B. Overlaet

• Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels

The worship of baetyls in antiquity is well documented in the Near East and the Mediterranean, archaeologically as well as historically. While such practices were also common in South‐East Arabia, the archaeological information on it is still very limited. A boulder carved with a ‘trident’ (a mark familiar from local Abiel coin issues), which came...

The winter 2021-22 excavations by the Belgian team focused on two areas at Mleiha: Area F-North and Area C. The present report discusses the second part of the campaign building on the area C research by the Iraqi (1973) and French teams (1986-89). Several variations on the known corpus of tomb types were documented. The original height of one of t...

Few cylinder seals have been reported from the Oman Peninsula; nevertheless, the existence of a local cylinder seal production has been suggested. Less than 40 seals and sealings are presently published and the addition of seals to the known repertory and the analysis of their iconography can shed new light on the SE-Arabian society and its relatio...

The winter 2021-22 excavations by the Belgian team focused on two areas at Mleiha: Area F-North and Area C. The present report discusses the Area F-North excavations. A Ground Penetrating Radar survey in 2017 had identified several anomalies in Area F-North that were interpreted by the GPR-team as possible buildings and monumental tombs. Three of t...

Very few cylinder seals are reported from South‐East Arabia. This paper reports on two cylinder seals that were found as heirlooms at Mleiha, UAE. The first is a Neo‐Assyrian seal with a ritual scene: kneeling worshippers around a tree of life. The second is a seal of local manufacture. The positioning of its image, a human figure holding an Arabia...

This short paper discusses some early travellers and photographers and the history of documenting Sasanian rock reliefs at Naqsh-i Rustam. As a case study, attention is paid to the documentation and the interpretation of two reliefs: the Investiture of Ardashir I (Naqsh-i Rustam I) and king Narseh with his family (Naqsh-i Rustam VIII).

SE-Arabia is strategically located near the Strait of Hormuz and developed in the 3rd century BCE into a major player on the international trade routes. The "kingdom of Oman" with its own currency inspired by that of the Hellenistic empires controlled much of the caravan and sea trade. Since 2009, the Royal Museums of Art and History, in close coll...

This paper presents the micro-XRF analysis of over 100 Sasanian billon and copper coins from the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, Belgium. This study discovered that some coins, thought to be copper, were actually billon coins. Furthermore, it illustrated the continuity in use and recipe of small copper coins from th...

This paper presents a new non-destructive sampling method for the lead isotope analysis of lead objects using acidified cotton swabs. The results are indistinguishable within error margin from conventional sampling methods. This method was applied to a series of Sasanian lead coins from the Royal Museums of Art and History as well as a private coll...

This paper presents the chemical and isotopic analyses of glass from the first century CE excavated in Dibba (United Arab Emirates). The elemental composition was determined using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and micro-X-ray fluorescence (μXRF), as well as the isotopic composition using laser ablation-multi col...

Around 1977 the British engineer Peter Hudson found a corroded copper alloy bowl during a walk c.100–150 m south‐east of the ed‐Dur fort in Umm al‐Qaiwain. Ed‐Dur is one of the largest and most extensively explored sites along the UAE Gulf coast. Its main occupation dates from the late first century BCE to the early second century CE (PIR, Période...

Ancient iron objects from early Iron Age archaeological sites are almost always severely corroded, which can severely limit the possibilities for their archaeometallurgical analysis. In this paper, a range of corroded iron objects from different sites and regions of the ancient Near East are investigated with the purpose of developing an integrated...

Louis Vanden Berghe excavated at Tall-i Shogha in 1951 at the start of his research on the prehistory of the Marv Dasht region in Southern Iran. It became the type-site for his Shogha ware and played a significant role in the Fars chronology he developed. Vanden Berghe surveyed the site, collected sherds and excavated graves with Shogha and Qaleh p...

A large number of painted pre-Islamic ceramics from the Kur River Basin (Fars province, Iran) was collected on surveys and excavations conducted by the late Prof. L. Vanden Berghe (Ghent University, Belgium) during the 1950s. Handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometry was undertaken on a selection of these ceramics to evaluate the applicability of th...

Excavations of a monumental tomb in Area F at Mleiha have revealed a lime-plaster funerary stele with an Aramaic and Hasaitic inscription. The excavation of the tomb was not completed but a preliminary report on the tomb and a discussion of the text is presented. The inscription states that the tomb was built by the deceased's son and mentions the...

A graveyard at Baba Jilan in Dilfan province, Pish-i Kuh, Luristan, was reportedly looted in 2005. It was investigated by the local branch of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation from 2006 to 2008. Cist tombs and jar burials were discovered and isolated objects and sherds were collected from the plundered areas. Noteworthy am...

This paper presents an archaeological GPR prospection at Mleiha (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates), occupied between the 3rd century BC and the 4th century AD. The aim of the survey was to explore a necropolis near the eastern border of the site. Four parallel 500 MHz GPR antennas were towed behind a four-wheel drive vehicle. Positioning occurred by m...

The history of two monumental grave buildings (nos. 4 and 5), excavated in area P of the late pre-Islamic city of Mleiha, has been studied in detail. Like all other tombs excavated up to the present day in Mleiha, their chambers had been emptied in ancient times. They were found devoid of human remains and grave-goods. In the upper parts of the gra...

The Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels (RMAH) boast a rich and world-renowned collection of glyptic material from the Ancient Near East. The collection consists of stamp and cylinder seals, seal impressions and sealings, originating from a broad range of cultures and dating from the beginning of their production down to the Roman period....

Although important archaeological remains, such as Greek inscriptions and architectural elements are known from Nahavand since several decennia, it lasted until 2005 before a first exploratory season with excavations took place, followed by a second one in 2011. So far this research has led to important observations for the Seleucid and Parthian pe...

De Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis (KMKG) bewaren een rijke en wereldvermaarde collectie van zegelmateriaal uit het Oude Nabije Oosten. De verzameling omvat stempel- en rolzegels, zegelafdrukken en verzegelingen, toebehorend aan zeer uiteenlopende culturen en daterend van het begin van hun productie tot aan de Romeinse periode. Ze illu...

To date Mleiha has yielded eighteen stamps belonging to Rhodian wine amphorae. Eleven of these can be dated to the second half of the third and the first half of the second centuries BC. Rhodian stamps are vital for the chronological framework of the PIR-A period at Mleiha. Most of them, if not all, belonged to funerary contexts but were unfortunat...

Ernst Herzfeld made mention of the discovery in 1928 of a Bronze Age tomb at Gilviran, some 5 km from Khorramabad in Luristan. He discussed the site briefly and illustrated some of the finds; two of the bronze vases were later acquired by the British Museum. Since it was one of the few tombs in Pish-i Kuh, Luristan on which some reliable informatio...

An inscription on the Naqsh-i Rustam I rock relief identifies the two protagonists in the investiture scene as Ardashir I and Ahura Mazda. All investing authorities on the royal Sasanian reliefs are therefore commonly identified as Ahura Mazda. In view of conflicting historic information and unexplained variations in the iconography of "Ahura Mazda...

An Iron Age graveyard, for the most part dating from the 8th - 7th century BC, was accidentally discovered in 2008 during road works near Sanandaj, Iranian Kurdistan. Rescue excavations were conducted by the Cultural Heritage Department in Sanandaj. The present contribution reports on these first excavations during which more than 20 graves were di...

The Taq-i Bustan I relief depicts Ardashir II (379-383 A.D.) receiving a beribboned ring from a person who is generally identified as either Ahura Mazda or as Shapur II. In the present note, it is suggested that the image is, however, a deliberate mixture of both personalities, created after the death of Shapur II. The relief postdates the smaller...

The relief of Ardashir I at Naqsh-i Rustam is the first Sasanian investiture scene with the two protagonists on horseback. They are identified by a prominent trilingual inscription on the horses as Ardashir I and Ahura Mazda. A Hebrew inscription remained unobserved since the 19th century, however. It is chiselled on the folds of Ahura Mazda's tuni...

The possibility that the Čale Gər caves with their votive offerings are related to a rain-making cult is explored by comparison with Islamic traditions. The site is further compared with Iron Age sites in Lorestan, in particular with the Sangtarasan finds, the Kalmakarreh cave and the Sorkdom-e Lori shrine. It is suggested that the finds at Sangtar...

Two Sasanian kings are depicted on the back wall of the smaller grotto at Taq-i Bustan near Kermanshah (Iran). They are identified by inscriptions as Shapur II (309-379 A.D.) and his son Shapur III (383-388 A.D.). However, the details of the crowns and the design of the relief oppose this idea. It makes it likely that the figure identified as Shapu...

The Sasanian rock reliefs at Barm-i Dilak are known in western literature since the 17 th century but their interpretation still remains a matter of debate. Crucial in their understanding is the correct identification of the iconography. At Barm-i Dilak I a man presents a flower to a woman. The identification of the flower is, however, still debate...

In 1976, Mr. Mahmoud Kordovani, of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, conducted a rescue excavation in the town of Ilam, capital of the province with the same name. This region is known in archaeological literature as «Pusht-i Kuh». Several tombs were discovered. The oldest material belongs to the initial phase of the Early Bronze Age....

Rock relief IV at Bishapur, Iran, depicts the Sasanian king Bahram II (AD 276–293) who meets an Arab diplomatic mission with horses and dromedaries. An inscription from the Mahram Bilqis temple near Marib mentions a diplomatic mission sent by Shammar Yuhar’ish to Ctesiphon and Seleucia. Based on the events mentioned in the inscription, this mission...

The Roman emperors on the rock reliefs of Shapur I at Darabgird and Bishapur are traditionally identified as Gordianus III, Philippus Arabs and Valerianus. The foreign delegations / prisoners on the Bishapur III relief have been interpreted as a reference to both the Roman Empire and the Eastern frontiers of the Sasanian Empire (Kushan). These refe...

The rock carving at Guyum is known since the early 20(th) century but did not receive full attention yet. Situated to the north of Shiraz, it can be attributed to the reign of the Sasanian king Bahram II. The panel depicts the standing king Bahram 11 in full, in a venerating position with bent forefinger and holding word with his left hand. A detai...

Buildings with two doors and horn-shaped battlements figure on the reverse of early frataraka coins of the 1 st. half of the 2 nd. cent. BCE ("first phase" coins); similar buildings but with two large stepped crenellations on the comers are shown on the coins of the second phase. In a third phase fire altars were represented. Contrary to other scho...

Metallic nodules found in the Siyalk II settlement and in Iron Age III tombs in Luristan, Iran, were identified by the excavators as meteorites. However, these identifications must be questioned. The Siyalk nodules could be of telluric origin. The four Luristan specimens are identified as pyrite nodules. It is suggested that such nodules were used...

Copper-base artefacts from Bronze Age Luristan have been analysed for their chemical composition and the isotopic composition of their lead. We find no significant systematic differences between a group of objects recovered in the Pusht-i Kuh region in the course of controlled excavations during the Belgian Archaeological Mission in Iran (BAMI) and...

The Belgian archaeologist Louis Vanden Berghe excavated at Tall-i Kamin in Fars during his surveys of the Marv Dasht in 1952 and 1955. He found sherds and vessels and excavated 4 graves with pottery and bronze items belonging to the Shogha-Taimuran cultural phase. The present paper sketches the context of his research and presents the complete data...

excavation report on two Chalcolithic graveyards in Luristan, Iran, excavated by Louis Vanden Berghe.

L'A. etudie un tabouret pliant provenant d'une tombe sassanide de Cheragh Ali Tepe, actuellement Marlik Tepe en Iran et conserve au Royal Museum d'Art et d'Histoire de Bruxelles sous le numero d'inventaire IR 1316. Les recherches ont ete menees essentiellement par des archeologues japonais. Des lances, des poignards, des casques ont ete egalement m...

Dissertation. Complete in? v. Thesis (doctoral)--University, Ghent.