Article

Funerary archaeology at Salut (Oman) 2017-2018 : insights on Middle Bronze Age grave's architecture and a possible new type of third millennium grave

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  • Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies - Polish Academy of Sciences
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... Interestingly, in the Khubayb and Abu Silah necropolises, small cups and spouted vessels/pouring vessels were also attested, placed on top of the EBA and Neolithic monumental tombs (Williams & Gregoricka 2020), attesting to their reuse or re-appropriation during the Iron Age. Moreover, the discovery of copper-alloy artefacts, stone beads, and shells containers suggested that some of these tombs were at least reused during the Early Iron Age or Wādī Sūq period, a practice already observed in this area and discussed by the IMTO (Condoluci & Degli Esposti 2015;Degli Esposti et al. 2018;Avanzini & Degli Esposti 2018). Further excavations and dating will provide a better understanding of the observed variability, both in terms of architecture and topography. ...
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The Bisya region is rich in archaeological heritage, with thousands of protohistoric funerary monuments (fourth-first millennium BC), making it an ideal place to study the diversity of burials in the region. This article presents the results of two survey and excavation seasons in the Bisya region. Remote sensing identified over 5500 tombs in a vast area, and ground surveys made it possible to document their variability and spatial distribution. The article discusses the architectural diversity, topographical location, and chronological assignment of these tombs and sheds light on the transition from the Hafit to the Umm an-Nar period as well as on further possible reuses. The excavation of three tombs (Tomb F4170, Tomb F2276, and Tomb F4169), revealed their architectural features and deposits and shed light on their possible dating. The imported pottery found in Tomb F4169 indicates connections with Mesopotamia, Iran, and Baluchistan. Beads, small objects, and copper alloy artefacts were recovered, providing further insight into the burial practices and trade networks of the time. This research in the Bisya region contributes with new data to our understanding of the burial landscape and socio-cultural development during the Early Bronze Age in the Arabian Peninsula, illuminating the architectural evolution and the trade and cultural networks in which the population was involved.
... When assessing assemblages from the second millennium BC, a consensus is difficult. The typological standard for tomb architecture seems to be inexistent, with above-ground as well as semi-subterranean tombs containing 50 to 100 individuals (Degli Esposti et al. 2018;Potts 2012;Carter 1997), whereas at other sites, there are other mortuary structures, for example, ciststyle tombs or oval mounds lined with stones (ElMahi & Al-Jahwari 2005;de Cardi, Kennet & Stocks 1994) that show the internment of between one and no more than three individuals. This creates a wide variability of burial structures and internments that are difficult to pin down to one homogeneous culture/period (Gernez & Giraud 2015;Gregoricka 2013;Jasim 2012). ...
Conference Paper
The site of Al Qusais had long been forgotten until recent interest from Dubai Municipality in reassessing the data uncovered in its 1970s and 1990s excavations. The first excavations uncovered two main areas of occupation, a Bronze and Iron Age necropolis and the so-called ‘Mound of Serpents’, where numerous copper snakes and snake-decorated ceramics were found, associated with what seems to be a columned hall, characteristic of the Iron Age II period. In the 1990s, new excavations were held in the necropolis area, where 101 burial pits were found. A rich assemblage of burial goods and human remains were uncovered in them, although they were never studied or published. After almost thirty years, new excavations were therefore held and the data reassessed. Although the excavation did not last long, more burial pits were identified, the previously uncovered material was studied and chronologically interpreted, human remains properly identified, and a geomorphological and environmental study was held to understand its prehistoric landscape. The results from this 2020 reassessment and excavation presented here will, it is hoped, help us to understand the ‘cultural’ shifts that occurred from the Bronze to the Iron Age period, still so poorly understood and so difficult to distinguish from one another.
... 14), and this overall variety is also a character of that period. The presence of varied tomb types in a cemetery has been widely reported, such as Jabal al-Buhais (Jasim, 2012), Ādam North and South (Gernez, and Giraud, 2017), Wādī Sūq (Frifelt, 1975) or Jabal Salūt JS2 and JS4 (Condoluci, and Degli Esposti, 2015;Degli Esposti et al, 2018). If the dating is correct, WTN13 also follows these examples. ...
Article
The Journal of Oman Studies, Volume 22, 2021. For those who has interest in this paper, please contact me :) Abstract: This paper reports on a cemetery (WTN13) located in the canyon of Wādī Tanūf, the Ad-Dākhilīyah Governorate. Archaeological documentation of 40 tombs with superstructure revealed a prehistoric mortuary landscape as follows. The tombs are classified into four types. Types 1 and 4 are free-standing tombs, while Types 2 and 3 were built either leaning against boulders or in rock shelters. These tombs are well preserved in general, but only a few objects have been collected from the surface. Alternatively, a morphological comparison of the tomb superstructure suggests that the free-standing tombs (Type 1), dominant in the cemetery, probably date back to the Wādī Sūq period (Middle Bronze Age), while the tombs built in rock shelters (Type 3) possibly belong to the Early Iron Age. Types 2 and 4 could presumably date back to the Wādī Sūq period. Type 1 tombs are possibly contemporary with the short-term (i.e. seasonal or temporal) occupation of the cave in WTN01, located upslope. This unique local mortuary landscape in Wādī Tanūf, comprising tombs with well-preserved superstructure and natural rock monuments on the high terrace in the canyon, should be re-evaluated in a broader cultural context of Southeast Arabia.
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This article is devoted to the soft‐stone vessels retrieved from QA 1‐1, a tomb from the Umm an‐Nar period in Wadi al‐Fajj, Northwest Oman, as part of a joint Polish–Omani project in 2016–2018. To date, the excavations, although confined to half of the tomb’s interior, have yielded as many as 67 soft‐stone vessels or their fragments, which, at least for the time being, is the second‐largest collection of these items obtained from one Umm an‐Nar tomb. The article primarily aims to present the current assemblage in terms of its spatial distribution within the tomb with particular emphasis on complete specimens discovered in situ. The paper aims to provide a valuable source of comparative research and thus may contribute to further discussions on the production and circulation of soft‐stone vessels in the land of Magan, as well as the burial rites related to furnishing the deceased with them.
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The preservation of rock art in open-air contexts is a global issue controlled by several environmental processes, which are less investigated than the cultural significance of engravings and paintings. For that reason, we discuss the age, preservation, and palaeoenvironmental context of petroglyphs discovered on the flat, almost vertical face of a large boulder fallen along the western slope of Jabal Hammah, a rocky hill that borders the oasis of Salut (northern Sultanate of Oman). Geoarchaeological investigation highlighted that in the region the preservation of petroglyphs is due to the interplay of two contrasting weathering processes. On one hand, karst dissolution – even if it is a very slow process in arid and semi-arid lands – gradually levels the surface of boulders. On the other hand, a biomineralized Mn- and Fe-rich rock varnish has developed inside the grooves of the engravings, thus sheltering them from extreme dissolution and promoting the preservation of the pristine shape of the representations. Moreover, organics trapped within the rock varnish have been radiocarbon dated to 2600 ± 60 uncal. years BP. This result allows establishing a limit ante quem for the production of these specific engravings and to root it to the Bronze or Iron Age exploitation of the area. This result is of particular relevance in a region where well-dated rock art is virtually absent. Today, the biogeochemical processes leading to the formation of the protective crust are almost inactive, and not consistent with the present dry environmental settings. Their occurrence is in accordance with other local palaeoclimatic record, and suggests Bronze and Iron Age climatic conditions wetter than today. A broader implication of our work is that it shows how a multidisciplinary approach to the study of rock art provides the opportunity of understanding the age of rock art and its paleoenvironmental significance. We demonstrate that physical, chemical and biological weathering processes are in charge of the preservation and/or destruction of rock art; such processes have to be seriously taken into account in projects of rock art field assessment.
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Excavations of a small graveyard near Adam, during the winter 2013-2014, revealed evidence of Early Bronze Age material culture and funerary practices in the Adam area. Also elements of spatial continuity through time, since a majority of other later graves were built in the same area, during the 2nd and the 1st millennium BCE. This paper focusses on the six other excavated graves from this period, in addition to the brief description of a 3rd millennium circular grave. Despite their bad state of preservation and their multiple use, reuse and plundering, they provide information about the history of the graveyard itself. As well as the main period of occupations in Adam during protohistoric times (from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age), confirming the elements observed during the survey and previous excavations.
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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 clear evidence for their reuse in the Iron Age. In addition, indications for the reuse of other tombs within the necropolis, excavated by the German Mining Museum Bochum and by the Danish expedition in the 1970s — Tombs 154, 401, 402, 403, 1142, and 1143 — will also be discussed. Together they give a broad picture of the different kinds of Iron Age reuse in the necropolis of Bat, consisting of individual inhumations within the Umm an-Nar tombs, the creation of new Iron Age tombs in the direct vicinity of the Umm an-Nar tombs and the reuse of their building materials, and scattered stray finds dating to later periods in the debris of the Umm an-Nar tombs. Finally, I will attempt to link the reuse of Umm an-Nar tombs to practices connected to collective memory.
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Soft stone vessels are one of the most typical items to be found from Umm an-Nar sites in the Oman peninsula. This paper aims to present an overview of the material of two excavated tombs from Hili area, near Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates (Fig.): Tomb A at Hili North, excavated in the eighties by the French Archaeological Mission in Abu Dhabi (Vogt 985, Cleuziou , Méry & Vogt, forthcoming), and Tomb N located 2 km away in Hili Garden, among several other Umm an-Nar tombs and close to the main settlement sites. The excavation of Hili N has been initiated by M. al-Haddu for the Department of Antiquities in Al Ain (al-Haddu 989), and is now taken over by the French Archaeological Mission headed by S. Méry (Méry 200) (). The typological characteristics of the two corpus together with some observations on the context of discovery will allows us to propose a chronological distinction between the two tombs, and some remarks about the use of stone vessels in tombs possibly related to funerary rituals. Dr. Walid Yasin from Al Ain Department of Antiquities is gratefully aknowledged for proposing us to study the already unearthed material.
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Encompassing a landmass greater than the rest of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean combined, the Arabian peninsula remains one of the last great unexplored regions of the ancient world. This book provides the first extensive coverage of the archaeology of this region from c. 9000 to 800 BC. Peter Magee argues that a unique social system, which relied on social cohesion and actively resisted the hierarchical structures of adjacent states, emerged during the Neolithic and continued to contour society for millennia later. The book also focuses on how the historical context in which Near Eastern archaeology was codified has led to a skewed understanding of the multiplicity of lifeways pursued by ancient peoples living throughout the Middle East.
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The archaeological site at Bat has an important status with regard to research on the Umm an-Nar culture. Investigations began there in 1972 and were revived in 2004, when the excavation of tomb 401 was begun. This paper presents the complete corpus of grave-goods. Despite all the disturbances within the find layers, when comparing the two chambers it is possible to observe some indications of the different burial cycles and detect distinguishing characteristics. Taking into account the divergent earlier and later ceramic styles, burial use must be proposed between 2400 and 2200 BC. This date accords with observations of the architectural details of tomb 401 and with the sequence of tomb construction types in the Bat region. This paper is dedicated to the memory of professor Gerd Weisgerber.
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Eighty-seven beads of various materials are discussed according to the twelve typological groups into which they are divided. This typology is largely based on bead shapes, although manufacturing techniques and materials are also discussed. The beads are also compared to other assemblages in southeastern Arabia.
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X-ray powder diffraction analysis identified a concentration of green pigment in a shell from Tell Abraq as the copper mineral atacamite. The use of atacamite as a pigment in the ancient world is discussed.
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