Harrat al-Sham explained

Ḥarrat al-Shām
Other Name:	Black Desert
Type:	Desert
Part Of:	Syrian Desert
Elevation M:	-->
Surface Elevation M:	-->
Geology:	Basaltic volcanic field
Age:	Oligocene, Neogene, Quaternary
Volcanic Field:	Harrat Ash Shaam Volcanic Province (HASV)

The Ḥarrat al-Shām (Arabic: حَرَّة ٱلشَّام), also known as the Black Desert,^[1] is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syrian region and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some 40000-3NaN-3 in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes.^[2]

The Harrat has been occupied by humans since at least the Late Epipalaeolithic .^[3] One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied),^[4] a Natufian site where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.^[5]

Geology

The Harrat comprises volcanic fields formed by tectonic activity from the Oligocene through to the Quaternary.^[6] It is the largest of several volcanic fields on the Arabian Plate,^[7] containing more than 800 volcanic cones and around 140 dikes. Activity began during the Miocene; an earlier eruptive stage at the southeastern end of the volcanic field, occurred during the late Pleistocene and the Holocene.^[8] It is known to have erupted in historic times.^{[9] [10]}

The Jabal al-Druze, al-Safa and Dirat al-Tulul volcanic fields, among others, form the northern and Syrian part of the ḥarra. The Saudi Arabian portion of the Harrat Ash Shamah volcanic field extends across a 210km (130miles)-long, roughly 75km (47miles)-wide northwest-southeast-trending area on the northeastern flanks of the Wadi Sirhan and reaches its high point at Jabal al-Amud. It is in the Tabuk Province of northwest Saudi Arabia.^{[11] [12]} and is one of a series of Quaternary volcanic fields paralleling the Red Sea coast.

Archaeological sites

• Desert kites

Jordan

• Jawa, Jordan, Early Bronze Age proto-urban settlement
• Qasr al-Azraq and Qasr 'Ain es-Sil, ancient desert castles in the Azraq oasis
• Qasr Burqu', ancient "desert castle"
• Qasr Usaykhim, an ancient fort northeast of Azraq
• Shubayqa 1, Natufian hunter-gatherer site with the oldest bread-making find in the world

See also

• Syrian Desert
• Hauran, a historical region partially overlapping with the Harrat al-Sham
• List of volcanoes in Saudi Arabia
• Sarawat Mountains
  • Midian Mountains

Further reading

• Ilani, S., Harlavan, Y., Tarawneh, K., Rabba, I., Weinberger, R., Khalil, I., and Peltz, S. (2001), "New K-Ar ages of basalts from the Harrat Ash Shaam volcanic field in Jordan: Implications for the span and duration of the upper-mantle upwelling beneath the western Arabian plate" Geology 29(2):171–174
• Kempe, S. and Al-Malabeh, A. (2005), "Newly discovered lava tunnels of the Al-Shaam plateau basalts", Geophysical Research Abstracts 7, European Geosciences Union
• Salf, S.I. (1988), "Field and petrographic characteristics of Cenozoic basaltic rocks, Northwestern Saudi Arabia" Journal of African Earth Sciences, 7(5):805–809
• Weinstein, Y., Navon, O., Altherr, R., and Stein, M., (2006) "The role of lithospheric mantle heterogeneity in the generation of Plio-Pleistocene alkali basalt suites from NW Harrat Ash Shaam (Israel)", Journal of Petrology 47(5):1017–1050
• Al Kwatli, M.A., Gillot, P.Y., Zeyen, H., Hildenbrand, A., and Al Gharib, I., 2012. Volcano-tectonic evolution of the northern part of the Arabian plate in the light of new K-Ar ages and remote sensing: Harrat Ash Shaam volcanic province (Syria). Tectonophysics, 580, 192–207.

External links

• • Harrat Ash Shaam. 231001. 2021-06-25.
• VolcanoWorld information and aerial photograph

Notes and References

1. Betts. Alison. 1982. A Natufian site in the Black Desert, Eastern Jordan. Paléorient. 8. 2. 79–82. 10.3406/paleo.1982.4322. 0153-9345.
2. S.A. Ghazanfar, Vegetation of the Arabian Peninsula (Springer Science & Business Media, 1998) p 272.
3. Book: Richter . Tobias . Enzel . Yehouda . Bar-Yosef . Ofer . Ofer Bar-Yosef . Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans . 2017 . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 978-1-107-09046-0 . 715–722 . Natufian and early Neolithic in the Black Desert.
4. Richter . Tobias . Arranz-Otaegui . Amaia . Yeomans . Lisa . Boaretto . Elisabetta . High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant . Scientific Reports . 5 December 2017 . 7 . 1 . 17025 . 10.1038/s41598-017-17096-5 . 29208998 . 5717003 . 2017NatSR...717025R . en . 2045-2322. free .
5. Arranz-Otaegui . Amaia . Carretero . Lara Gonzalez . Ramsey . Monica N. . Fuller . Dorian Q. . Richter . Tobias . Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 31 July 2018 . 115 . 31 . 7925–7930 . 10.1073/pnas.1801071115 . 30012614 . 6077754 . en . 0027-8424. free .
6. Al Kwatli. Mohamad Amer. Gillot. Pierre Yves. Lefèvre. Jean Claude. Hildenbrand. Anthony. 2015-09-01. Morpho-structural analysis of Harrat Al Sham volcanic field Arabian plate (Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia): methodology and application. Arabian Journal of Geosciences. en. 8. 9. 6867–6880. 10.1007/s12517-014-1731-1. 129569824. 1866-7538.
7. Krienitz. M.-S.. Haase. K. M.. Mezger. K.. Shaikh-Mashail. M. A.. 2007-08-01. Magma Genesis and Mantle Dynamics at the Harrat Ash Shamah Volcanic Field (Southern Syria). Journal of Petrology. en. 48. 8. 1513–1542. 10.1093/petrology/egm028. 0022-3530. free.
8. H. Stewart Edgell, Arabian Deserts: Nature, Origin and Evolution (Springer Science & Business Media, 21Jul.,2006) p329-330
9. Book: Geological Survey Professional Paper. 1989. U.S. Government Printing Office. 153.
10. Peter Vincent, Saudi Arabia: An Environmental Overview (CRC Press, 2008) p22.
11. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989) pA152
12. Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 560, Part 1 (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989)