Animals and the Changing Landscape of Death on the Oman Peninsula in the Third Millennium BC

Abstract

Animal bones form large components of Early Bronze Age burials in Syro-Mesopotamia, and they reflect concepts of death, vestiges of funerary ceremony, and artifacts of life. However, in the contemporary burials of third millennium BC Bronze Age cairns from the north-central Oman Peninsula, finds of faunal remains are scarce. At the Al Khubayb Necropolis, near Dhank in the Sultanate of Oman, transitional tomb forms (dated to the later Hafit and early Umm an-Nar periods) have yielded new information about rare instances of animal bones deliberately interred with human remains. Despite their scarcity, the context of these bones—particularly their associations with individuals of a certain age and sex—offers insights into a transitional mortuary landscape and its relationship with the living. The authors assess the data in relation to both regional examples of faunal inclusion elsewhere in southeastern Arabia and their significance with regard to the practice and ritual meaning of faunal interments.