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Thāj () is an archaeological site and ancient town located west of
The city of Thāj generally dates back to the 3rd century BCE, during the
Carvings, wall reliefs, and pottery were discovered at Thāj in the 1960s and then stored in the
Jubail
Jubail (, ''Al Jubayl'') is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, with a total population of 474,679 as of 2022. It is home to one of the largest industrial cities in the world. It is also home to the Middle ...
in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
The Eastern Province (Arabic: المنطقة الشرقية al-Mintaqah ash-Sharqīyah), also known as the Eastern Region, is a province in Saudi Arabia. It is the nation's largest province by area and the third most populous after the Riyadh Pr ...
. It is associated with the Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
era. Many artifacts including pottery and jewellery have been discovered at Thāj, some of which are currently held in the British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
.Location
The archaeological site of Thāj can be found around 90 kilometres west of Jubail at the border of a small village known as Sabkha, all within the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.History
Ancient history
The city of Thāj generally dates back to the 3rd century BCE, during the Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
period. The city was also an important urban centre in at least the 1st millennium BCE. During the 7th century CE, some of the remaining inhabitants accepted the call of Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
which was slowly spreading at the time.
Modern history
Carvings, wall reliefs, and pottery were discovered at Thāj in the 1960s and then stored in the British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. Then in 1968, a Danish exploration team visited the site. Later in the 1980s, excavations revealed the city of Thāj and the stone wall which surrounded it. In 2009, more excavations were conducted which revealed the grave of a young girl along with several burial goods, including a golden funerary mask.
See also
*Ancient towns in Saudi Arabia
Thirteen ancient towns have been discovered in Saudi Arabia up to the present day. These include Qaryat al-Fāw, the Al-Ukhdūd archeological area, Hegra (Madā'in Ṣālih), Jubbah, Tārūt, Al-Shuwayḥaṭiyah, Thāj, Taimaa and Dūmat Al-Jan ...
*Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
References
{{reflist Archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia Ancient Near East Ancient cities of the Middle East Former populated places in West Asia