Stephanie Döpper

Heidelberg University · Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage

The paper deals with the results of the German Expedition to Bāt and Al ‘Ayn during the field seasons 2010 to 2013. In the necropolis of Bāt two undisturbed Umm an Nār burial pits have been excavated, that yielded many finds and revealed interesting insights into the burial practices of this period. Furthermore, two Umm an Nār tombs at Bāt and two...

In den Kampagnen 2013 und2014 sollte das Grab 155 als das letzte des Ensembles aus drei Gräbem der Umm an-Nãr-Zeit (ca.2700 bis 2000 v. Chr.) im Zentrum der Nekropole von Bãt, Grabungsbereich A, untersucht werden. Dabei. stand {1e Flagg nach seiner Nutzung und Bauweise im Mittelpunkt vor allem im vergleich zu den beiden benachbafien und bereits erf...

Analyses of archaeological fuel remains can provide insight into pyrotechnologies, resource management, and the local environment. In this paper, we examine archaeological charcoals from Hafit period (3300–2700 BC) levels in Building V at al‑Khashbah (al-Khashaba), Oman, to understand fuel harvesting and burning preferences associated with early co...

This book outlines the results of the 2018 archaeological survey at Tawi Said, located on the edge of the Sharqiyah desert in the Sultanate of Oman. The surveyed area of 150 x 125 m yielded close to 8,600 artifacts, with pottery sherds comprising the majority of the finds. Additional discoveries include shells, lithic tools, copper production waste...

During the final two field seasons of the Al‑Mudhaybi Regional Survey in central Oman conducted in 2021 and 2022, systematic field-walking of the north–south transects continued. This resulted in the discovery of a possible Neolithic to Early Bronze Age flint scatter north-east of Al‑Khashbah and an Iron Age settlement at Shariq. The area of the Ir...

In the Sultanate of Oman, traditional and modern architecture meet in a unique way. Especially in Central Oman, there are many examples where remains of the traditional mudbrick settlement nuclei have survived in the modern cities and towns. Many of these settlements were gradually abandoned by their inhabitants during the late 20th century. Today,...

p>People in the past were always confronted with surviving remains from previous periods, and reacted to and engaged with them in varying ways. One activity through which this becomes visible is the reuse of tombs. If this reuse is an intentional reference to the past, it explicitly communicates meaning and thus cultural memory. In Eastern Arabia,...

The Al‐Mudhaybi Regional Survey uses different methods to reconstruct the diachronic development of the archaeological landscape within a 930 km² area. This article evaluates the different outcomes of remote sensing, ground‐truthing and systematic field‐walking of transects regarding the type and chronological range of structures found. Additionall...

Archaeological sites offer valuable insights into the past. Without a good presentation, however, it is difficult to communicate this knowledge to the general public. The newly developed ArchaeoTrail App does just this and offers the opportunity for visitors to discover the archaeological sites on their own.

The Al-Mudhaybi Regional Survey seeks to produce a detailed and comprehensive knowledge of the landscape of the Al-Mudhaybi region in Central Oman. This paper presents the results of the 2020 field season, in which transects throughout the survey area were field-walked. The transects were equally spaced, at 4 km distance from each other, and ran no...

Reuse manifests itself in the archaeological record in many different forms including the displacement or absence of (parts of) skeletons and grave goods, the addition of human bodies and objects and the destruction of the built environment of the tomb. This paper investigates the archaeological evidence for reuse at Early Bronze Age tombs in Syria...

Die Entstehung komplexer Siedlungen im Zentraloman: Archäologische Untersuchungen zur Siedlungsgeschichte von Al-Khashbah presents the results of a survey conducted in 2015 and beyond by the Institut für die Kulturen des Alten Orients of the Universität Tübingen in Al-Khashbah, one of the largest Early Bronze Age sites on the Omani Peninsula. Ten m...

Einblicke in die Siedlungsgeschichte des Zentraloman

Die andauernde Coronapandemie hat auch das Forschungsprojekt zu den Lost Cities im Oman maßgeblich beeinflusst: Das Team rund um die Archäologin Dr. Stephanie Döpper musste das Land im März kurzfristig und unerwartet verlassen. Seither bleibt nur ein digitaler Austausch – der die Arbeit vor Ort jedoch nicht ersetzt, denn archäologische Daten und Ei...

Dr. Birgit Mershen, Lost Cities' eyes and ears in Oman, outlines the significance of mud and clay villages for its society today. Unlike the monumental forts these villages are often derelict and decayed. In their ruined state, however, they contribute greatly to the cultural memory and identity of Oman. What brings countless inhabitants of metropo...

After extensive surveys were carried out and data collected in Oman, the archaeological team around the scientist Dr. Stephanie Döpper is focusing on the evaluation of the results. A large part of the project can therefore be carried out in Germany at the Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. The extensive analyses are meant to reconstruct the "Lost Cit...

Back in Germany, the researchers of the project are dealing with the reception of the mud-brick settlements and are trying to find out more about how they are perceived and used today. One of the main questions is to what extent the buildings are perceived as ruins or as attractions. Are they being used for tourism? And to what extent can one still...

Traditional mud-brick buildings, which can still be found in most modern places in Oman, are the focus of an interdisciplinary research project in which scholars from the fields of archaeology, Islamic studies and sociology are working together. Among other things, the participants are investigating the question of why the mud-brick buildings are n...

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 t...

Sites with towers in eastern Arabia have been interpreted as regional centres of the Early Bronze Age. One of those sites is Al-Khashbah in central Oman. Until now, however, nothing was known about its hinterland that would support the idea of a regional centre. The Al-Mudhaybi Regional Survey was therefore initiated in order, for the first time, t...

The second volume of the series Arabia Orientalis is dedicated to the archaeological investigation of the Early Bronze Age necropolises of the UNESCO world heritage sites Bat and Al-Ayn in the Sultanate of Oman, as well as the monumental tower structure Building II at Bat. It encompasses detailed reports on the architecture and stratigraphy, as wel...

Available here: https://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id={60997DAA-F4C4-476B-BB10-68BA1C276CDD}

The Early Bronze Age on the Oman Peninsula was a period of fundamental change in the development of social complexity, the exploitation of new resources such as copper and the general mode of life. It was also a period of long-distance exchange between the Oman Peninsula and the neighbouring regions along the Arab-Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman....

In November 2018, a survey was conducted at the site of Tawi Said, which is located at the edge of the Sharqiyah desert in the Sultanate of Oman and was discovered in 1976 by Beatrice de Cardi. An area of 150 × 125 m was field-walked. All surface finds were collected and their position recorded with a hand-held GPS device. Nearly 8,600 objects were...

Two stamp seals were found during the 2018 survey at Tawi Said, located at the northern limits of the Sharqiyah desert in the Sultanate of Oman. They were associated with Wadi Suq (2000–1600 BC) pottery sherds as well as a few flint tools and remains of copper processing. The first seal has a dome shape and thus reveals affiliations to Dilmun type...

Archaeological research at Al-Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman, conducted by the University of Tübingen, revealed a large Early Bronze Age (3 rd millennium BCE) site. During the intensive surface survey and excavations, several ground stone tools were found. Most of them came from the vicinity of monumental stone and mud-brick structures, so-called towe...

The archaeological project of Bat, Al-Zebah and Al-Ayn investigates the socio-economic developments on the Omani Peninsula during the Hafit (3200-2700 BC) and the Umm an-Nar (2700-2000 BC) periods. Thus, the project focuses on the use and function of 3rd millennium tombs, burial customs, settlements, material culture and chronology.

The 2017 and 2018 seasons of the archaeological research project in Al- Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman, provided important new insights into the socio-economic complexity in northern Inner-Oman in the late 4th and early 3rd millennium BC (Hafit period). The late Hafit period Building-Complex I consists of several mud-brick structures, each surrounded...

Across four seasons of excavation between 2015 and 2018 a team from the University of Tübingen in cooperation with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture of the Sultanate of Oman investigated the tower Building V at Al Khashbah in the Wilayat of Al Mudhaybi in the Sultanate of Oman. After an intensive field-walking surface survey and magnetometer pro...

Al-Khashbah, located approximately 17 km north of the modern city of Sināw, is one of the largest Early Bronze Age sites in the Sultanate of Oman. The University of Tübingen has carried out excavations at the site during the last four years (2015–2018), revealing a significant amount of Hafit-period architecture and finds, including a mud-brick com...

About 4200 charcoal fragments have been identified from the fourth‐ to third‐millennium BC archaeological sites of Bat and Al‐Khashbah in order to gain an understanding of plant resources available at the sites. Acacia sp., Ziziphus sp., and Tamarix sp. were the main taxa identified at both sites and indicate a similar vegetation composition as tod...

The Umm an-Nar period (2700–2000 BC) in Eastern Arabia is a time of fundamental changes in subsistence, resource exploitation, and social complexity. In terms of material culture, this epoch is primarily known for its collective graves and monumental buildings, so-called towers, which were the focus of previous archaeological research. Domestic arc...

Magnetometer surveys carried out as part of the al-Khashbah Archaeological Project have revealed the plan of two monumental buildings dating to the third millennium BC as well as the surrounding landscape. Evidence from excavations confirms that this complex can be dated to the Hafit period, marking it as an important site for the development of so...

Monumental circular structures, so-called towers, are one of the most prominent remains of the 3rd millennium BC in Eastern Arabia. Large ditch systems surrounding the tower have been discovered at several of these sites. Recent excavations at the tower Building II at Bat in the Sultanate of Oman conducted by the University of Tübingen revealed a n...

Magnetometer surveys carried out as part of the al-Khashbah Archaeological Project have revealed the plan of two monumental buildings dating to the third millennium BC as well as the surrounding landscape. Evidence from excavations confirms that this complex can be dated to the Hafit period, marking it as an important site for the development of so...

Der Formtypenkatalog der spätbronzezeitlichen Keramik Westsyriens und der Levante entstand im Rahmen der unter dem Titel „Keramikassemblagen der Späten Bronzezeit aus dem Königspalast von Qatna und eine vergleichende Betrachtung zeitgleicher Keramik Westsyriens und der Levante“ veröffentlichten Doktorarbeit (ISBN 3-447-10957-4) zur spätbronzezeitli...

A third-millennium BC tomb was subject to a rescue excavation in connection with the construction of a new road near the village of Al-Khubayb in the Sultanate of Oman. It yielded a small number of finds, especially small metal objects that belonged to a later reuse of the tomb in the Samad period. As all diagnostic finds from the tomb date to the...

The transition from the Hafit to the Umm an-Nar period on the Oman peninsula in the third millennium BC is regarded as a period of substantial social and economic change. Although many thousands of tombs from the Hafit period remain, other archaeological evidence, such as settlements, is scarce. In 2015 therefore, a new archaeological research proj...

In this paper, the pottery assemblage of Area BU in the Royal Palace of Qatna is presented. Additionally, correspondence analyses based on published LBA pottery in Syria and the Levant is used in order to find out how the pottery from Area BU fits to existing pottery traditions.

The sites of Bāt and al-Zībā (Zebah) in the Sultanate of Oman offer a range of different archaeological features dating to the Umm an-Nar period. In this paper we present the pottery assemblages from two burial pits detected just outside a group of Umm an-Nar tombs in the necropolis of Bāt, from the monumental Building II in Area B at Bāt, and from...

Differentiation between grave and non-grave pottery in a given time and region has consequences for archaeologists arguing on the basis of pottery chronologies. Understanding these differences also allows insights into the society in which the pottery was made and used. In the LBA in Central Syria and the Levant, there is, besides a general overlap...

Nachhaltige Wasserwirtschaft im 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. auf der Omanischen Halbinsel

The reuse of Umm an-Nar tombs in later periods on the Oman peninsula is an often neglected phenomenon. Within the scope of this paper, the results from the excavation conducted by the University of Tübingen of two Umm an-Nar tombs in the necropolis of Bat, Sultanate of Oman — Tomb 155 and Tomb 156 — will be presented. In these two tombs, we find cl...