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The newly discovered Early Bronze Age site of Ibrāʾ South at the southern outskirts of the modern town of Ibrāʾ offers a range of archaeological features dating to the Umm an‑Nar period. In this paper, the results of the first season of fieldwork conducted by the Goethe University Frankfurt are presented, including a detailed surface survey and finds collection as well as small-scale excavations of two domestic buildings. The site also allows a study of different functional zones within the settlement, among others an area of copper processing and systems of water management, as well as indications of a planned settlement layout.

Research towards the reconstruction of various archaeological landscapes in the Al-Ḥajar mountains is still ongoing. Past investigations in the Wādī Tanūf canyon have revealed long-term transformation of landscapes of higher places, such as hilltops and a cave on a cliff. However, the function of the wadi terraces has not been sufficiently investigated. In the 2022–2023 season, we surveyed the site of WTN07 on a wadi terrace and documented 123 Islamic graves, as well as one probable Wādī Sūq tomb (Tomb 122). A detailed examination indicates that Tomb 122 is a rare collective tomb in North-Central Oman and has composite characteristics represented by a U-shaped chamber, a possible entrance corridor, and an attached annex with a few subsidiary tombs. Furthermore, we have identified eight non-mortuary features, including a newly discovered building (Structure 01) in Wādī Tanūf, as well as a platform (Structure 02) and a long wall (Structure 04). These findings highlight the importance of the terrace in the canyon, given the limited flat space available. We assume that the small terrace running along the river was a place for different activities over time, with most of the evidence related to the movement of people in the trans-Ḥajar region, since the canyon can be considered as a corridor.

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.

In 2023, a primary goal of the Archaeological Water Histories of Oman (ArWHO) Project fieldwork involved intensive mapping of architecture at sites near Yanqul, Oman to gain a better understanding of social relations during the Iron Age (1300–300 BC) in south-east Arabia. Small settlements (less than 2 ha) proliferated in remote mountainous areas during the Iron Age, reflecting broader changes in social organization. How were mountain communities organized, and what was their larger role in Iron Age societies that were engaged in wide-reaching networks producing and trading copper and softstone? Through mapping of architecture, surface collections, and test excavation, our ongoing research examines how small communities in the mountains and piedmonts were socially configured. Here we report on three of the four sites studied in early 2023: ʿAqīr al‑Shamūs, Ḥayy Ukur, and al-ʿAqar. Mapping of the fourth site, Raki 2, relies on alternative methods that are still being processed and will be reported in detail elsewhere. Our work has begun evaluating differences in the size, shape, abundance, and construction of architecture and surrounding water management and field systems. Preliminary results reveal a dense architectural plan with a possible public building at al-ʿAqar and broad similarities in architectural plans between ʿAqīr al-Shamūs, a specialized softstone production site, and Ḥayy Ukur, which lacks evidence of specialized production, suggesting autonomy as a likely social driver of the Iron Age settlement pattern.

Analyses of archaeological fuel remains can provide insight into pyrotechnologies, resource management, and the local environment. In this paper, we examine archaeological charcoals from Hafit period (3300–2700 BC) levels in Building V at al‑Khashbah (al-Khashaba), Oman, to understand fuel harvesting and burning preferences associated with early copper production. Building V is currently thought to be the earliest identified copper-production site in Oman based on the presence of abundant pyrotechnological remains, copper slag, and stratified radiocarbon results. Here, we build on previous anthracological work reconstructing woodland composition from the site. Anthracologists are increasingly recognising that fuelwood collection is often based on social or functional grounds rather than species availability. To that end, we have combined traditional taxonomic analysis with the application of dendro-anthracological methods to examine how intensive wood harvesting was for copper production and whether it had effects on the local vegetation. Dendrological reconstruction of wood calibre and condition at burning combined with spatial patterning of remains provides a more nuanced view of these preferences than can be achieved through taxonomic analysis alone.

The early Islamic period was marked by a resurgence in large-scale copper production in south-east Arabia. This is in contrast to the preceding era (early first millennium BCE to the mid-first millennium CE) and its notable lack of evidence of copper production. Various external and internal factors, including a flourishing Indian Ocean trade and environmental limitations, have been suggested as factors in this renewal and in its subsequent decline. However, the socio-political and economic factors that formed the framework for industrial growth during this transformative period are rarely considered. This paper delves deeper into the socio-political background of the early Islamic period in relation to industrial growth in south-east Arabia. To bridge the gap between historical and archaeological evidence, we also present new data from surveys and excavations conducted at early Islamic industrial sites in Wadī al‑Rākī, Oman. These findings offer new insights into the history of large-scale copper processing in the region.

A new project on the pottery has begun since excavations resumed in 2016 at the site of al-Balīd (Ẓafār), Dhofar in southern Oman. The work concentrates on the Husn, a fortified palace, in this Islamic port. The paper presents the current project on the pottery, exploring methodology, objectives, and preliminary results. The study suggests a dating for the occupational phases of the palace identified so far (fourteenth–eighteenth century AD). The examination of the ceramic material is supported by archaeometric analysis and ethnoarchaeological work on the modern Dhofari production, the latter contributing to a better understanding of the ancient manufacturing process and the transfer of knowledge. This multidisciplinary study allows an exhaustive stylistic, technological, and archaeometric characterization of the pottery, with a special focus on local wares, also proposing or revising their chronological attribution. Moreover, a provenance study is conducted, particularly to establish the origin of the abundant and diverse imports, thus identifying the regions trading with al-Balīd during different periods. Despite previous work on al-Balīd, the study of the ceramic material has never been published properly — the project aims to fill this gap. Furthermore, it is one of the few ongoing research projects on Islamic ceramics of Dhofar and present-day Oman.

Landlord villages dominated Iranian land tenure for hundreds of years, whereby one powerful landlord owned the village structures, surrounding farmland, and to all intents and purposes, the village occupants themselves, a system that in some cases remained in place up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In Oman, mud-brick oases were home to most of the rural population right up until Sultan Qaboos came to power in 1970, and required inhabitants of mud-brick houses to relocate into new concrete block buildings. Historical Archaeology and Heritage in the Middle East explores these everyday, rural communities in Iran and Oman in the 19th and 20th centuries, through a combination of building analysis, excavation, artefact analysis and ethnographic interviews. Drawing on the results of original field projects, the book considers new ways of exploring traditional lifeways, giving voice to hitherto largely ignored sections of the population, and offers new and different ways of thinking about how these people lived and what shaped their lives and the impact of major political and social changes on them. Place, memory and belonging are considered through the lens of material culture within these villages. The first of its kind, the book brings together methodologies, research questions, and themes that have never been used or addressed in the Middle East. Helping to establish historical archaeology in the Middle East and providing new ways in which the memorable, quotidian past can be exploited for its social and economic value in contemporary community and heritage developments, it is an ideal resource for students, scholars and practitioners of historical archaeology and heritage of and in the Middle East.

Dhofar, the southern governorate of Oman, lies within a distinctive ecological zone due to the summer Southwest Monsoon. It is home to numerous indigenous succulent plants, the most famous of which is frankincense (Boswellia sacra). The region, tied in the past to both Oman and Yemen, has a long and distinguished archaeological past stretching back to the Lower Paleolithic ca. 1.5 my BP. Dhofar is also home to a distinctive people, the Modern South Arabian Languages speakers (MSAL) since at least the last 15,000 years. Ancient Zafar (Al-Habudi), now called Al-Baleed, and its successor Salalah was and is the province's largest city. From the seventh century onwards until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1504 AD Al-Baleed dominated the central southern Arabian coastline politically and economically. Archaeological surveys and excavations in the governorate, beginning in 1954, have brought to light Dhofar's ancient past

The aim of this paper is to analyse the dynamics related to the pottery production in Sumhuram, the easternmost port of call between the Red Sea and the Indian continent along the southern coast of Arabia (second century BC–fifth century AD). Being a rich hub of international trade, receiving and redistributing local products and goods from many different areas, Sumhuram was able to provide for its needs through its own agriculture and a number of local activities, as attested by the presence of kilns and furnaces. Previous studies on the topic have suggested a possible connection between local pottery manufacturing in Sumhuram, and the Hadrami tradition, although kilns have not been found until recently. In 2015 archaeological investigations unveiled the first evidence of such a connection with the discovery of a pottery kiln and some production waste inside the city wall, along with the identification of pottery sherds in the area of the kiln. In order to identify their mineralogical and petrographic composition, thin-section analyses were made on a number of selected sherds. The preliminary results demonstrate that the raw materials used are compatible with a local production. This allows us to describe the different phases of the pottery cycle in Sumhuram as well as the structure of the pottery kiln, which represents an uncommon find in the pre-Islamic archaeology of southern Arabia.

Extensive trade networks in the Indian Ocean generated contact among cultures and spheres of maritime technology across a huge geographical area. Inevitably, these networks resulted not only in exchange of foodstuffs, raw materials, luxury goods, spices, and manufactured goods, but also in cultural and religious concepts and technological knowledge and practices. With the intensity of maritime trade these exchanges engendered the borrowing of shipbuilding designs, materials, and methodologies and generated a certain hybridization of technology, design, and the ways in which ships were conceived. This hybridization is particularly evident in the Belitung and Phanom-Surin ships discovered in Indonesia and Thailand respectively (Flecker 2001; 2008; Jumpron 2019; Wongnai, Jumpron & Premjai 2016). While echoing shipbuilding practices from outside South-East Asia, they also incorporated materials and concepts from South-East Asia, and yet remain distinct from the dominant lashed-lug construction of the region. Using archaeological material from Oman and South-East Asia as well as ethnographic data from the western Indian Ocean, East Africa, India, Oman, Iran, and South-East Asia, this paper explores current archaeological and ethnographic shipbuilding information and raises some questions about the place of Belitung and Phanom-Surin in first-millennium shipbuilding practice.

This article aims to study whether the increase of agricultural settlements in the Sultanate of Oman during the Late Islamic period (c. 1500-1950) was related to pre-oil globalization, as attested in the wider Gulf region. This is done by analysing the archaeological dataset of the agricultural village of Sahlat, with a focus on the ceramic material, located in the Suhar region. The assemblages collected by the Wadi al-Jizzi Archaeological Project, point to its occupation from c. 1750 to 1930. During this time period, the coastal towns of southeastern Arabia were heavily influenced by globalization processes, but the effects and reach of trade on rural communities remains poorly known. In this paper, Sahlat is compared to two contemporary sites connected to the same falaj system, and two other sites in the Gulf region. The results indicate that pre-oil globalization did not only impact coastal towns, but that rural settlements such as Sahlat experienced similar transformations. It is suggested that pre-oil globalization was not only linked to the pearling trade, but that the export of dates should also be taken into consideration when studying this topic.

This interdisciplinary paper explores the potential of the maritime cultural landscape approach to a recent preliminary study of the island of Masirah in south-eastern Oman. Masirah Island is known for its extended occupation and rich archaeological record and in particular for its intensive use of marine resources from the Neolithic period up to the modern day. The Maritime Footprints project sets out to explore this dynamic maritime cultural landscape through a variety of methodologies. It employs a range of terrestrial and maritime archaeological survey techniques and approaches, mapping selected sites, their geographical context, and associated coastal features; it undertakes maritime ethnographic inquiry, studying the traditional boats, their use and change over time; it records oral traditions and explores memory and practice relating to the sea and maritime activities. Three case studies are identified to explore the changing maritime cultural landscape of the island from prehistory to the modern day in order to reveal a more nuanced appreciation of maritime activity, seafaring, and changing use of the marine resource over time and between the island's two geographically distinct coastlines. Essentially, this project aims to identify the maritime character of Masriah Island noting continuity and change over time and space.

The Jewel of Muscat Project focused on the reconstruction, based on an early ninth-century shipwreck, of a sewn-plank ship excavated in 1998-1999 off Belitung Island, Indonesia. Analysis of the surviving structure indicated that the ship was originally from the western Indian Ocean, and probably the Arabian Peninsula. The project comprehensively documented the research and construction of this vessel in Oman, and the sailing to Singapore. This paper addresses the technical aspects involved with building the 18 m vessel from the inevitably incomplete excavated remains, and compares the archaeological evidence with the modern reconstruction. It examines the methodological issues involved with creating a conceptual bridge between the fields of archaeology and ethnographic boatbuilding. The paper also provides an overview of the navigation and sailing performance of the vessel, documented by modern instruments. The project deepened our understanding of Early Islamic maritime technology and seafaring, while simultaneously documenting the ancient shipbuilding and navigation traditions of the Arabian Peninsula, which are rapidly becoming extinct.

Abstract Julfar was a major port town of the Persian Gulf during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries AD. A possession of the Hormuzi empire, it was a lucrative source of taxes and pearls, and a port of trade for northern Oman, tapping into maritime trading networks connecting the Middle East with Africa, India, Southeast Asia and China. The site is found north of modern Ras Al‐Khaimah, UAE. Julfar Al‐Nudud was previously considered to be a late suburb of an urban core, Julfar Al‐Mataf, and is located on a creek opposite the latter. However, excavations in 2010 indicated that Al‐Nudud was part of the original urban core, which had grown up on either side of the creek. Moreover, re‐examination of previous work in Al‐Mataf, where a large mosque and fortification were excavated (by British and French teams), shows that the two areas followed different trajectories. Significant occupation in Al‐Nudud and southern Al‐Mataf (revealed by previous Japanese excavations) ended before the start of the sixteenth century, while use of the mosque and fort in central Al‐Mataf continued into the seventeenth century, albeit discontinuously. A revised concordance of the phases derived from the work of various archaeological teams is therefore proposed.