Transformations in late Sasanian and Early Islamic Eastern Arabia: the evidence from Kush. (original) (raw)

SASANIAN AND EARLY ISLAMIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS NORTH OF THE PERSIAN GULF

Le recenti ricognizioni archeologiche effettuate nella regione prospiciente la costa settentrionale del Golfo Persico hanno rivelato una significativa crescita degli insediamenti in epoca sasanide. Tale crescita è probabilmente da attribuire ad un mirato investimento nei sistemi d'irrigazione e nell'agricoltura. Nel corso delle ricognizioni sono stati scoperti resti di diverse strutture idrauliche, quali canali, mulini ad acqua, qanat e pozzi. La gran parte degli abitati sono situati nelle zone pedemontane ed in questi casi le opere idrauliche si trovano spesso nelle aree alte degli insediamenti. In alcuni casi sono stati identificati anche dei cimiteri. In conclusione si può dire che l'economia del Fars meridionale di epoca sasanide era basata sull'agricoltura ancor più che sul commercio e la rete di strade di comunicazione. 1. PREMISE There has been little research into the effect the Sasanian Empire's collapse had on settlement patterns in the Iranian plateau. The general hypothesis is that the economic system remained unchanged after the Islamic invasion (664 CE) and some researchers even contend that the economic system improved. 5 Recent archaeological surveys, in the hinterlands north of the Persian Gulf, are throwing light on some interesting new information regarding this matter. The results from most of these surveys in the hinterland, share a common feature-they illustrate the expansion of sites during the Sasanian period and the reduction, and in some cases disappearance, of sites after the arrival of Islam. One could conclude from these recent surveys, that new settlement patterns emerged during the Islamic period due to the disappearance of settlement patterns particular to the Sasanian dynasty. In this paper we will be looking in detail at Sasanian policy in relation to economic investment in the hinterlands north of the Persian Gulf. Archaeological evidence suggests that there was huge Sasanian investment in agriculture and an extension of irrigation in the mountainous areas south of Fars province. However, the development of agriculture in the aforementioned area differs from what the Sasanians did in the Susiana plain 6 and Mesopotamia. 7 In these regions huge dams and massive irrigation channels

On the eve of Islam: archaeological evidence from Eastern Arabia.

Antiquity, 2005

Kennet, D. 2005. On the eve of Islam: archaeological evidence from Eastern Arabia. Antiquity 79/ 303:107-118. What was the archaeological context of the rise of Islam in Arabia? The author uses new work from Eastern Arabia to show that the advent of Islam coincided with the decline of the Sasanian hegemony and one of Arabia’s least affluent periods in 3500 years of history."

Potts 1997 - Rewriting the late prehistory of southeastern Arabia (Iraq 59)

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Oman and Bahrain in late antiquity: the Sasanians’ Arabian periphery

For at least forty years, the conventional wisdom on eastern Arabia during the Sasanian period has been that it was a time of prosperity due to settlement, investment by state authorities, and a commercial flowering in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. Recent reassessments of archaeological evidence, however, show significant signs of economic decline relative to the heights of the Parthian and early Islamic periods. In addition, new understandings of agrarian empires highlight their internal variability, understandings which seem readily applicable to the Sasanian case. Work on the Sasanian Empire specifically has also improved our knowledge of its social, economic, and political structure. This paper reconsiders the written sources for this period in the context of these developments, arguing that the evidence, while attesting to periodic involvement of the Sasanians in eastern Arabia, is unsuitable for making relative economic arguments. It also argues that, given the administrative diversity of large agrarian empires, scholars should be cautious about making generalizations about Sasanian developmental policies for all areas under their influence.

A First Ceramic Chronology for the Late Islamic Arabian Gulf

2015

Islamic archaeology in the Arabian Gulf has grown tremendously in recent years. However, a ceramic chronology for the Late Islamic Arabian Gulf has not yet been put forward. The present paper constitutes a first attempt at a refined periodization based on the occupational sequence of al-Ain, UAE. The study is based on the typological quantification of sherds from stratified excavations undertaken by the Historic Buildings and Landscapes Section of the Tourism and Culture Authority Abu Dhabi. It is broadly based on the methodology developed by Derek Kennet in his much-cited "Sasanian and Islamic Pottery from Ras al-Khaimah" (2004). The c. 13,500-sherd assemblage has been divided into six periods of thirty to seventy years spanning the later seventeenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The al-Ain assemblage is compared to published ceramics from contemporary sites in the Gulf region and further compared to relevant historical sources to draw out the wider implications of the findings. The present study constitutes an interim report and full publication of ceramics from al-Ain will appear in a multi-authored pottery handbook currently in preparation.