Exploitation of wood resources and tropical fruit trees in the Islamic South-East Arabia: insights into plant economy of the ancient harbor city of Qalhât (XIVth-XVIth c. AD)
Résumé
Until today no anthracological study concerning the Islamic period in the Arabian Peninsula has been published. Recent results from the site of Qalhât in Oman thus provides us with a unique opportunity to get a first glimpse of the exploitation and use of wood resources by the population of this major harbour city dated from the 14th to the 16th century AD. The analysis of charcoal assemblages from a housing complex (B94) as well as from a craft workshop (B39) shows that different plant communities more or less close to the site were visited for fuel collection. Thus, open thorny woodlands surrounding the site, mainly composed of acacia (Acacia sp.), jujube tree (Ziziphus sp.), prosopis (Prosopis cf. cineraria), capper (Capparis sp.) and Maerua sp. as well as plant communities of saline habitats like tamarisk (Tamarix sp.) have been exploited as fuel resources. Some taxa attested in the assemblages grow today only in more elevated areas in the close al-Hajjar mountains such as Dodonaea viscosa, Periploca sp., Prunus sp. and wild olive tree (Olea europaea). Moreover, mangrove ecosystems seem also to have provided fuel since one taxon (Avicennia marina) characteristic of this environment has been identified in the charcoal assemblages. All these elements may imply that people have been able to travel certain distances in order to obtain wood for different purposes. These wood acquiring strategies may have been coupled with herding activities during which people were gathering fuel in the same time as fodder. Fruit trees cultivated in date palm gardens, maintained more or less close to the site, have constituted important wood resources such as date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and pomegranate tree (Punica granatum). The ligneous part of the former seem to have been used as building material as suggested in a fire destruction layer while the latter could have been involved in craft activities as it has been found in the workshop. Other woody taxa may have been grown within date palm gardens but, for some of them like fruit trees (jujube tree, Prunus sp.) and hygrophilous taxa (tamarisk), it is difficult to assert if they correspond to cultivated trees or wild individuals. Given the importance of Qalhât in the Indian Ocean trade networks, the presence of wood from two tropical fruit trees is of particular interest. Attested for the first time in Arabia, their presence raises questions about the role of exotic wood in trade versus their introduction into existing cultivation systems. In this matter, the wood properties in terms of furniture making will help us to solve this question. In support of textual references, their presence may also testify to diversification for local arboriculture during the medieval period. The requirements for their cultivation and the consequences of their acclimatization into date palm gardens will be discussed.