Tracing Our Folk Heritage in the Books of Western Travelers

The Mystery of Umm Saud in the Ruins of Thaj

These lines quoted from the diaries of 'Violet Dickson' constitute an essential chapter in her famous memoirs in her book 'Forty Years in Kuwait'. Despite its historical value, the book is criticized for repeated errors in the names of villages, hamlets, and many places mentioned, spoiling the enjoyment of the book. The translator and reviewer did not bother to verify and correct the names of many sites geographically and historically, as befits a native who is supposed to be familiar with all its details. Nevertheless, the testimony of 'Umm Saud' remains an indispensable document in interrogating the silence of the desert.

Among the dunes of the Eastern Province between Jubail and Nairiyah, where the harshness of the desert meets the antiquity of history, 'Violet Dickson' embarks on an exciting exploratory journey to 'Thaj', digging into the memory of the earth for clay treasures and 'Lihyanite' inscriptions that redrew the map of civilization in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Her journey in 1961 was not just a casual outing with her American friends working in Dhahran, who were very interested in sites and collecting pottery from ancient ruins, but an emotional and historical return to a place she first visited with her husband, the political agent in the Gulf 'Dickson' in the 1940s. The team came to 'Thaj' and 'Al-Hannat', which were recently rebuilt as settlements for 'Ikhwan min Ta'at Allah' of the Awazim tribe. New Thaj was not just an ordinary desert village but stood on the ruins of a vast ancient city. Its new inhabitants borrowed its old stones and rubble to build the walls of their new homes, without fully realizing that they were raising their building stones over the cradle of a civilization that once flourished and then perished.

The Treasures of the 'Unknown Girl' Put Thaj on the Map of World Civilization

Violet, nicknamed 'Umm Saud', describes the road with the spirit of a poetic explorer. From Al-Qatif via the desert 'Tapline' road, the journey extends for sixty kilometers through an environment teeming with life despite its dryness. There, at the wells of Al-Hannat, herds of camels and sheep were surrounded by the songs of shepherds as they drank, while the ground was adorned with ivy flowers and wild scatter, flowers that have a magical property: they close their petals shyly from the scorching sun, only to reopen in the stillness of the night, spreading their fragrant scent in the vast space. When she reached the small hill that witnessed her first overnight stay with her husband Dickson decades earlier, the Bedouins greeted her with their innate curiosity and traditional question: 'What are you looking for? Are you looking for gold?' Her answer carried the philosophy of a passionate archaeologist: 'No, there is no gold, just broken pieces of pottery.' This response reflected the value of antiquities in Umm Saud's eyes; she does not measure history by the gleam of metal but by the traces of footsteps and civilization imprinted on clay.

In a striking human moment, an elderly man recognized her and called out to his people: 'Don't you know who this is? It's Umm Saud, who camps with the Awazim in Kuwait; they love her and she loves them.' This recognition not only opened the doors of homes for her but also opened the doors of secrets. The old man told her legends of ancient battles that stained the dry 'Thaj' lake with blood, as if the earth still pulsates with the memory of those who passed through. The most exciting scene occurred when an ambitious young man took her to his house to show her a stone with inscriptions. On the way, he bent down to pick up from the dirt an 'idol' – part of a female clay figurine with a prominent breast, affirming that the ground teems with such artifacts. Upon entering the coffee room built from stones of the old ruins, taken from the city's ruins forty years earlier, 'Umm Saud' encountered a treasure of knowledge: a slab of dark green marble rising from the floor, bearing two lines of mysterious Lihyanite symbols. Despite the darkness and the pile of old camel litters inside, the room radiated the smell of history spanning thousands of years.

The trip was not limited to observation but resulted in the collection of very important archaeological finds: camel statues, square incense burners, pottery vessels, and a bust later found of a woman who had lost one breast, with her hands clasped under her chest. When these pieces later reached the hands of experts at the British Museum, they caused a scientific stir. Their green glaze proved they belong to an ancient period (first century BC or later), placing 'Thaj' on the map of ancient global trade and civilization. The diaries of 'Umm Saud' are not just personal memoirs but a historical document that saved the details of a city whose stones were almost swallowed by modernity, so that 'Thaj' remains a witness to the greatness of the past and a bridge of communication between nomadic Bedouins and the glories of ancient kings.

Notably, systematic excavation began in Thaj in 1982 by national teams, followed by continuous international missions that revealed the largest 'historical' city and a massive wall. Among the most prominent discoveries is the golden 'Treasure of Thaj', estimated at about 18 kilograms, belonging to the remains of a ten-year-old girl (the unknown queen of Thaj) found with her jewelry, in addition to rare inscriptions. Saudi-French teams are still continuing their modern research to uncover its ancient history.

1 Samples of the jewelry of the princess of Thaj

2 A stone bearing writings and inscriptions dating back to centuries before Christ

3 Some jewelry of the young or unknown queen of Thaj

4 Some excavation efforts in Thaj

5 Location of Thaj