Other Monuments and Features

The core zone of the archaeological site of Musawwarat (drawing: Jens Weschenfelder/Christiane Dorstewitz; adapted from Scheibner 2011)The archaeological features at Musawwarat are widely distributed over an area of more than 3.5 x 1 km. Intensive surveys and excavations have led to the identification of more than 30 sites and monuments. They include:

  • further small temples and shrines (II A, II B, II D) and a small church (III A)
  • secular buildings (I C) as well as unclassified buildings (I D, III B 1, III B 2)
  • habitation sites (I G, I H, II J, III D)
  • workshop areas (II G)
  • quarries (I J, I K, III C, III E)
  • hafayir and water ducts (I N, II F)
  • cemeteries (I F, I L, II N, III F, IV A)
  • unclassified features (II K, II L, II M)

Some of these sites and monuments have been explored in detail. Findings confirm the overall interpretation of Musawwarat as a primarily sacral site which never sustained a large-scale settled population. While we can assume that nomadic populations frequented the area at all times, none of the archaeological remains can be conclusively attributed to them. Many details concerning the function of some of the features, their chronological position and their association with each other remain to be investigated and under­stood.