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The ArWHO project’s 2023 season focused on the Iron Age and early Islamic Periods, specifically concentrating on mapping settlement architecture and exploring trade in softstone and copper resources in Yanqul Wilayat. The ArWHO team mapped architecture at four Iron Age sites, discovered an ancient softstone (chlorite) quarry, and tested an autonomous Ground Penetrating Radar system. Additionally, the project engaged local residents by organising a Yanqul Community Archaeology Day to share findings and promote awareness of archaeology. Our work clarifies the histories of ancient societies, their environment, architecture, and trade activities contributing to deeper understanding of the ancient past.

Beginning in the spring of 2014, the Archeological Research Institute (ARI) has been involved in archaeological investigations in the Khor Kharfot Archaeological Reserve of Dhofar, Oman. A three-year excavation contract was signed with Sultan Qaboos’s advisory council in 2015. In 2022 the excavation permit was granted a five-year renewal with the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. This article summarizes the efforts of Campaigns 6 and 7 during 2022 and 2023 to expand an appreciation of Wadi Sayq’s ancient environment and its early Paleolithic through Islamic period occupations and extensive architecture. This summary of Campaigns 6 and 7 excavations contains ARI’s recent discoveries at five separate loci: site II-4 (Neolithic and Iron Age occupation site), site IV-1 (Neolithic Kharfot Mound Site), site IV-3 (Neolithic-Iron Age-Islamic Period Alcove Site), site IV-4 (Neolithic Upper Platform), and site IV-5 (Neolithic Walkway).

The Department of Archaeology at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (MHT), has conducted the 3rd season (December 2022) of intensive excavations at the site of Al Ghoryeen in Wadi Andam region on the southern fringes of the eastern Hajar Mountains in the Northern Al Sharqiyah Governorate of Oman. It was excavated under the direction of Professor Nasser S. Al-Jahwari and Dr Khaled Douglas. Participants included colleagues and MA students from the Department of Archaeology at SQU (Dr Mohamad Hesein, Dr Nasser Al-Hinaei, Yaqoob Al-Rahbi, Yaqoob Al-Bahri, Al-Reem Al-Alawi, Suad Al-Harasi, Wajd Al-Zakwani, Buthainah Al-Ghofaili and Huda Al-Daihani) and the German Archaeological Instiute in Berlin (represented by Dr Kristina Pfeifer). The results of the excavation discovered the first and largest settlement in Oman dating back to the Early Bronze Age of Hafit period (ca. 3400-2700 BC).

The French Archaeological Mission in Central Oman (FAMCO) studies the diachronic settlement of Bisya, one of the Oman peninsula’s main archaeological zones, in the Hajar mountains foothills. This region, which benefits from a location at the confluence of several wadis and local mineral resources, has been populated since the Paleolithic. It experienced a particularly prosperous development in the Early Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The first aim of the mission is to identify the development of human communities through survey and excavation. The Palaeolithic program investigates the first settlements of the Arabian Peninsula, determining the presence or absence of Neanderthal populations and their relationship to the arrival of modern Homo sapiens between the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic. The central part of the mission focuses on the Early Bronze Age to understand the beginnings of the oasis agrosystem, the domestication of the date palm, the first irrigation systems, the development of monumental domestic and funerary architecture, and the appearance of local crafts (pottery, copper metallurgy). Our research aims to provide new evidence on the role of Oman (Land of Magan in the Mesopotamian texts) within the Middle East during the Bronze Age, particularly its relations with Lower Mesopotamia (Sumerian country), Iran (the region of Fars and Makran) and the Indus Valley.

The Long-Term Cultural Sustainability (ISTIDAMA) Project aims to identify the eco-cultural factors of sustainable lifeways and historical landscapes of the canyons and foothills of the Hajar Mountains. To this end, the project team conducted three field activities: (1) general surveys in the Tanūf district of Ad-Dākhilīyah Governorate, (2) detailed documentation of the cemeteries in the survey area, and (3) excavations at the cave site of Mughārat Al Kahf in Wadi Tanūf. Regarding the general survey, the team documented seven archaeological sites in Wadi Tanūf and six sites in As-Suwaihiriyah in the floodplain of Wadi Al Abyad at 5 km east of Tanūf. Among these, the team documented the cemetery of WTN07, 13, and 14 in detail. These cemeteries were occupied from the Wadi Suq period (ca. 2000 to 1600 BCE) and Early Iron Age (ca. 1300–650 BCE). In the cave site, the team opened a new trench next to the last season’s one to verify stratigraphy. The team also took coprolite, date stone, charcoal, and soil sample for ancient DNA, stable isotope, and radiocarbon dating analyses.

The archaeological campaign at Khor Rori made a significant contribution to the understanding of the history and culture of the region. It focused on three main objectives: to increase knowledge of the KR-N1 necropolis, to determine the chronology and function of previously discovered structures, and to understand the land use of the Dhofar Coastal Culture and the Ancient South Arabians. To achieve these objectives, exploratory investigations were carried out in three different structures to determine their chronology, cultural affiliation, and possible use. At the same time, the study of the KR-N1 necropolis continued, with particular emphasis on dolmenic cysts and multiple cist tombs. This excavation provided valuable insights into the chronology, depositional features and mortuary practices of the Dhofar Coastal Culture. In addition, we summarise here the preliminary results of the archaeological campaign at Wadi Andhūr, part of the HELFA programme under the DHOMIAP project. The campaign aimed to explore the archaeologically rich area of Wadi Andhūr. Notable discoveries include confirmation of the South Arabian origin of the site DMa0610 and an inscribed stone of South Arabian origin. Further research is needed to answer questions about the site’s chronology, use and links with other settlements.

Project’s activities in the Sultanate of Oman, Ash-Sharqiyah North region, are directed towards the study of the Iron Age in northern Oman, in order to investigate those historical cultures known as fish-eating communities (Ichtyophagoi) from Greco-Roman sources and locally defined as Early to Late Iron Age cultural facies. From 2014 to 2018 the project focused on the study of the seasonal coastal economy of northern Oman in the Iron Age, in particular the phases of the 1st millennium BCE, between Qurayat and Ras Al Hadd, including Bamah and Tiwi as main coastal sites. Since 2018, the joint project has extended the area of research to urban oases further inland, along the Al Hajar mountain range, to define the settlement strategies between the Iron Age and the advent of Islam. These seasonal villages were in fact part of a complex socio-economic network involving the urban and agricultural oases in the interior, located along the Al Hajar mountain range, possessing their own hunting/fishing, farming and livestock economies, acted as bridges for trade between the coasts and the more inland regions, between Oman and the Emirates for at least the entire first half of the 1st millennium BCE and from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE.

Prehistoric communities along the coasts of southeastern Arabia relied heavily on marine resources. However, dolphin remains in the zooarchaeological record remain poorly understood due to fragmentation, taphonomic changes, limited osteological collections, and the lack of a specific methodology for determination. In response to these challenges, the DExPO project aimed to develop a protocol for the analysis of osteological data from odontocetes and cetaceans from Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sites in central Oman. Agreements with the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism along and support from the Natural History Museum of Oman facilitated the project. Initial implementation took place in a pilot project (2019-2020) on cetaceans in the NHM collection, and has been extended to analyse archaeological remains from key sites in Ash-Sharqiyah Governorate. Ongoing objectives include developing a methodology for identifying and documenting archaeological dolphin remains and applying these methods to large osteological collections. This is central to the study of dolphin hunting and exploitation strategies, combining zooarchaeological, material culture and environmental data, using ethnographic parallels and experimental approaches. Through the DExPO project, the enigmatic relationship between prehistoric communities and marine mammals is gradually being unravelled, providing insights into their ancient coexistence along the coasts of the Arabian Sea.

As the first undertaking of its kind, Project SIPO has embarked in 2018 on the environmental-archaeological research of a lithic site in Oman in a true mountain ambient – Hayl Ajah (a large sediment-filled depression at 1019 m a.s.l. on an intermontane karst plateau between Al Jabal Al Kawr and Al Jabal Al Ghul; Figs 1 and 2). Because porous karstic limestone – other than more compact rocks – allows the infiltration of precipitation water into the matrix of the rock itself, our project aims to find out, whether during prehistoric periods a degree of water storage inside limestone rock-layers and aeolian surface sediments could have made good for the reduced precipitation in the northern part of Oman compared to the country’s south. Judging from the archaeological finds, the site Hayl Ajah and similar smaller sediment places in the surroundings mountains have been accessed by people during different prehistoric periods (probably since the Middle Palaeolithic, definitely during the Neolithic and Umm an-Nar period). At the present stage we encounter various kinds of small, dispersed water and sediment features in our research area that could have served mobile foragingpastoral groups while roaming the bleak mountain landscape. Indicative of this is the remarkably wide spectrum of mostly non-local raw materials used for the stone artefacts of Hayl Ajah. For some of the lithics encountered at the mountain site, yet no real analogy to lithic traditions in other parts of the Arabian Peninsula can be found. Other stone artefacts, according to first OSL/C14 dates, belong to a time period when aridization was under way (Late Neolithic). From this evidence we infer tentatively that mountainous places in Al Jabal Al Hajar have had significance for prehistoric humans during past dry periods - perhaps as the “roof section” of an environmentally diversified, yet integrated refugium in the Kawr-Akhdar Area encompassing the more open alluvial places at the mountain front (cf. Uerpmann, Uerpmann & Jasim 2000).

The debate on the timing and nature of “Out of Africa” dispersals of multiple waves of the genus Homo has been based on a limited number of securely dated sites; the majority of the Palaeolithic archaeological record for Arabia is represented by undated surface sites. This project aims to contribute to the body of knowledge and debate through targeted field survey for stratified Palaeolithic sites that can be well dated. A multidisciplinary team of geologists, geomorphologists, hydrologists, dating experts and archaeologists has been assembled to specifically target this question. Our first three survey seasons in 2019, 2020 and 2022 gave invaluable insights into the landscape setting of Oman which have fed directly into the later seasons. Preliminary results include a number of surface sites with material typologically linked to the Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of Oman, and a small number of stratified sites have been identified and are currently undergoing analysis.

The Fulayj Fort Project focuses on the unique archaeological remains at the site of Fulayj: a small, regularly planned, heavily defended, stone-built fortification constructed sometime between the early 5th to mid-6th century AD during the late pre-Islamic period and its subsequently reoccupation during the first decades following the Islamic conquest of Oman in the 7th century (Figs. 1-2). The fourth season of excavation took place over a six-week period from the 10th of January to the 20th of February 2023. It involved the work of an international team with a maximum of ten participants, including specialists from the UK, Oman, Canada, Greece and the Republic of Georgia. We were pleased to host one trainee from the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism regional office of the North Batinah Governate (Fig. 3). Excavation focused on the eastern side of the fort near to the fort entranceway (Fig. 4) with work in the north-east corner extending our understanding of a series of mudbrick rooms associated with the secondary occupation of the fort in the early Islamic period. Further excavations were opened in the south-east corner, and on the fort exterior across the south-east corner tower.

Suhar was one of the leading ports in the Indian Ocean during the Abbasid period. With Basra and Siraf, it formed a centre of maritime power in the Gulf and Arabia. The historian and traveller Istakhri, who wrote the Kitab Al-Masalik wa Al-Mamalik, and who lived in the 10th century, tells us that Suhar was the biggest and richest town in Oman. He tells us that it is not possible to find a city more rich in buildings and foreign wares than Suhar, and that many merchants live there who trade in ships with other countries. It is known that merchants came to Suhar from China, India and many other places. It is certain that Suhar is the most important location in Oman for the history of the first centuries of Islam. Archaeological research has already been carried out in Suhar, in the 1970s and 1980s, but there is still much more to learn about this important place. In January 2023 a British and Omani archaeological team led by Seth Priestman visited the town to investigate the remaining archaeological evidence (Fig. 1). A short sur-vey of the town revealed important information about its history. New locations came to light and important new finds of imported Chinese ceramic were made. The British and Omani team is hoping to continue work at Suhar so that the full potential of this important site can be developed.

"Seeb is the site of an extensive coastal settlement located in the northern suburbs of Muscat. Previous investigations by Romolo Loreto in 2013 indicate the presence of areas of deep stratigraphy, intact occupation deposits and architectural remains covering most phases of the Islamic period. More recently, documentation by the local community has highlighted the exceptional quality of the finds assemblage, with objects drawn from across the Indian Ocean world, often closely comparable to materials from other key urban centres in the region such as Suhar, Samarra or Siraf. The existence of a large urban centre on the southern Batinah remains to be better integrated into our wider historic reconstruction of the medieval topography of Oman. To address this, a three-week field-walking survey, followed by a week of finds processing, was carried out in January-February 2023. It involved mapping and surface collection to augment our understanding of the size, nature, and diachronic development of the medieval settlement. The work was conceived in partnership with the local community, taking the factor of existing interest as the motivating driver in the plan and design of future research. Public workshops, social media and continuing conversations with residents and other stakeholders form important channels in the pursuit of the project."

Sapienza Archaeological Mission in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf Area (MASPAG) surveys in the Omani southern Batinah, southwest of Muscat, near the Muslimat oasis, has recently revealed a new hitherto unknown multi-millennial archaeological landscape crossed by the Tropic of Cancer. In this vast area, two enormous cemeteries with hundreds of collective tombs have been identified. The oldest graves typologically and morphologically date from the end of the 4th millennium, but both the cemeteries appear to be associated with long-lasting settlements continuously inhabited up to the Islamic period. The two cemeteries next to a settlement that was fortified in the Iron Age offer the possibility of investigating the social complexity of those mobile groups interposed between south-eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf on a broad spectrum. Powerful coalitions capable of governing large portions of the piedmont territory interposed between the rocky Hajar mountains and the spectacular western coasts of the Arabian Sea, a nomadic and half-nomadic territorial state in the south-eastern frontier of the ancient Near East which Mesopotamian texts identify as the Land of Magan.

The final field season of paleoenvironmental studies for the UmWeltWandel project lasted from 7 January–17 April 2023. It resulted in the collection of further samples of sediment, rock, charcoal, snail, plant, pollen, and water for laboratory analysis in Germany. More than 70 sedimentological sections were investigated in the vicinity of Al Khashbah to study soil and landscape formation processes. Once completed, these studies will provide important insights into climate and vegetation of the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Central Oman.

A small, newly discovered Umm an-Nar settlement close to the southern outskirts of the modern city of Ibra was investigated by a team from the University of Frankfurt, Germany between 1 March 2023 and 11 April 2023. The investigation included a detailed surface survey with find collection, as well as small-scale excavations at two of the buildings. The results of the first campaign suggest a well-planned settlement structure with specialized areas for the production or refinement of copper and copper objects. Of particular importance was the discovery of multiple plano-convex copper ingots during the excavations of one of the domestic buildings.

Several locations north of the village of Al Khashbah have yielded Neolithic remains, most likely due to the area’s accessible chert outcrops and elevated fluvial terrace systems overlooking wadi floodplains. KHS-A, the main Neolithic site in the area, is distinguished by extensive flint scatters, isolated stone constructions, and fireplaces. In 2022, the team excavated a preliminary test trench (KHS-A.1) that yielded a high number of lithics and charcoal samples. Radiocarbon dating placed the age of the complex within the Late Neolithic Period. In 2023, further excavations at KHS-A.13 were undertaken with the goal of confirming the age dating of the site and expanding our understanding of the extent and occupational sequence of the KHS-A complex. The trench consisted of a 3 × 4 m exposure revealing multiple fireplaces, ash pits, and post holes. The investigation of the Neolithic occupations at Al Khashbah seeks to open new routes and further perspectives in the study of Early and Middle Holocene in the broad area between the mountains and the Rub Al Khali desert.

Archaeological campaigns led during these last five years on the necropolis of Khor Jarama, located in the Ja’alan area, has brought to light what is probably a new prehistoric culture unknown in Oman. Indeed, the excavation of seven tombs located not far from the Jarama lagoon has enabled the discovery of the first funerary monuments known to date in Oman. These latter have been dated from the middle of the 4th millennium BCE for the oldest ones, that is to say several centuries before the monumental tombs of Hafit period. These tombs are characterized by new architectures as well as by new funerary practices observed in Oman. This discovery fills a void of data observed until now in Oman and located between 3600 and 3200 BCE, that is to say the period of transition between the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Hafit period. This discovery highly changes the vision that we had about the first prehistoric societies in Oman: there is probably here, very early at the end of the Neolithic, structured groups, probably hierarchized, and led by members buried in monumental tombs. A new campaign of survey in the Ja’alan area has allowed the discovery of eight others necropolis showing the same architectural characteristics than tombs of Jarama, and thus belonging probably to this period. Current investigations on these necropolis could come to confirm the identification of a new prehistoric period in Oman.

The Bat Archaeological Project conducted its winter field season from December 26, 2022 until March 5, 2023. Our research focused on different areas of the Bat area’s Bronze Age archaeological landscape, including Rakhat Al Madrh, the Khutm Settlement, and the proposed location of the new Bat Visitors Center. At Rakhat Al Madrh, the team excavated three Umm an-Nar period houses. With assistance from a team of geomorphologists and geologists from the Sorbonne University, we also discovered that the houses were located around an ancient marsh/wetland where Umm an-Nar people likely experimented with early agriculture and pastured livestock. This ancient settlement is unlike any other known Early Bronze Age village or town in Arabia because of this environment. At Al Khutm, the team discovered and excavated Umm an-Nar houses and tombs and digitally mapped a very large fortress at the site dating to the Iron Age II. At the proposed location for the new Bat Visitors Center, we excavated and surveyed several mounds, which appear to be tombs that continue from the necropolis across the wadi. With the generous permission of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, laboratory analyses on geological, C-14, botanical, and ceramic samples collected this season are currently underway.

Agricultural terraces are prominent features in landscapes across the world. Terraces enable the cultivation of steep land for crops including cereals, fruit, vegetables, flowers and trees, and can be irrigated where careful water management is required. They allow the redistribution of sediment to create soils with improved root penetration and water retention. Terraces are highly variable, their regional development reflecting a combination of natural factors (differing geologies, geomorphology, hydrological conditions) and landscape histories (manuring, field management, crop selection, water availability). The histories of terraced landscapes remain poorly understood, including in Oman. Little is known about when they were constructed, and how they were used and developed across different periods and environments. A key reason for this lack of knowledge is that terraces have proven exceptionally difficult to date using conventional or scientific archaeological methods. This research project uses a new method developed by the research team to date terraces in Oman for the first time and use geoarchaeological methods to investigate how they were used in the past. In March 2023, targeted fieldwork in two villages of Jabal Akhdar (Ash Shuraijah and Wadi Bani Habib) allowed collection of sediment samples for dating and geoarchaeological analysis.