The 2010–2011 excavation season at al-Zubārah, north-west Qatar (poster) Tobias RichTeR, Faisal abdulla al-Naimi, lisa YeomaNs, michael house, Tom collie, PeRNille baNgsgaaRd JeNseN, saNdRa RoseNdahl, Paul WoRdsWoRTh & alaN WalmsleY Summary This paper briely summarizes the results of the 2010–2011 archaeological ieldwork at the late eighteenth–twentieth-century abandoned city of al-Zubārah in north-west Qatar. The excavations in ive areas inside the town, covering courtyard houses, a suq, a palatial compound, and a midden are discussed. Keywords: al-Zubārah, Islamic archaeology, pearl diving, pearl trade, urbanism Introduction From 1 November 2010 to 31 March 2011 the Qatar Islamic Archaeology and Heritage Project, under the auspices of the Qatar Museums Authority, returned to the eighteenth–twentieth-century settlement of al- Zubārah in north-west Qatar for its third major season of archaeological excavations. Al-Zubārah emerged as a major pearl ishing and trading port and settlement during the late eighteenth century and was, for a short period of time, Qatar’s largest and most important town. Occupied by followers of the Wahhābī movement during the early nineteenth century, and subsequently attacked and partially burnt to the ground by forces from the Sultanate of Muscat in 1811, the site was resettled but shrunk to about a third of its former size. It continued to be occupied in an increasingly sporadic fashion, until the early twentieth century (Richter & Walmsley 2011; Richter, Wordsworth & Walmsley 2011; Walmsley, Barnes & Macumber 2010; Rahman 2005; Abu-Hakima 1988; Warden 1985; Lorimer 1915). The site represents the best-preserved remains of an eighteenth–nineteenth- century pearl ishing and trading port in the Gulf region, with its entire urban plan and layout preserved. Following on from excavations by the Qatari authorities during the 1980s and the early 2000s (al-Khulaii 1987), the present long-term, multi-disciplinary project, initiated by H.E. Shaykha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifah al-Thani and H.E. Shaykh Hassan bin Mohammed al-Thani, continued its extensive programme of excavations, surveys, and conservation work at Islamic sites in northern Qatar. Al-Zubārah forms the centrepiece of these investigations. In this brief report we summarize the main results from the 2010–2011 season at this regionally important early modern settlement. Previous excavations have allowed for the identiication of at least six distinct phases of settlement at the site (for details see Richter, Wordsworth & Walmsley 2011; Richter & Walmsley 2011), which will undoubtedly be further sub-divided and remain to be more precisely dated following detailed analysis of the material culture recovered from each. Briely, the phases are: • Phase 6: suspected pre-1760s phase of ephemeral settlement characterized by ovens (sg. Γābūnah, pl. Γābūnāt; sg. tannūr, pl. tanānīr), post holes, pit features, and occupation loors situated beneath the Phase 5 architecture. • Phase 5: suspected to date to c.1760s–1811. Characterized by substantial, well-built architecture, covering 60 ha, deined by an outer town wall. The settlement was at its largest size during this phase. • Phase 4: post-1811 intermediate phase characterized by ephemeral occupation consisting of post holes, ovens and occupation loors, probably representing the remains of tent camps Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 42 (2012): 1–10