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<p>This book presents the first dedicated study of the enigmatic 2000-year-old trilith monuments in Southeastern Arabia, revealing their geographical extent, chronological range, and cultural significance. Based on an analysis of 921 trilith sites comprising almost four thousand clusters. the book identifies four distribution hotspots across Yemen and Oman, extending the known chronology of triliths back to 410 BCE. Statistical analyses suggest that triliths played a role in mobility and rituals for safe passage, pre-Islamic water rites, and rituals associated with ancestor cults. A spatio-temporal analysis has traced the migration patterns of populations linked to trilith monuments, revealing their spread from southern Oman in the 5th century BCE to eastern Oman by the 1st century BCE, before retreating southwards in possible connection with the semi-historical migration of the Azd tribes. The book concludes that triliths were multifunctional spaces rather than structures built for a single purpose. Two topical chapters describe the relocation of a trilith to the National Museum in Muscat and the challenges involved in identifying trilith monuments using remote sensing. This book will serve as an invaluable reference volume for scholars working on the stone monuments of Arabia. It contains a repository of extensive data that is essential for understanding ancient nomadic societies in southern Arabia.</p>
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Abstract The Nafūn rock art complex, located in al-Wusṭā Governorate in south-central Oman, was discovered in 2020 and has emerged as one of the most extensive rock art sites in southeast Arabia. The site features 59 flat limestone rock surfaces with over 200 South Arabian inscriptions and over 500 engraved figures. These figures include maritime animal depictions such as sea turtles, sperm whales, squid, jellyfish, ray fish, and mola mola, along with more common depictions of camels (sometimes ridden) and horsemen hunting oryx or wild canids. The rock art tradition in the Nafūn area is estimated to reach from the 5th millennium BCE to the 2nd millennium CE, offering a unique window into a way of life that endured for over 6,000 years.
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The discovery in 2020 of the Nafūn rock art complex, located in al-Wustā Governorate in south-central Oman, has emerged as one of the most extensive rock art sites in south-eastern Arabia. To date, the archaeological investigations led by the Institute of Archaeology Prague and the permission of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, has brought to the discovery of 61 flat limestone panels, bearing approximately 1000 engraved figures and 200 rock inscriptions offering further evidence of the regional use of South Arabian writing traditions (abecedary of 27-29 letters) used in South Arabian kingdom who are Sabaic, Qatabanic, Minaic and Hadramatic inscriptions, as is the case with the North Arabian variants (Dadanite, Lihyanite, Thamudic, Safaitic, etc.). This variant - Omani script - was also used in the Ẓofār region and in the north of Sultanat of Oman, whose earliest traces date back to around the 4th-3rd century BCE (in the Khôr Rôrî in Ẓofār region). The engravings depict a remarkable variety of subjects, including maritime fauna such as sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), sperm whales, squid, jellyfish, ray fish, and mola mola, alongside the more characteristic representations of dromedary camels—sometimes mounted—horsemen engaged in hunting scenes featuring oryx and wild canids, and other terrestrial motifs. The Nafūn assemblage attests to a long and complex rock art tradition that can be tentatively dated from the 5th millennium BCE to the 2nd millennium CE, providing an unparalleled window into the evolution of cultural expressions and lifeways in the Arabian Peninsula over a span of more than six millennia.
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In March 2023, an international team of archaeologists, anthropologists and geologists led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague successfully completed the second season of the ARDUQ (Archaeological landscape and environmental dynamics of Duqm and Nejd) expedition. Researchers from ten countries took part in fieldwork in two regions of the Sultanate. The first team, based in Duqm (south-central Oman), carried out fieldwork at Nafūn, excavating a Neolithic collective burial and documenting extensive rock art sites, both unique in south-east Arabia. Small test trenches for lithic studies were also carried out. ARDUQ’s investigations reveal a rich archaeological landscape at Duqm with long-term occupation. The second team worked in Dhofar (southern Oman). The team discovered seven Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Rub’ Al Khālī desert, with a high concentration of handaxes. Test trenches on the Nejd plateau revealed stratified Middle Palaeolithic artefacts of Nubian Complex, and samples were taken for optical stimulated luminescence dating. A systematic study of the flint raw material was also initiated. Research at Dhofar will shed new light on the early hominin and anatomically modern human dispersal Out of Africa, a topic of global importance and interest.
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, A newly discovered grave in Wadi Nafūn, Oman, features a unique burial structure, combining monumental architecture and the collective deposition of human remains from multiple Neolithic groups. Detailed analysis of the burial community reveals new insights into Neolithic rituals and subsistence strategies during the Holocene Humid Period in southern Arabia.
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This paper presents new evidence of Late/Final Palaeolithic occupation in central Oman... [cite: 4]
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This paper presents the newly identified Middle Palaeolithic site of Wadi Baw 4, in the Al Wusta Governate, close to Duqm. Middle Palaeolithic sites are very rare, especially in central Oman, where no sites had been identified prior to this, making this an important site not only for Oman, but the broader Arabian Peninsula. The site is a large (100m2) and relatively dense (>30 artefacts/m2) lithic scatter located on a slightly elevated limestone ridge with outcropping chert nodules at its base and flanks. The lithic assemblages produced from these chert nodules exhibit technological variability and weathering heterogeneity, indicating a likely palimpsest of Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic) and later Holocene occupation phases that targeted this raw material. By extending the Middle Palaeolithic record of hominin activity into the Huqf area of south-eastern Arabia with the first evidence of Levallois lithic technology, Wadi Baw 4 helps to diversify the picture of Arabian prehistory and promises to make an important contribution to wider debates surrounding the early peopling of the Arabian Peninsula. Work is in progress to establish a robust chronostratigraphic framework for the site through a multi-technique dating approach. In the meantime, this paper will present some preliminary results from the analysis of the Middle Palaeolithic lithic artefacts from the site and briefly consider where they might fit within the wider context of the Arabian Middle Palaeolithic.
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