Socio-political factors influencing early Islamic copper production in Oman (original) (raw)

Some Reflections on the Ancient Metallurgy of Sumhuram (Sultanate of Oman

Annali, Sezione orientale 80, 2020

Multidisciplinary research on the metallurgy-related items and features from the ancient South Arabian harbour of Sumhuram, in southern Oman, have shed light on ancient copper and iron production and use at the site, pointing out what appears to be a definitely unusual practice in particular for what concerns copper alloying. In this paper, the archaeometallurgical data are summarised and discussed with the aim of showing that the existence of a copper working tradition specific to South Arabian centres can be tentatively postulated and that at least two different networks of metal production and exchange probably existed, centred on the opposite sides of the southern Arabian Peninsula. Keywords bronze-ancient metallurgy-Sultanate of Oman-Sumhuram-Red Sea trade

The Beginning of Copper Metallurgy in Oman

The study of Bronze Age copper artefacts from the coastal sites of the Gulf of Oman, mainly coming from excavations of Ra’s al-Hamra, Ra’s al-Hadd and Ra’s al-Jinz, provide us valuable information on early metallurgical activity.

Khirbat al-Mana'iyya: an early Islamic-period copper-smelting site in south-eastern Wadi 'Araba, Jordan

Recent excavations in southeastern Wadi 'Araba in Jordan have revealed the first early Islamic-period copper-smelting site known in the eastern side of the valley, which extends south of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of 'Aqaba. Five test pits were excavated in 2012 at Khirbat al–Mana'iyya, a prominent copper-smelting camp in southeastern Wadi 'Araba, Jordan. The results of these excavations demonstrate that the site was primarily active in the seventh–ninth century AD. Its distance from the copper sources of southwest 'Araba suggests that its location was chosen based on proximity to wood and water resources, rather than copper ore deposits. The discovery that the site dates to the early Islamic period has implications for previous and future work in southeast 'Araba. In particular, it challenges the common—until now—view of the region as virtually devoid of settlement during this period.

Technology and Social Process: Oscillations in Iron Age Copper Production and Power in Southern Jordan [Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, San Diego (2010)]

Records of technological practice provide an important lens for studying societies and cultures across time and space. This dissertation takes a diachronic view of the role of ancient copper production in the formation and oscillations of power when historical ‘state’ level societies emerged during the late 2nd – 1st millennium BCE in the southern Levant. The primary study area is Jordan’s Faynan district that contains the richest copper ore deposits in the southern Levant and constitutes one of the best preserved records of ancient copper extraction in the world. As demonstrated here, ancient metallurgy played a major role in socio-political processes for south Levantine complex societies during the Iron Age (12th – 6th centuries BCE). The core of this study is the identification of detailed chaînes opératoires of changing Iron Age copper production systems. Based on newly excavated archaeometallurgy material culture, surveys, analyses of large technology-related assemblages, and previously published data, the basic components of the changing production systems are defined, and social meanings are extracted.

Indus potters in central Oman in the second half of the third millennium BC. First resuts of a technological and archaeometric study.

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2017

The nature of cultural interactions between the Indus Civilization and Magan is explored in this paper. The presence of Indus potters in eastern Arabia can now be demonstrated based on a combined technological and petrographical study of a range of pottery types found at the site of Salūt ST1 (Sultanate of Oman). Similar discoveries from other Umm an-Nar sites in the Sultanate of Oman and the UAE supports the hypothesis that Indus communities were living alongside the Magan people at Umm an-Nar sites more extensively than previously thought.

Saruq al-Hadid: a centre of metallurgic production and social cohesion

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 52 2023: Papers from the fifty-fifth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held at Humboldt Universität, Berlin, 5–7 August 2022, 2023

Copper metallurgy in southeast Arabia has been the focus of many studies, mainly to understand production and trade dynamics in the Bronze Age. More recently, studies have also concentrated on the Iron Age. These have focused on evidence from burial, settlement, and mining/smelting sites. However, the discovery of Uqdat al-Bakrah and Saruq al-Hadid, which were workshops dedicated to producing copper-alloy objects but not associated with any settlement or mining site, brings a new perspective to the production dynamics. Saruq al-Hadid, in particular, comprises a large quantity of metallographic, structural, and contextual evidence, from smelting to refining copper and recycling scrap metal, as well as techniques to finish copper-alloy objects, which help to understand the metallurgic copper production of the Iron Age. This evidence highlights the role of Saruq al-Hadid within an extensive regional network of copper trade and production. Furthermore, ritualized depositions of copper and associated votive and communal assemblages found at this site, similar to cultic and meeting/gathering places in the region, provide further insight into the social meaning of copper for these populations.