1.4. Biyo Gure
The site of Biyo Gure was first documented in 1984 (Dualeh 1996: 39). It is a permanent settlement composed of several houses with stone foundations that occupies a rocky spur oriented east-west on the left bank of the Biyo Gure seasonal river. This is the largest stream east of Berbera and a major natural route to the highlands. The rains in the nearby mountains flood the Biyo Gure seasonally and it is possible to obtain drinkable water by digging shallow wells in the riverbed throughout the year. The banks are covered in thick evergreen vegetation and there are many orchards and irrigated fields. (Dualeh, 1996: 39) considers that the inhabitants of the site practiced irrigation-based agriculture, which is quite likely. There is also an area of flood-based farming at the base of the site that was in use in the early 2000s. We found several circular grinding stones in igneous rock that attest to agricultural practices. At the same time, the settlement is very close to the sea, only 10 km south of the coast, and on the main route linking Berbera and the interior through the southeast. It is thus an ideal location for a settlement.
The site has a maximum axis of 150 m from west to east, but is very narrow. The entire inhabited surface is of around 7000 m2. Natural erosion has exposed the archaeological site and it is possible to see at the moment stone foundations corresponding with several buildings (Fig. 23). Some were recently destroyed by construction works or erosion as more structures can be seen in the satellite photographs of 2002–2004. The original number of structures was probably around 30, not all of them houses. We can hypothesize an original population of a hundred people. Of the buildings visible today, four have two rooms, three have three rooms and the rest only one, although the strong erosion in some cases might be concealing partition walls. At the entrance of the site there is a large structure (no. 1 in the map), with three partitioned aisles and a central courtyard. The stone foundations are in some cases made with masonry from the local sandstone outcrops and in other cases with cobbles and boulders from the riverbed. The walls would have been originally made of branches and reeds. On the northern part of the site, there was a dump that furnished abundant materials.
Artifacts did not appear evenly distributed. Thus, apart from the dump, the larger concentration of finds appeared in the flat, central area of the site, in the zone occupied by structures 13, 20, 21 and 22. The largest number of celadons were collected in and around structures 20 and 21. All incense burners appeared in and around structure 13. The artifact scatter continues with lower density toward structure 14 on the west and 25 on the east. Finds were very few in the northern part of the site. Another area that furnished an important number of artifacts was structure 1, which in this case might be related to its particular status, as it is the largest and more complex structure of the site. Here we found a minimum number of three celadon bowls, five perfume glass bottles, a Martaban jar, three blue glass bangles, a cowrie, one unglazed store jar, one dish of Speckled ware and one bowl of Blue Tihama.
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