other palatial residences dating to the Abbasid period elsewhere in the Middle East. A large courtyard with doors leading to twelve different rectangular rooms is in the center of the fort. The entrance, located on the north side, is 4.6 feet wide. Construction materials used for the wall were rocks and mud.

References

{{Archaeological sites in Qatar Archaeological sites in Qatar