Medieval Port Area "SJ06" Discovered on the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia Using WorldView-2 Data

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing data, which has proven to be an effective tool in archaeological studies of Egypt, is currently being applied in the Saudi-Japanese Archaeological Mission at al-Hawra’ on the Red Sea coast. Despite being a well-known historical site of maritime trade and religious pilgrimage, al-Hawra’ has remained basically unsurveyed, and its structure has not been clarified. Therefore, a color-enhanced WorldView-2 image and digital surface model (DSM) generated from the image data were used to develop a hypothesis of how the site was formed. In this process, we focused on terrain features such as channels shaped by flowing rainwater. The analysis results led to the discovery of a previously unknown port area, designated "SJ06", adjacent to the inner area of the present-day port. Based on the archaeological assemblage in the settlement area, SJ06 was dated back to between the 9th and 12th centuries, which seems to agree with historical sources. The empirical method used in this study is expected to be effective for exploring other port city sites along the Red Sea coast that share a common natural environment, including high rocky mountains and low-elevation desert margins.