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The article attempts to place Musandam in the context of a relationship with the ancient trade center of Hormuz. It tentatively tries to give some directions that define Musandam not only as the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula, but also as the southern hinterland of the former world trade metropolis. And in this context as an active part of the flows and activities of the strategic strait for a period of at least 400 years in Hormuz heyday between the 14th and 17th centuries. The spatial approach is based on field research in Musandam focusing on grain production and regional mobility, conducted first in the 1970s and later in the 2010s, completed by the analysis of literature on the history of Ilormuz and the greater region. Traces of this ancient connection are still recognizable, shaping the landscape and culture of today's Musandam.

n Oman, the numerals of sheep and goats in the present time reflect a clear disparity in both animals' populations numbers. The Agricultural Census 2018 stated that the livestock of Oman contains 2,302,000 goats and 605,000 sheep. The divergence between the two animals is attracting attention and notice through the unexpected and conspicuous population numbers. In addition, archaeological excavations in Oman and the United Arab Emirates indicated the same situation during prehistory. This paper examines the discrepancy in the numbers of the sheep and goat populations in Dhofar region, southern Oman. There must be an explanation for this disproportion between goat and sheep in prehistoric and present times. This is an attempt to find the compels and the conditions that characterize this discrepancy. It examines the environmental conditions in Dhofar for both animals and the preference of the traditional herdsmen in Dhofar over sheep and goat. Moreover, the paper examines the effect of copper in soil and grass on both animals and finally provides the archaeological record of the osteological remains of sheep and goat. The examination of these factors can possibly facilitate a reasonable analogy between the present and prehistoric situation.

In May 2013 Gõesta Hoffmann and Maurizio Tosi had the opportunity to document some surface clusters of Islamic period remains in the wilayät Sib, along the coastal area between Wadi Al Lawami and Wadi Al Khars. This consisted mainly of pottery dated between the early to late Islamic period (8th to 20th centuries CE). In June 2013, on behalf of the then Ministry of Ileritage and Culture, a first survey allowed us to recognise more archaeological materials focused around al-Rawdah Roundabout and the remains of a fort made of mudbricks and heavily obliterated by vegetation further to the south. In light of written sources referring to the ancient settlement of Damă as located in the southern al-Bäținah plain probably identifiable as As Sib (Seeb), further field analyses were undetaken in September 2013 in order to define the geoarchacological landscape via systematic survey, investigative excavations, and the definition of the palco coastline pertaining to the fort. The results of the project support the hypothesis that the ancient town and harbour of Dama is indeed to be located in present day As Sib.

While the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat, Oman, is famous as an exceptionally large and well-preserved Early Bronze Age oasis settlement, the site's archacological landscape extends far beyond the oasis. The Bat Archacological Project (BAP) aims to better understand the complex array of Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2700-2000 BCE) cultural activity and human-environment interactions evidenced at the site and its environs in the Wadi al-Hijr. This paper presents the excavation results and preliminary interpretations of BAP's winter 2022-23 field season, which targeted three areas of suspected Umm an-Nar period settlement in the Bat landscape within a 10 km radius of the oasis: "Operation A," al-Khutm Settlement, and Rakhat al-Madrh. In choosing to look beyond the site's oasis center and examine ancient occupation in three geographically distinct areas within the greater Bat landscape, this research sheds light on the diverse cultural processes and socioecological strategies practiced by the region's Umm an-Nar period inhabitants.

Archaeological campaigns led during five years on the necropolis of Khawr Jirama, located in the Sharqiya, have brought to light what appears to be a new prehistoric funerary tradition still unknown in Oman. The excavation of seven tombs, located not far from the Jarama lagoon, has enabled the discovery of the earliest monumental Neolithic tombs built in Oman. The oldest ones have been dated from the middle of the 4th millennium BC, that is to say several centuries before the tower tombs of the Hafit period. These tombs discovered at Jarama are characterized by new architecture and funerary practices, rising the question of either the arrival of a new population in this area, carrying new funerary tradition reflecting their social organization, or cultural evolution of local Neolithic cultures. This discovery participate to fill a relative void of data observed until now in Sultanate of Oman between 3500-3100 BCE, a period of transition between the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Halit period. Moreover, the Jarama tombs challenge the standing interpretation of the first prehistoric socictics in Sultanate of Oman. The evidence presented in the paper suggests that, before the intensification of trading routes with the city-states of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley during the 3rd millennium BC, the region was home to strongly structured and probably hierarchical groups, led by members buried in monumental tombs.

<p>Five thousand years ago, in the Early Bronze Age, monumental stone and mud-brick structures known as towers appeared on the landscape of the Oman Peninsula. Since then, they have served as distinctive landmarks of identity for the people of the region. Despite many years of archaeological research and intensive excavations of some of them, much remains unknown about these impressive structures. This book aims to update the long-standing discussions on these towers and to assess their chronological depth of more than a millennium, with the first of them constructed as early as the end of the 4th millennium BCE and the last substantial building activities at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. The book also reassesses their possible functions, such as defence, refuge, demarcation of property, residence of elites, involvement in complex irrigation systems, arenas for cultic practices, in the light of recent archaeological research. The book will also provide a richly illustrated catalogue with extensive bibliography, research history and coordinates of all the nearly hundred towers known to date in the Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, creating a record for researchers and visitors alike.</p>

<p>This book provides a comprehensive and detailed review of the evidence for Early Bronze Age mortuary rituals on the Oman Peninsula, describing the research conducted, synthesizing the resulting data, and presenting a complete view of the state of knowledge on the topic. The author demonstrates that the construction, use, and location of mortuary cairns in the ancient landscape is no simple question in the Early Bronze Age archaeology of the region. This book explores the characteristics of ancient funerary monuments and rituals, demonstrating variations in these practices, as well as evidence for continued cairn use during this period and how some communities elaborated mortuary rituals. This book will serve as an invaluable reference volume for scholars working in the region, as an introduction for students to mortuary archaeology and to models that can be used to explore this aspect of prehistoric life on the Oman Peninsula, and as a valuable repository of currently available data. The book features extensive demonstrative illustrations and appendices summarizing the architecture, interments, and material culture found in all published Early Bronze Age mortuary monuments in the region.</p>

لملخص:عرف موقع مليحة بإمارة الشارقة بكونه موقع أثري مهم يحتضن العديد من النقوش الكتابية القديمة التي تعود إلى فترات زمنية مختلفة وتعتبر النقوش الكتابية مصدر من أهم المصادر عند المؤرخين وذلك لأنها مكتشفات مادية ملموسة، وتعد النقوش الكتابية من الآثار ويشمل هذا المصطلح جميع النصوص الكتابية القديمة التي وجدت منقوشة على الآثار الثابتة كالمعابد والقصور والمدافن والواجهات الصخرية، أو على الآثار المنقولة مثل الرقم الطينية أو الأحجار أو الفخار أو الأواني المعدنية والصفائح، تم استخدام أدوات متنوعة في نحت هذه النقوش مثل الحجارة والأدوات الحديدية والأدوات الحادة الأخري، كما تنوعت النقوش الكتابية في موقع مليحة وتمثلت في شؤون الحياه اليومية والأغراض الدينية والمعاملات التجارية.يناقش هذا البحث أهمية النقوش الكتابية في تدوين وتوثيق حضارة موقع مليحة الأثري وتعد النقوش الكتابية عاماً مهمة مهما كان مضمونها وتعتبر مصدراً هاماً لفهم التاريخ والثقافة واللغة والحضارة.الكلمات الدالة : مليحة - الشارقة – موقع أثري - نصوص – عربي جنوبي – حسائي – أرامي - عُمان.

Studies concerning the human response to changing climate in the arid region of South East Arabia are currently scarce and rarely based on geoarchaeological data. The detailed geoarchaeological study of the sedimentary filling of ditches, channels and wells at the Bronze Age tower site of Salūt-ST1, in central Oman, provides the opportunity to start filling this lacuna. The data, collected with a combination of field observation and thin section study, illustrate the lowering of the water table from the Early Bronze Age to the Iron Age II period (c. 2500–600 BC) as a result of local aridification. Besides, they shed light on the ways in which the community living in the area first exploited a still favourable situation with a relatively abundant water supply and later was forced to cope with the deteriorating climate around the end of the third millennium BC. While the study highlights climate change at a relatively small scale, the results and their interpretation are contextualized with other, larger-scale paleoclimate data available for the region. The Early Bronze Age hydraulic structures of Salūt-ST1 are also discussed in relation to similar structures excavated in South East Arabia.

Découverte en 2013, dans le Dhofar-province méridionale du sultanat d'Oman-la grotte de Natif 2 est actuellement l'unique témoin de communautés maritimes du Paléolithique final, en péninsule Arabique. La fouille d'une partie du porche révèle une importante activité humaine entre le début du IX e et le milieu du VIII e millénaire avant notre ère, notamment en termes de production halieutique, d'écologie ou de technologie lithique. Ainsi la pêche pratiquée dans des eaux peu profondes et à quelques centaines de mètres de la grotte, s'oriente vers de petites espèces pélagiques (anchois et sardinelles), mais aussi d'un petit poisson-chat marin. En parallèle, la capture de raies et de squales (ces derniers pouvant dépasser plus de 2 m de long), est confirmée. Cet article présente les industries lithiques datées de la première moitié du VIII e millénaire avant notre ère (env. 7950-7600 cal. BCE). L'étude vise à caractériser les techniques et méthodes de débitage, afin de compléter nos faibles connaissances sur les technocomplexes dits « à pointe de Fasad ». L'analyse typologique et technologique de l'industrie lithique de Natif 2 montre une grande homogénéité dans l'en-semble de la stratigraphie. Les armatures de Fasad sont surtout très homogènes dans leurs principes techniques. La production de lamelles à profil longitudinal peu convexe-voire rectiligne-et à extrémité distale pointue constitue un objectif de débitage original, qui a, de facto, valeur de marqueur culturel. Les autres outils aménagés les plus caracté-ristiques se composent de troncatures obliques sur lames ou éclats, de perçoirs et d'éclats denticulés. Pour de tels outils assez courts, les méthodes de production observées sont très simples, avec une production intégrée de lames courtes, de lamelles épaisses et d'éclats non corticaux.

Abstract This contribution aims to present the results of a brief survey conducted on some ports in the Dhofar region, along the southernmost coast of the Sultanate of Oman, dated to the medieval Islamic period. The research carried out by the University of Naples L’Orientale at the site of al-Balīd and more broadly in the Dhofar region aims not only to advance new study and research activities but also to reinterpret and analyze existing materials, with the goal of developing a more complete understanding of the region’s role during the Islamic era. During this time, the port of al-Balīd, along with Ṣuḥār and Qalhāt in the northern part of the country, was one of the key centres in the trade networks of the western Indian Ocean. However, there were several satellite ports involved in long- medium and short distance trade networks which may have played an important role in communications with the interior where the frankincense resin was collected. The paper will focus on two of these ports: Sūq al-Ḥāsik and Ḥāsik Qadīm.

Abstract The article provides a brief overview of the Omani mosques that the Italian archaeologist P.M. Costa classified into two groups in the 1970s based on their floor plans, architectural features, and decorative elements: those from the northern inland regions and those situated along the Indian Ocean coast. A new mosque recently brought to light by the Italian Archaeological Mission to al-Balīd of the University of Naples L’Orientale belongs to this second group.

Despite the success of artificial intelligence AI in the fields of computer science/calculations or in applied sciences in medicine and aeronotics, its application in the human sciences, particularly in the field of creation and historical research, has its limits. The article demonstrates that AI can in no way replace the work of historians and archaeologists to offer a reasoned history of an ancient civilization of a country, in this case the Sultanate of Oman.

While archaeological data on the history of Oman continues to multiply for the Bronze and Iron Ages, historical data are to date insufficient to know the eventful history of Oman for the period from the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD. Historical inscriptions from ancient Yemen allow us to revise the partly mythical version transmitted by Arab and Omani tradition, particularly regarding the arrival of the Arabs in Oman.

Five thousand years ago, in the Early Bronze Age, monumental stone and mud-brick structures known as towers appeared on the landscape of the Oman Peninsula. Since then, they have served as distinctive landmarks of identity for the people of the region. Despite many years of archaeological research and intensive excavations of some of them, much remains unknown about these impressive structures. This book aims to update the long-standing discussions on these towers and to assess their chronological depth of more than a millennium, with the first of them constructed as early as the end of the 4th millennium BCE and the last substantial building activities at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. The book also reassesses their possible functions, such as defence, refuge, demarcation of property, residence of elites, involvement in complex irrigation systems, arenas for cultic practices, in the light of recent archaeological research. The book will also provide a richly illustrated catalogue with extensive bibliography, research history and coordinates of all the nearly hundred towers known to date in the Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, creating a record for researchers and visitors alike.

قدمت مدينة سناو دوراً اقتصادياً رائداً منذ أقدم العصور، ولاسيما في مجال التجارة؛ إذ توافرت لها عوامل عديدة جعلت منها ملتقى الركبان من تجار ومسافرين، الأمر الذي انعكس على انتعاش تجارتها من ناحية، وانفتاح أهلها على محيطهم من ناحية أخرى، ولذا شهدت حركة ديناميكية في ديموغرافيتها، واقتصادياتها، وقد اتضح ذلك في العناصر السكانية التي استوطنتها والقرى التي نمت على أطرافها مستفيدة من الموارد المائية التي توفرت لسكانها، وكذلك اتضح في استمرارية دورها حتى الوقت الحالي، وهذا ما دفع الباحث إلى الكتابة عن الدور التجاري لهذه المدينة تحت عنوان "الأهمية الاقتصادية لمدينة سناو العمانية خلال القرون الثلاثة الأولى من الهجرة" آملاً أن تكون هذه الدراسة مقدمةً لدراسات أخرى تتعلق بالجوانب الاقتصادية عن هذه البلدة الواعدة. وتهدف هذه الدراسة إلى الكشف عن العوامل التي هيأت لمدينة سناو القيام بدورها الاقتصادي خلال الحقب التاريخية المختلفة، وكذلك تسليط الضوء على المكتشفات الأثرية ذات البعد الاقتصادي، إضافةً إلى إبراز معالم السوق القديم وتطورات الموقع حتى بدايات النهضة المباركة. وتنقسم الدراسة إلى ثلاثة مباحث؛ يتناول المبحث الأول العوامل المؤثرة على الدور الاقتصادي لمدينة سناو، فيما يُركِّز المبحث الثاني على المكتشفات الأثرية في سناو ذات العلاقة بالأبعاد الاقتصادية، أما المبحث الثالث فيتتبع تطورات موقع السوق القديم في سناو. اتبع الباحث المنهج التاريخي المبني على التحليل والاستنتاج من خلال دراسة المكتشفات الأثرية والنصوص التاريخية والأدبية وكذلك النصوص الواردة في المصادر الفقهية.

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.