A city of Gerrha
Thaj, in the Eastern Province, is the largest archaeological site of the Hellenistic era in the eastern Arabian Peninsula. It was one of the cities of the Kingdom of Gerrha, which emerged in the north-east of the peninsula in the third century BCE. Studies identify five main phases of settlement between 300 BCE and 300 CE, and its earliest tombs date to 500 BCE.
The site covers 800,000 m². A fortified wall of carved limestone blocks, about 2.5 km long and 5 m thick, encloses it, mixing Greek and South Arabian building traditions, with semicircular and polygonal watchtowers. About twenty wells once supplied the town.
Trade and treasure
Thaj linked the port of Jubail, Wadi al-Miyah and the caravan road between southern Iraq and al-Hufuf, and traded with Najran, Al-Faw and al-Yamamah. A Saudi-French team began excavating in 2016.
From a single tomb, that of the young woman known as the princess of Thaj, came the mask of the woman of Thaj and a gold covering for a hand and forearm, 15 cm long and dated to about 100 BCE. The gold hand is now in the National Museum in Riyadh, and travelled with the exhibition of Saudi archaeological masterpieces that opened at the Louvre in 2010.