Umm an-Nar

The first excavation season of a joint project of the PCMA and Department of Archaeology and Excavations, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Oman, was carried out in the microregion of Qumayrah in the fall of 2016. A single tomb was investigated at an Umm an-Nar period burial site in the area of the village of Al-Ayn. A complete ground-plan was traced, identifying the tomb as an example of a well-known type with interior divided into four burial chambers by crosswalls. The excavated quadrant yielded commingled skeletal remains and mortuary gifts: numerous beads, a number of pottery sherds and a single complete vessel, a few metal objects and a score of stone vessel fragments.

This paper attempts to draw a more nuanced picture than previously provided of ceramic change at the start of the second millennium in south-east Arabia. Previous research has accentuated the novelty of shapes and decoration of Wadi Suq period ceramics, indicating a clear break at the start of the second millennium. Yet a study of the recently excavated ceramic assemblage from tombs at Qarn al-Harf in Ras al-Khaimah points to a more gradual transition, with some ceramic practices inherited from third-millennium traditions.
Building on this observation, this paper aims to place the assemblage within its wider regional context, suggesting that the new features of Wadi Suq ceramics relate to the use of key shapes such as beakers and spouted jars in acts of communal consumption. As such, ceramic change offers an important avenue to study social developments in south-east Arabia at this time. It is specifically in the domain of funerary practices that ceramics find a new niche resulting in particular regional developments throughout the Wadi Suq period.

‘Monumentality’ and the social meaning of monuments has long been an important part of archaeological research into the prehistory of complex societies. Over the past century, archaeological perspectives on ancient monuments and their economic, political, and cultural importance to prehistoric societies have ranged from form to function to phenomenon. The construction of monuments and their placement on the landscape make them contextually relevant to both ancient peoples (e.g., as symbols of status or religious meaning) and to modern observers (e.g., as monuments of cultural heritage). Likewise, the visibility of monuments on changing landscapes has prompted the integration of a wide range of methodological and interpretive challenges. This paper explores these issues via on-going research into 3rd millennium BC ‘towers’ on the Oman Peninsula.

From Kalbā, which is located on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, evidence for Early Bronze Age/third-millennium BC occupation is presented. This comprises information resulting from the excavation of site K4, a multi-period (Early Bronze Age to Iron Age) settlement, and a nearby tomb, K2. Pottery found at the settlement and in the tomb is presented in order to establish a chronology for the site and also to illustrate trading connections that extended from Mesopotamia to the Indus.The local environments of Kalbā and nearby Khawr Kalbā are described and aspects of the Early Bronze Age economy considered.The conclusion is that the data from Kalbā can contribute towards a better understanding of the profound changes that took place in south-east Arabia during the early third millennium BC

Domestic architecture and the organisation of the household in the Early Bronze Age Oman Peninsula (3rd millennium BCE)

Résumé : Dans la péninsule d’Oman, le passage du Néolithique à l’âge du Bronze est marqué par de profondes transformations socio-économiques. La transition vers une économie agricole et l’intégration progressive dans les sphères d’interactions suprarégionales ont été interprétées comme la réponse adaptative des populations locales, suivant la pression de la demande extérieure pour l’acquisition de matières premières. Toutefois, le rôle de la péninsule Omanaise au sein de ce réseau à l’aube de l’âge du Bronze est moins patent qu’on ne l’envisage, mettant en cause la nature des transformations déclenchées au début du 3ème millénaire BCE. Nous avons exploré ces questions à la lumière de la maisonnée, explicitement conçue en tant qu’élément structurant de la société, « sociogramme d’un système social ». Afin de circonstancier le passage vers la complexification de l’âge du Bronze, l’étude considère brièvement les dernières occupations néolithiques. Elle se focalise sur une analyse diachronique des architectures domestiques et de la culture matérielle au 3ème millénaire BCE (périodes Hafit et Umm an-Nar), évaluant les différents aspects susceptibles de fournir des informations sur la configuration des activités domestiques et de manufacture, sur la perception sociale de l’espace, sur l’organisation de la force de travail et le degré de spécialisation de celle-ci. Cette démarche a permis d’aborder les acteurs sociaux à l’échelle de l’habitat, valorisant l’importance des mutations socio-économiques amorcées localement, et exprimées par les cycles de développement de la maisonnée sur le long terme. Aussi, des données de terrain inédites ont mené à l’identification de marqueurs chronologiques spécifiques pour la période Hafit et pour la dernière phase Umm an-Nar. Inédit

Abstract: In the Oman peninsula, the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age is marked by deep socioeconomic transformations. The shift towards an agricultural economy and the gradual integration into supraregional interaction spheres have been interpreted as the adaptive response of local populations to the pressure of an external demand for the acquisition of raw materials. Nevertheless, at the dawn of the Bronze Age, the role of the Oman Peninsula within this network is less patent than generally assumed, calling into question the nature of the transformations that characterise the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE. These questions were explored by the point of view of the household, explicitly conceived as a structuring element of the society, the sociogram of a social system. Aiming at better understanding of the transition towards the complexification of the Bronze Age, the study briefly addresses the last Neolithic occupations, and focuses on a diachronic analysis of domestic architectures and material culture during the 3rd millennium BCE (Hafit and Umm an-Nar periods). It considers a series of different aspects that could offer insights on the configuration of domestic and craft activities, on the social perception of space, on the organisation of the workforce and their degree of specialisation. This approach allowed grasping the social actors at the village level, highlighting the importance of socioeconomic transformations originating at a local scale, and expressed by the developmental cycles of the household in the long term. In addition, new field data lead to the identification of specific chronological markers for the Hafit period and the last Umm an-Nar phase.

This paper presents the results of excavations by the Bat Archaeological Project (BAP) on the Bronze Age domestic remains at the Bat Settlement Slope, Sultanate of Oman. Research, conducted between 2012 and 2014, reveals a long history of occupation that peaks in the Um An Nar period and continues into the Wadi Sûq. While all encountered Bronze Age occupational phases are presented, the primary period of occupation at the site—the Um An Nar—is the subject of descriptive and interpretive focus. Particular attention is given to the development of a typical Um An Nar settlement building type, interpreted as a house. The frequent scarcity of definable stratigraphy on the Settlement Slope is overcome through detailed architectural analysis. Results of this research provide new understanding of the household organization and economic foundations of Bat’s Um An Nar society.

The Umm an-Nar Period is recognized as an early phase of blossoming social complexity and widespread sedentism in the ancient history of the Oman Peninsula.  Umm an-Nar settlements, as the products of and stages for the developing culture’s socioeconomic practices, are prime windows through which to glimpse the period’s social organization, subsistence strategies, and daily lifestyles.  The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat is uniquely well suited for an in-depth study of Umm an-Nar settlement and domestic traditions, with occupational contexts dating to all phases of the period and a long history of excavation.  Through a virtual tour of Bat’s archaeological landscape, this paper provides a diachronic perspective of the site’s occupational remains.  A survey of each settlement area’s chronology, environmental character, and structural composition contributes to a developing profile of the Umm an-Nar settlement and the society it supported.  This paper concludes with a tentative and temporally sensitive interpretation of Umm an-Nar spatial, structural, and social organization as seen from the settlements at Bat.

Al‐Khafaji is a central and well‐known point on the early third millennium BC map of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat, in the Sultanate of Oman. For years, Kasr al‐Khafaji (“Tower 1146”) has been understood as an Umm an‐Nar (ca. 2800– 2000 BCE) monument standing amid a contemporary village. However, recent excavations by the Bat Archaeological Project (BAP) reveal that the entirety of the known site—monument(s) and settlement—is situated on an anthropogenic clay mound that elevated it meters above the surrounding landscape. This paper presents the results of BAP’s recent excavations, emphasising the social spaces created by architecture of various functions and scales. It also considers the implications that this new interpretation of al‐Khafaji may have for how the relationship between Umm an‐Nar towers and settlement should be understood. The paper closes with a discussion of Umm an‐Nar tower function and social meaning, concluding that the Khafaji monument(s) likely served a symbolic and possibly performative role in Umm an‐Nar society that was perceived as separate from Umm an‐Nar settlement.

This paper details the recent re-examination of a multiperiod archaeological site discovered by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey [ADIAS] at a site located just to the south of Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. The site originally designated as ADA 1, is now known to extend both to the north-west and the north (Sites ADA 2 and ADA 7). A number of Late Islamic pottery scatters have also been observed to the north (Sites ADA 3–5) and east (Site ADA 6) of the main site. An earlier study of pottery collected from the surface of Site ADA 1 suggested sporadic occupation at the site from the Hafit period, c. 3100–2700 BC, with maximum settlement in the second half of the third millennium BC (de Cardi 1997). The pottery could be related to both the Umm an-Nar culture, as well as to the sequence established at Hili 8 in Period II, including wares of probably Mesopotamian and Eastern Arabian origin. The site does not appear to have been utilized during much of the second millennium BC and the Iron Age, although some pottery was recognized dating to between the first century BC and second century AD. Small quantities of Late Islamic pottery were also noted on the surface. Although lithics identified as being from the fifth and fourth millennium BC were found at the site, no pottery of Ubaid-type has been recognized amongst the pottery assemblage, although Ubaid material is now known from a number of sites along the Abu Dhabi coastline from al-Aryam, Dalmā, Ghāghah and Marawah (Beech & Elders 1999; Beech, Elders & Shepherd 2000; Flavin & Shepherd 1994; Popescu & Beech, in prep), as well as further north on the Emirates Gulf coastline.

The Early Bronze Age settlements and domestic remains of the Umm an-Nar Period (ca. 2700-2000 BCE), the earliest phase of widespread settled society on the Oman Peninsula of southeastern Arabian, are increasingly popular subjects of study.  Yet, due to imperfect preservation and the allure of nearby monumental contexts, the structure, composition, and dynamics of the Umm an-Nar household remain poorly understood by archaeologists of the region.  This paper reconstructs the use-life history of a particularly well preserved Umm an-Nar house and the multi-generational household who resided within in at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat.  This building, Structure SS1, was continuously occupied and gradually modified over the span of 500 years during the Umm an-Nar Period.  Structure SS1’s prolonged occupation provides a diachronic perspective into the development of its resident household. Additionally, artifacts and activity areas from key occupational phases within and around the building offer insight into household economy, use of space, and daily activities.  The result of this study is a diachronic profile of a single house and household within the large Umm an-Nar community that once existed at Bat.  This profile will be presented as a unique glimpse into Bat’s Umm an-Nar society that achieves a degree of detail previously unavailable in Arabian archaeology.

The reuse of Umm an-Nar tombs in later periods on the Oman peninsula is an often neglected phenomenon. Within the scope of this paper, the results from the excavation conducted by the University of Tübingen of two Umm an-Nar tombs in the necropolis of Bat, Sultanate of Oman — Tomb 155 and Tomb 156 — will be presented. In these two tombs, we find clear evidence for their reuse in the Iron Age. In addition, indications for the reuse of other tombs within the necropolis, excavated by the German Mining Museum Bochum and by the Danish expedition in the 1970s — Tombs 154, 401, 402, 403, 1142, and 1143 — will also be discussed. Together they give a broad picture of the different kinds of Iron Age reuse in the necropolis of Bat, consisting of individual inhumations within the Umm an-Nar tombs, the creation of new Iron Age tombs in the direct vicinity of the Umm an-Nar tombs and the reuse of their building materials, and scattered stray finds dating to later periods in the debris of the Umm an-Nar tombs. Finally, I will attempt to link the reuse of Umm an-Nar tombs to practices connected to collective memory.

The settlement tradition of the Umm an-Nar Period (ca. 2700-2000 BCE) of the southeastern Arabian Peninsula is so far an under-explored aspect of the cultural tradition. As the earliest phase of widespread sedentary occupation in the region, the nature and organization of Umm an-Nar settlements are crucial to our developing understanding of this formative period. General knowledge holds that such settlements are composed of rectilinear structures clustered in the vicinity of the period's iconic monumental towers and collective tombs. However, in the rare instances when settlement architecture has been excavated, the explored buildings have been found to contain limited cultural material. This is especially true when compared to the rich domestic contexts known from Mesoamerican studies in household archaeology. Yet a largely untapped and easily accessible source of Umm an-Nar social and domestic information exists in the architectural layouts of the settlements. The often deflated landscape of the Oman Peninsula's inner piedmont zone offers archaeologists settlement plans often at least partially visible from the modern ground surface. When coupled with even the most limited of excavation results, these plans become an interpretive resource that should not be overlooked. The settlement landscape at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat offers an array of such contexts. In this paper, I explore various ways in which Bat's architectural plans, in combination with their situation on the dynamic piedmont landscape, can be utilized to investigate Umm an-Nar social organization and complexity.

The complex of ten Umm an-Nar tombs at the site of QA 1 is one of the objectives of a joint Omani-Polish research project carried out in the micro-region of Qumayrah situated in the interior of north-western Oman, c.60 km to the south-east of the archaeological site of Hili in the UAE. Excavations focused first on the Umm an-Nar tomb QA 1-1. The tomb interior included four chambers delimited by two cross walls; two of these chambers were targeted for full excavation from 2016 to 2018. They yielded an abundance of human skeletal remains with associated grave-goods, the vast majority of which were securely dated to the Umm an-Nar period. There is an intriguing issue related to the tomb’s floor and the distribution of bone deposits. Most human remains were recovered in areas where the stone-paved floor was missing. It can thus be assumed that that QA 1-1 most likely represents an Umm an-Nar use of the structure that included remodelling the interior of the tomb itself to create more space for successive burials. This remodelling consisted mainly of dismantling a large area of the floor. The discovery of a stone-paved floor, which extended only to the front part of one of the excavated chambers, and a narrow paving along its walls, may indicate an internal division of the chamber into a ‘vestibule’ and an appropriate burial space, along with communication passages.

This paper presents the case study of a third millennium BC grave in Al-Arid, Ibri, Oman.
The excavation and the analysis of the grave have been carried out during the archaeological rescue excavation project, directed by Dr. Sabatino Laurenza for the Ministry of Heritage and Culture of Oman, related to the works for the duplication of the road between Ibri and Yanqul, in Northern Oman.
Controversial and interesting is the dating of the tomb: the structure is close to Umm an-Nar type (2600-2000 BC), while the only element found inside it is a biconical small jar ascribable to Jemdet Nasr, Mesopotamian culture (3100-2900 BC). While the contacts between Jemdet Nasr culture and Hafit culture (3200-2800 BC) are already well known, our case study seems to represent a transitional moment between Hafit and Umm an-Nar cultures. Extremely interesting, at the same time, is the presence of skeletal remains only inside of the biconical small jar, while funeral chambers are completely empty.

"The Umm an-Nar collective graves (ca 2700-2000 BC) are scattered over the entire peninsula of Oman, near settlements. They are monumental circular graves containing the remains of tens and even hundreds of individuals, witnesses of complex funerary practices. The excavation and the anthropological study done on human remains from the Tomb 1 and the three associated bone pits from Ra’s al-Jinz (Oman) proved more than one operation aspects as well as the evolution of this grave, and provides a lot of information about the funerary practices as well as the deceased population. The count indicates that at least 74 individuals have been buried in this grave, 47 of whom are adults. Both sexes and all age groups are represented, including also foetus remains.
Keywords: Oman, Bronze Age, Umm an-Nar, collective burial, funerary practices, field anthropology."

The Umm an-Nar (ca. 2700-2000 BCE) period of southeastern Arabia is defined by its monumental towers and tombs-but also by its dramatic increase in the number and scale of permanent settlements across the Oman Peninsula. Archaeological studies of the Umm an-Nar characterize it as a period of increasing sociopolitical and economic complexity. However, the nature and characteristics of that complexity are clouded by research that has traditionally studied Umm an-Nar monuments and settlements in isolation from one another. This poster introduces the newest phase of the Bat Archaeological Project, which aims to produce, for the first time, a coherent picture of an Umm an-Nar site and its society-incorporating data from monuments, settlements, and the spaces between them. Targeting a key area of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bat, this project will use trends in spatial organization, material culture, architectural variation, and land use to study sociopolitical organization and as well as systems of exchange and production. These patterns will inform theories of 'alternative' complexity that, in turn, will nuance our understanding of Umm an-Nar society.

In 2015, the Omani-Polish Archaeological Mission conducted a survey in north Oman in the basin of Wadi Qumayrah, covering a valley stretching between al-ʿAyn village in the south and Bilt village in the north-east. The area was subject to archaeological activities in the past, but none were conducted in a systematic manner.
Results of the 2015 survey included the mapping of Bronze Age remains located in the area surrounding these two villages. Near al-ʿAyn, two Bronze Age towers were discovered and during next two seasons, a fragment of an architectural unit was unearthed next to the eastern tower. Based on ceramic finds, the unit was dated to the second half of the 3rd millenium BC. At Bilt, there was recorded an Umm al-Nar grave, as well as remnants of an extensive settlement. Preliminary analysis of the ceramic material collected on the surface indicates that at least a part of this settlement can also be dated to the Bronze Age.

Mots clés :
Péninsule d’Oman ; Néolithique ; âge du Bronze ancien; pratiques funéraires ; sépulture collective ; tombe Hafit ; tombe Umm an-Nar ; complexité sociale.
Résumé:
Dans la péninsule d’Oman, la transition du Néolithique récent (5e-4e mill. av. J.-C.) à l’âge du Bronze ancien (3100-2000 av. J.-C.) est caractérisée par une complexification sociale croissante qui s’accompagne de changements importants dans les pratiques funéraires, avec le passage de sépultures le plus souvent individuelles à des sépultures collectives de plus en plus monumentales. Les données issues de fouilles récentes, de l’étude du matériel ostéologique, ainsi qu’une revue de la littérature, mettent en évidence des gestes récurrents dans la gestion des sépultures collectives de la deuxième moitié du 3e millénaire: la manipulation et le déplacement des restes humains et du mobilier dans des fosses adjacentes, la crémation et, plus occasionnellement, la décarnisation des restes. La coïncidence d’une palette de gestes complexes dans de nombreux sites laisse supposer qu’ils étaient codifiés et qu’ils participaient à l’idéologie funéraire dans une vaste région. En contribuant à fondre les individus dans une communauté d’« ancêtres », les sépultures collectives étaient probablement destinées à renforcer la cohésion sociale des vivants.

This paper aims to review the evidence of irrigation structures in Southeast Arabia during the Bronze Age (c. 3200–1300 B.C.) and the Iron Age (c. 1300–300 B.C.). The preliminary results of the excavation of hydraulic structures in Masāfī (United Arab Emirates) are also presented. While in Arabia many studies have been devoted to the qanāt technology, and especially its origin, it is demonstrated that these structures are badly dated. Conversely, it appears that wells played a significant role in water supply during the pre-Islamic period as well as in the present day.

In recent research, Google Earth was used successfully to detect 2840 Early Bronze Age tombs in the Wadi Andam area of Sharqiyah, Oman. The distribution of these tombs in their landscape was analysed using geographic information systems(GIS) in an attempt to shed light on the nature of Hafit society: it was tentatively concluded that they were constructed by a nomadic pastoralist population, but a concern with the dataset was the possible erroneous inclusion of a significant number of Umm an-Nar tombs, which would cast doubt on the integrity of the methodology and conclusions of the investigation. In order to assess the extent of the problem, published tombs from both periods were analysed using GIS, and a simple statistical methodology was utilized to extract a subset of structures that had a ‘high probability’ of dating to the later period. Seventy-one tombs met these parameters, and when examined on the ground all dated to the Hafit period. This result means that the Wadi Andam dataset may be used to investigate Hafit society, but further research and development of the remote sensing methodology is needed.

This chapter from the upcoming monograph of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bat explores ceramic typology and classification issues related to pottery from recent excavations. The primary focus of this chapter is the domestic pottery from the Early Bronze Age monumental towers, which have been the subject of on-going excavation since 2007. This is the first monograph of its kind for any excavated EBA site in northern Oman and the present chapter attempts to situate the ceramic corpus in its regional and chronological framework. A more detailed synopsis of the Bat pottery is planned for the second monograph volume. Note: Please do not cite without permission of the authors. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.