Bridging the Late Antique Gap in Northwest Arabia: New Archaeological Evidence on the Occupation of Wādī al‐Qurā (al‐ʿUlā [AlUla], Saudi Arabia) Between the Third and Seventh Centuries CE

In 2019, the Dadan Archaeological Project (CNRS/RCU/AFALULA) identified a Late Antique village 1 km south of ancient Dadan in the al‐ʿUlā valley (northwest Saudi Arabia). Three excavation seasons at this site (2021–2023) have uncovered a massive building constructed in the late third or early fourth cent. CE —likely over a former Minaean settlement of the third–first cent. BCE —and used until the first half of the seventh cent. CE . These excavations provide the first archaeological evidence about the last two centuries before Islam (early fifth to early seventh cent. CE ), a period previously uncharted in the archaeology of northwest Arabia. An interdisciplinary approach to this site—incorporating archaeology, ceramology, macrolithic tool studies, archaeobotany, archaeozoology and geo‐archaeology—provides the first insights on the material culture, agricultural practices, diet, and even the religious identity of its inhabitants.