Archaeology of Oman peninsula

During the third millennium BC, the huge geographical area stretching between the Mediterranean in the west and the Indus Valley in the east witnessed the rise of a commercial network of unmatched proportions and intensity, within which the Persian Gulf for long periods functioned as a central node. In this book, Laursen and Steinkeller examine the nature of cultural and commercial contacts between Babylonia, the Gulf region, and Indus Civilization. Focusing on the third and early second millennia BC, and using both archaeological data and the evidence of ancient written sources, their study offers an up-to-date synthetic picture of the history of interactions across this vast region. In addition to giving detailed characterizations and evaluations of contacts in various periods, the book also treats a number of important related issues, such as the presence of Amorites in the Gulf (in particular, their role in the rise of the Tilmun center on Bahrain Island); the alleged existence of Meluhhan commercial outposts in Babylonia; and the role that the seaport of Gu’abba played in Babylonia’s interactions with the Gulf region and southeastern Iran.

Since 2015 the site of Mudhmar East (Adam, Ad-Dakhiliyah Governorate) has emerged as one of the major ritual complexes of the Early Iron Age (900-300 BCE) in Eastern Arabia. This paper presents the results of the latest excavations in 2019. Two areas were investigated. The excavation of Mudhmar East 3 on the jabal slope was completed and this area revealed three monumental walls associated with a complex stratigraphy. Numerous metal artifacts (weapons and snake figurines); and pottery, were recovered in secondary position. The campaign also focused on the grave sitting on the top of the hill, an area distinguished as Mudhmar East 6. This grave, which was badly preserved and had likely been reused, delivered little archaeological material. The 2019 excavation enabled a more thorough investigation of these two essential areas, greatly improving our understanding of this major Iron Age site in the history of Oman.

The rescue excavation carried out in 2016 along Package 2 of the Batinah Expressway in the Sultanate of
Oman led to the recovery of 25 funerary structures, arranged in two main clusters (the Al-Jamma foothills
and the Wadī Banif). The research area is located in the southern Batinah plain, at the foot of the Al-Hajar
Mountains. Preliminary surface investigations led to the identification of the two groups of tombs that were
excavated with stratigraphic method and documented with modern surveying and data recording techniques,
including sampling of human remains. The most interesting and best-preserved groups of cairns are located
in inland-Al-Jamma (Ar-Rustāq), on the top and on the slopes of low hills, or on the terraces and beds of the
valleys. The investigation of the tombs, in addition to the preliminary analysis of the architectural elements,
building techniques, and burial practices, allowed the identification of the structural types and the description
of tomb use, reconstruction, reuse and pillaging activities, as well as insight into rituals and funerary practices.
Confirmation of the custom of reusing earlier tombs, that persisted over the centuries, often modifying the
original appearance of the structure and altering its content, represents the most evident result of the research.
The necropolis appears to have been used from the Bronze Age, probably Hafit period, up to the PIR period
(Pré Islamique Récente), as evidenced by the grave goods that are composed mainly of personal ornaments –
such as pearls, rings and earrings – and metal weapons and tools – such as swords, arrowheads and a flat axe.
The purpose of this paper is primarily to provide original data on the funeral practices, including the custom of
reusing pre-existing tombs, and to illustrate the results of the highway rescue excavations.

The late Wadi Suq has been an elusive phase in the archaeology of the Oman peninsula. It is mostly documented in the settlements of Kalbāʾ and Tell Abraq, both located in the United Arab Emirates. The tell deposits with late Wadi Suq levels at these sites remain poorly understood, and the same applies to the limited evidence from funerary sites. In the Ṣuhār hinterlands we have previously found what appears to be late Wadi Suq materials in cemeteries, but these surface finds consist of a few sherds and soft-stone fragments that can be interpreted in various ways. In the 2018 season, however, an unequivocal Wadi Suq non-funerary site was found on a steep outcrop in Wādī Fizḥ, at Site 84. In this contribution we present Site 84, its characteristics and location, the structures that are visible, and the artefact assemblages collected from its surface.

Keywords: late Wadi Suq, ceramics, soft-stone vessels, visibility, landscape archaeology

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The Wadi Al Jizzi region is of enormous culture historic importance for various reasons: first, it contains one of the major routes from the Batinah coast through the Hajar al Gharbi range in the Oman peninsula; second, it contains good copper ores in the foothills of the mountains, which have been mined from the third millennium up to the present; third, the Wadi Al Jizzi region holds some of the most ingenious irrigation systems of the Oman peninsula. Given these characteristics it is not surprising that the Wadi Al Jizzi region has rich archaeological remains. While excellent work has been done earlier by Costa and Wilkinson (1987), much work remains to be done on the archaeology of the area in full. In order to further investigate farming systems, mining landscapes, and funerary landscapes of the area the Wadi Al Jizzi Archaeological Project was initiated in 2014. The project is designed as a long-term systematic multiperiod landscape survey. In this paper some results from the first seasons will be presented.

Key words: Wādī al-Jīzī (Wadi al Jizzi/Wadi al Jizi), Ṣuḥār (Sohar), landscape archaeology, irrigation systems, funerary landscapes, Wadi Suq culture

The Historic Environment Department of Abu Dhabi TCA has recently completed the first stage of a project aimed at investigating and presenting to the public the historic village or ḥārra of al-Khrays, at the southern edge of Jīmī Oasis in the city of al-ʿAyn. From the late 1960s onwards, the city of al-ʿAyn witnessed the gradual abandonment of the villages or ḥārrāt located around the oases and the shift of their communities to newly built housing quarters (shaʿabiyāt), often built in close proximity to the earlier settlements. These old settlements – clustered around each of the major oases of al-ʿAyn, Muʿtariḍ, Qaṭṭāra, Hīlī, and Jīmī – gradually fell into disuse and disrepair and were eventually demolished and largely forgotten by all but their former residents. Through a combination of ethnographic interviews and archaeological excavation, Abu Dhabi TCA is now recording, investigating and protecting the remains of these settlements, many of which lie within the area of the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site of al-ʿAyn. The poster will present the results of the excavations and finds, including a typological quantification of a Late Islamic ceramic assemblage dating from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, undertaken with the involvement of Zayed University students.

"Abstract:
In the Oman Peninsula, funerary monuments represent one of the most important archaeological evidence to analyze the evolution of societies from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.  From the 5th to the end of 3rd millennium BCE the most critical socials and demographic changes seem to be mirrored by their coeval funerary customs.
A certain level of continuity is apparent in the funerary practices documented on coastal settlements dated to the 5th and 4th millennia BCE in Oman. In this time-span of almost 2000 years, small groups of fisher-herders generally buried their dead in a pit dug not far from the living space, in a crouched position on one side, with a variety of goods (both ornaments and functional items). Faunal remains were often deposited in the graves, and then covered by stones. At RH-5, the probable symbolic role played by the marine turtle in funerary rituals has been enhanced. There is conspicuous evidence of corpse and bone manipulation, attested by secondary depositions, testifying of a strong link between the livings and their deceased.

By the end of 4th millennium eastern Arabia knew a period of increasing social complexity and growing trade networks, accompanied by highly-specialized adaptive strategies developed to cope with environmental instability. Copper exploitation and close relationships with Mesopotamia, Iran and the Indus testify to flourishing commerce. However, ancient eastern Arabia (corresponding to modern Oman and United Arab Emirates) developed neither state nor urban centres: their impressive economic and demographic growth was led by complex, dynamic tribal relations. Both underground and surface water management systems were built to cope with unpredictably varying environmental pressures, creating the premise for the so-called “oasis revolution”(Cleuziou, 1982, 1996). Bronze Age oases and coastal plateaus were surrounded and signaled by hundreds of monumental collective burials. These have been studied and analyzed over the last thirty years according to the traditional chronological typology (Frifelt, 1975a) comprising Hafit-type tombs (3100-2700 BCE) and Umm an-Nar-type tombs (2700-2000 BCE).
The former are truncated-cone shaped towers, formed by 2-3 concentric ringwalls built around a central chamber. Walls were erected using dry local stone-bricks. The entrance consisted of a trapezoidal or groin-shaped breach, sometimes surmounted by a horizontal architrave. Hafit-type tombs could reach 8 meters in height and have an average diameter of 3-4 metres (Frifelt, 1975b; Yule and Weisgerber, 2002; Cleuziou and Tosi, 2007). These cairns contained 1 to 30 individuals, successively deposited, generally on one side in crouched position. Several graves present hundreds of ornamental beads (shell, faience, steatite, radiolarite, rock crystal, carnelian and limestone) produced in standardised forms (Salvatori, 2001). Hafit tombs contained only imported pottery, namely one or two Jemdet Nasr/Early Dynastic I vessels (3100-2800 BCE) from southern Mesopotamia. These monuments, always located on visible points separated from settlements, probably had a function of territorial and resources markers.
Umm an-Nar burials present larger diameter (about 8 to 14m), and lower height, greater structural articulation and different access strategies (Blau 2001). Inner walls were built assembling local stone-slabs, while outer ringwalls were made using perfectly squared and polished limestone blocks, sometimes bearing carved decorations. These tombs contained dozens or - in some cases - even hundreds of individuals, deposited successively during the grave use, in crouched position, on their side, regardless of age and sex. Personal ornaments are abundant (shell, steatite, heated steatite, radiolarite, faience and carnelian beads; pearls, rock crystals, silver, gold and copper implements). Pottery is abundant (sandy, fine, black-on-red locally made pottery and imported vessels from Mesopotamia, Iran and the Indus) and soft stone vessels are also present although less numerous.

Archaeological investigations of these monuments started in the late 1960s and are still going on at present with the contribution of young researchers. These tombs - whose uniqueness remains unaltered in centuries of intense exchange and human interaction - are now offering insights on critical questions such as social complexity, cultural transmission, demographic pressure, local and regional contacts, as well as funerary practices, structural change and the complexity of emergent, kin-based social relations. In this context, the effort of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture in documenting and supporting the investigation of such funerary landscape is fundamental for securing its extraordinary role in present-day Oman, and it is of pivotal importance for the preservation of a unique treasure of World heritage."