Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy最新文献

Mudbrick settlements are a common sight in central Oman and are often attributed to the Yaʿariba and al-Busaydī periods. They have been the subject of study of different projects in the past, providing a good basis for understanding the settlements. This paper will review how the mudbrick settlements have been studied since the beginning of this century and discuss approaches for future research. A specific focus of this study is the interpretation and analysis of the material culture of the mudbrick settlements. Previous ceramic studies are analysed and this paper aims to refine the ceramic chronology of the Late Islamic period in central Oman. This outcome provides a first comprehensive study on the ceramics of this time period and region. In doing so, one of the goals is to establish a baseline for future studies on this period so that it can provide a reference for other archaeologists who find similar material and settlements, to re(dis)cover subrecent times in Oman.

The Al-Mudhaybi Regional Survey uses different methods to reconstruct the diachronic development of the archaeological landscape within a 930 km² area. This article evaluates the different outcomes of remote sensing, ground-truthing and systematic field-walking of transects regarding the type and chronological range of structures found. Additionally, it considers the impact of the geological background on the presence/absence of structures and finds. Through these surveys, it will be demonstrated that, first, while above-ground, solid constructions like Early Bronze Age tombs are easily spotted during remote sensing, smaller, often below-ground tombs of other periods and domestic architecture of any (pre-Late Islamic) date were only identified in the field. Second, Umm an-Nar and Iron Age structures and finds tend to be clustered in a few spots, while remains of other periods, especially the Hafit, are more dispersed. Third, there are different location choices over time regarding the geological background of structures.

Antique trade amphorae illuminate a little understood but important find category for Arabia, still in the twilight of publication. Most of the find data lie buried in unpublished work regarding recent excavations at ʿAqaba/Ayla. Recent research has verified mineralogically the origin of these documents and their dating. An example fortuitously found forms the basis of this find note.

This paper reflects on some Arabic terms, previously noted by scholars, of small-scale monument types, which have a symbolic and semantic conflation of ‘cooking fire’ and ‘permanent occupation’, such as raḍfa, jamara, ʾaṯfiya and rabaʿa. The paper discusses more terms that confirm this conflation and widen it to include the concept of tribal protection, as a parallel with the pre-Islamic practice of the ‘fire of alliance’, described by classical Muslim writers and alluded to in Ancient South Arabian inscriptions. The association of fire terminology with tribal protection concepts appears to be related to the idea of food-sharing alliances.

There is a lacuna of knowledge on the inland trade routes across Bronze Age central Arabia, which this article seeks to fill based on new evidence from Wādī al-Fāw, Saudi Arabia. Contrary to a common belief that interior Southeast Arabia after the Holocene Humid Phase and until the domestication of the dromedary had turned desolate Badlands, this study offers documentation that during the early Bronze Age, a commercial corridor connected the Kingdom of Dilmun on the Arabian Gulf coast with the southern parts of Saudi Arabia, probably Yemen. Seals of Dilmun Type, Dilmun pottery and related burial praxis make up the gist of the evidence from Wādī al-Fāw. A dry mummification mound burial custom is possibly identified at al-Fāw and probably Taymāʾ, which contrasts the classic Dilmun mound burial custom. An attempt is made to reconstruct the most likely route that connected Dilmun and Wādī al-Fāw. The emergence around 2000 BC of this trade network, likely based on donkey trains, closely coincides with the rise of the Kingdom of Dilmun, but surprisingly also with a time when Arabia witnessed unusually arid conditions. Identification of this unexpected ancient corridor should profoundly affect how upcoming models consider linguistic, ideological, genetic, cultural and technological transmission across Bronze Age Arabia.

The highly-elevated and rugged topography of the Al-Ḥajar Mountains in Northern Oman requires a topographically-optimised survey methodology. To reconstruct the archaeological landscapes in the southern piedmont area of the Tanūf District, we applied a combined ground survey and satellite imagery analysis. In the narrow canyon, we travelled towards visible caves on the cliffs and cairns on the ridges and recorded all encountered sites on the way. In the open floodplain and surrounding hills, we visited all visible features after scanning them from higher viewpoints. We utilised satellite imagery to complement inaccessible sites. Accordingly, we identified 23 sites from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Islamic period through ground surveys, and an additional nine sites through satellite imagery analysis. In our qualitative evaluation, this combined method was effective enough to reconstruct the archaeological landscapes of the survey area.

European trade ceramics found across Arabia date from the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries and were made at factories mostly located within northwest Europe. After c. 1930, imitations of European ceramics are increasingly represented from factories in Japan and later China. Combining the information from archaeological excavations on the Arab coast of the Gulf and ceramics from museum and private collections, information from the archives of the British India Office and the Maastricht pottery order books for Arabia, a relatively detailed overview of this market for trade ceramics can be reconstructed. Three key points may be highlighted: First, the complex routes via which European ceramics arrived within Arabia, second, the significance of the link between producers and consumers on opposite sides of the globe, exemplified by specific designs and types of vessels manufactured for the Arabian market, and third, new layers of meaning that were given to such objects as they were incorporated into the homes, social fabric and the lives of people in Arabia.

Landscape archaeology, as a type of research based on a systemic surface survey and that results in quantifiable datasets of high quality, has started to be practiced in southeastern Arabia only in recent years. In this paper, I will briefly review the short history of landscape archaeology in the area and its relevance. I will then present the approach and methods used in the Wadi al Jizzi Archaeological Project and discuss some of the results obtained to discuss both the potential and problems of the data that the project generated. In particular, I will focus on ephemeral sites and assemblages, data quality and data representativity.

al-Tikha is a mid to large Umm an-Nar (c. 2700–2000 BC) settlement situated near Rustaq at the back of the Southern Batinah coastal plain in the Sultanate of Oman that was discovered (or rediscovered) in 2014. The site is unique because its layout and spatial organisation are very largely (possibly completely) visible on the surface. This includes two separate areas of stone-built housing, a large pottery scatter of varying density, three or four typical Umm an-Nar round towers and a small cemetery consisting of at least four tombs, along with a few other features. The layout of the site is described and discussed in detail, in particular, in relation to what it might tell us about the nature of Umm an-Nar settlement and social organisation more generally. The location of the site within a pattern of repeating Umm an-Nar settlement along Wadi Far (Wādī al-Farʿī) is also described and discussed.