Major mode - Social anthropology, ethnoecology and evolutionary biology: new researches in the north-western desert of the Kingdom.
In 2019, begin two distinct projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the oasis of al-ʿUlā. The first was officially completed (financing and administrative aspects) on October 1, 2024, the second on October 1, 2025; nevertheless, the scientific exploitation of the data of these two projects continues.
The oasis of al-ʿUlā, capital of the governorate of the same name, is part of Madīna Province, located in north-western Saudi Arabia. Al-ʿUlā, ancient city of Dādān in the wadi al-Qura, was the capital of the Lihyan empire on the incense road. It is located about twenty kilometers from Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ which hosts the Nabataean site al-Ḥijr classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Al-ʿUlā, which is now a modern urban area of about 40,000 inhabitants in a narrow valley, hewn through the sandstone (and basalt) plateau, still has its former walled urban center (al-Dīra) with hundreds of tightly packed mud-brick and stone houses, on a higher part of the valley in order to be clear from the floods.
Two research projects: al-ʿUlā AS (Anthropological Survey) + al-ʿUlā DPA (Date Palm Agrobiodiv.):
– al-ʿUlā AS: Anthropological survey of al-ʿUlā community and its oasis system.
PI: Vincent Battesti
– al-ʿUlā DPA: Ethnographic, genetic, and morphometric analyses of the date palm agrobiodiversity in al-ʿUlā oasis
co-PIs.: Vincent Battesti & Muriel Gros-Balthazard (NYU-AD, New York University in Abu Dhabi).
Both projects are funded by AFALULA, the French Agency for the Development of al-Ula, which is backed by the RCU, the Royal Commission for AlUla.
