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The extensive investigation carried out between November 2017 and the end of January 2018 at the UNESCO site of Al-Khutm
(Bat) has allowed us completely to expose an important tower dated back to the end of the third millennium BC. The excavation revealed the good state of preservation and monumentality of the complex, unique among the towers so fa...
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... Azzarà, in press;Thornton, Cable & Possehl 2016). Of these, seventeen were only partly excavated and none of them has been completely documented or excavated. The towers are mainly clustered along a north-west strip which roughly corresponds to the slopes of the Al-Hajar mountains, with a concentration around the villages of Hili, Bat, and Bysia (Fig. 1). Some towers lie on alluvial floodplains, while others are located on the rocky substratum of hilly areas, generally consisting of limestone bedrocks. A small group is located on coastal high hills. In terms of architectural characteristics, the diameters of the towers usually range from 20 to 25 m, with some relevant exceptions such ...
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... seal (Fig. 10) is made of a fine soapstone (steatite or chlorite). It is composed of an irregular disc with a slightly convex base (the obverse where the design is incised), surmounted by a flat dome of smaller diameter, which creates a flat ring-shaped horizontal surface around the boss (collar). A transversal perforation has been drilled from both ...
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Citations
This paper reports the results of excavation at Mugharat al‐Kahf (WTN01) in Wādī Tanūf, North‐central Oman. It also provides information on the nonmortuary and nonsedentary activities in central Oman during the Wādī Sūq period (2000–1600 BCE), as the subsistence and social arrangements of this period are the subject of much debate. Previous surveys had discovered a substantial amount of Wādī Sūq pottery at the site. This project took forward the excavation for further exploration. The excavation at Test Pit 1 identified Layers Ia and Ib, wherein pottery sherds, charred date stones and other samples for radiocarbon dating were discovered. These prove the cave's occupation during the early third millennium BCE, early second millennium BCE and the Islamic period. The analysis of artefacts and floral remains provided insights into the sojourn, storage and consumption of dates in the cave, and the mobile lifestyle in central Oman.
Significant changes in the material culture, subsistence and mode of life are associated with the Middle (c. 2000–1600 BCE) and Late Bronze Ages (c. 1600–1300 BCE) in Eastern Arabia. Since first excavations in the 1970s, research has focused on the United Arab Emirates, where all major sites of this period known to date are situated. This birthed the idea of two different lines of development in the second millennium BC. While a more gradual change is assumed for the United Arab Emirates, Central Oman was regarded as having completely abandoned settled agricultural life, returning to a less complex social organisation. This article presents new evidence from Tawi Said, Al‐Mudhairib and the Wilayat al‐Mudhaybi that shows that the developments in both regions were more akin to each other than previously assumed. This encourages us to reconsider our assumptions about Central Oman’s social complexity during this pivotal period of Oman’s history.
The Iron Age (c. 1300-600 BC) of Southeastern Arabia is characterised by rapid expansion of settlement. Social structures formed over the previous millennia, however, persisted and were reinforced through the development of collective funerary monuments. A recently discovered tomb of Late Bronze to Early Iron Age date at Dibbā al-Bayah in the Sultanate of Oman has yielded a range of artefacts that illuminate the nature and extent of the long-distance contacts of the local community. Seemingly selected not only for their exotic appeal, but also for their apotropaic function, these objects testify to a deep cross-cultural knowledge extending across the wider region during this crucial period in Arabian prehistory.
The extensive investigation carried out in recent years at the UNESCO site of Al-Khutm (Ibri, Oman) has allowed to uncover the monumental remains of a tower dated back to the third millennium BC and to collect an abundant ceramic assemblage from the associated soil deposits. Eighteen selected pottery samples have been investigated using a multi-analytical approach including microfocus X-ray computed tomography, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and prompt gamma activation analysis to analyse the vessel-forming technique and to characterise their micro-structure, mineralogical and chemical composition to recognise possible local vs. non-local raw materials. The results provided new insights on ancient manufacturing processes and revealed that most of the vessels were locally produced exploiting raw materials from the surroundings of the site with the exception of a fragment of a black slipped jar. The chemical results suggest that the latter was imported from the Indus area in nowadays Pakistan. This evidence integrates our knowledge about the presence of this type of vessels in Oman and confirms the involvement of inland centres like Bat and Al-Khutm into a large-scale exchange system.
