Conquering new territories: when the first black boats sailed to Masirah Island (original) (raw)
Related papers
Proceedings of the Seminars for Arabian Studies 44: 235-256, 2014
The Ministry of Heritage & Culture of Oman with the technical support of the Italian Archaeological Mission has resumed in 2012 and 2013 the field research at the shell midden of RH-6, in the Qurum Natural Reservation Capital Area in view of the construction near the site of an Information Centre. RH-6 is located about 600 m far from the nearby site of RH-5. The site was first investigated in the 80’s by P. Biagi, whose work outlined the main characteristics of its occupation. It is dated to the sixth and fifth millennia BCE and is one of the earliest sites known along the Eastern littoral of the Arabian Peninsula (ELA). During of the two seasons of fieldwork, four main sectors were investigated. In Sector A, a well-structured settlement, includes postholes directly cut into the bedrock that delimit some oval huts, and two auxiliary structures respectively used for fish and shell processing. In Sector B, several graves were documented allowing new considerations about funerary practices. In Sector C, a thorough stratigraphic excavation was carried out in a 2 x 2 m test trench dug up to a depth of 1,75 m in order to document the whole sequence of occupation as well as in the northern part of the site with the Trench North. The opportunity of conducting new excavations at the Ra’s al-Hamra Neolithic sites is of great importance for scientific research focused on the study of prehistoric fishermen populations that settled along the ELA, and for understanding their earliest mortuary practices and rituals.
Survey of Prehistoric Sites in Mahra, Eastern Yemen
Adumatu, 2002
A recent survey in the governorate of Mahra, Yemen produced surface collections of lithic artifacts rich in bifacial tools and blades. Technological analysis of the Mahra collection suggests a simple blade industry unrelated to the Upper Palaeolithic blade traditions found in the deserts of the northern Arabian Peninsula. A large percentage of the Mahra assemblage consists of specialized bifacial tools characterized as plano-keeled naviforms. Correlates to these tool types have been discovered throughout Oman. It is suggested the artifacts are associated with an Early/Middle Holocene wet phase lasting from 10,000 to 5,000 BP.
Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 2022
al-Tikha is a mid to large Umm an-Nar (c. 2700-2000 BC) settlement situated near Rustaq at the back of the Southern Batinah coastal plain in the Sultanate of Oman that was discovered (or rediscovered) in 2014. The site is unique because its layout and spatial organisation are very largely (possibly completely) visible on the surface. This includes two separate areas of stonebuilt housing, a large pottery scatter of varying density, three or four typical Umm an-Nar round towers and a small cemetery consisting of at least four tombs, along with a few other features. The layout of the site is described and discussed in detail, in particular, in relation to what it might tell us about the nature of Umm an-Nar settlement and social organisation more generally. The location of the site within a pattern of repeating Umm an-Nar settlement along Wadi Far (Wādī al-Farʿī) is also described and discussed.
A Late Iron Age Settlement in Mahleya Oman
2011
This paper presents the results of a survey and excavation carried out at a Late Iron Age/ Samad Period settlement situated on the western bank of Wadi Mahram, close to the village of Mahleya in the al-Mudhaybi region. The site was discovered and excavated in January 2004. The excavation proved to be very rewarding. Two stone structures were fully excavated, revealing the possible remains of a stone-and-mudbrick house. The two structures provide an indication of settlement organization, layout and economy during the Late Iron Age/Samad Period. The results suggest this was an agricultural settlement, as evidenced from the recovery of a number of date stones, the remains of a falaj channel and recessed areas of land perhaps specified for agriculture. There is also evidence of trade and contact with the coast, as attested by the recovery of shells. It is possible that some sort of exchange network existed between the interior oasis settlement of Mahleya and various coastal settlements, whereby dates, cereals and animal products (e.g. milk, meat [perhaps dried], leather and fat) were exchanged for dried and salted fish and shells from the coast.
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2019
Renewed excavations in 2016–17 and 2017–18 at the Umm an-Nar coastal site HD-1 at Ras al-Hadd, in the Sultanate of Oman, provide new insights on regional and long-distance interactions during the Early Bronze Age. The Italian-American ‘Joint Hadd project’ is led by Maurizio Cattani from the University of Bologna, and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, under the auspices of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture of Oman. New radiocarbon dates place the site firmly in the mid-third millennium BC. Plant and faunal remains are being examined to determine seasonal subsistence patterns and fishing strategies. The discovery of lithic, copper, and shell manufacturing debris provides new information on local technologies. Fibres and textiles preserved on copper tools and other artefacts reveal the nature of local fibre production and possible long-distance trade of other fibres. Finished stone beads of local as well as non-local materials indicate the importance of both regional and external trade. A wide variety of local as well as Indus-related ceramics reveal connections to regional Umm an-Nar communities and the more distant Indus source areas. Preliminary results of selected artefact analyses are presented here to highlight new directions for research.
Prehistoric Fisherfolk of Oman. The Neolithic Village of Ras Al-Hamra RH-5
The Archaeological Heritage of Oman – Vol. 6, 2021
Excavations at the Prehistoric site Ras Al-Hamra RH-5, located on a large promontory in the Qurum area of Muscat, have been conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Oman with support from the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. The site was dated from the late fifth to the end of the fourth millennia BC, and it was made of an accumulation of superimposed food discards deriving from continuous and repeated subsistence activities such as fishing, collecting shells, hunting and herding. Dwellings and household installations, including objects of daily use and ornaments, have also been found throughout the occupation sequence. Excavations at RH-5 yielded unprecedented data on the economic and social dynamics of Neolithic societies in eastern Arabia. The exploitation of the different ecological niches annually supplied all the necessary for a sedentary human attendance. The lifestyle of fisher-gatherers communities during the Middle Holocene represents a fundamental step of the neolithization process in Oman.
Recent investigations at the prehistoric site RH-5 (Ra’s al-Hamra, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman)
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 41: 201-222, 2011
After a gap of twenty years, the Italian Archaeological Mission in Oman has resumed excavations at the Middle Holocene site of Ra’s al-Hamra (RH-5), carrying out an intensive exploratory programme in three consecutive seasons, supported by the Ministry of Heritage & Culture, which aims to create an archaeological park. The resumption of the excavations at RH-5 has so far yielded new data that will give us precise details about the synchronic and diachronic dynamics of the area’s population, and also about the economic and social dynamics of Neolithic societies in eastern Arabia. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of the recent excavations. In particular, we consider the spatial organization of the settlement, recovered by means of digital recording. The 2008 excavation season has disclosed new evidence concerning the settlement sequence, while work carried out in 2009 has yielded new information on dwelling types and household installations mostly from the earliest phase of the sequence, which can be dated to around the late fifth and early fourth millennia BCE. Furthermore, a comparison of the remains of the RH-5 settlement with those of contemporary sites so far investigated along the eastern shores of Arabia, along with the ethno-historical study of different populations, is considered to provide a better understanding of the spatial organization of the village in view of the future construction of the Ra’s al-Hamra Heritage Park.