Archaeological Research in the Sultanate of Oman

Archaeological Research in the Sultanate of Oman Bronze and Iron Age Graveyards The Expedition of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum in Oman 1

Editor Paul A. Yule

Bochum 2015

Montanhistorische Zeitschrift Der ANSCHNITT. Beiheft 28 = Veröffentlichungen aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Nr. 208

Cover image View of the Jabal Shams (photo G. Steffens); painted spouted vessel excavated from al-Akhḍar cemetery, Wadi Suq Period, DA 958 (drawing A. Weisgerber).

Frontispiece Al-Wasit viewed to the north.

The black hill in the middle is tomb W1 (photo G. Weisgerber).

In Kommission bei VML Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden/Westf.

Geschäftsführer: Dr. Bert Wiegel Stellerloh 65 · D-32369 Rahden/Westf.

Tel: +49 (0)5771/9510-74 Fax: +49 (0)5771/9510-75 eMail: info@vml.de Homepage: www.vml.de

Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen Bibliothek Die Deutschen Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http/dnd.ddb.de abrufbar.

Redaktion Paul A. Yule, Bühl / Baden und Bernd Lehnhoff, Bochum Satz, Layout Hans-Jörg Lauffer, Bochum Titelgestaltung Hans-Jörg Lauffer, Bochum und Thomas Stöllner, Bochum Druck druckhaus köthen GmbH & Co. KG, Köthen

ISBN: 978-3-86757-009-1

Table of Content

Preface

7

Paul A. Yule, Gerd Weisgerber (†) Al-Wāsiṭ Tomb W1 and other Sites: Redefining the Second Millennium BCE Chronology in South-Eastern Arabia

9

Manfred Kunter The Skeletal Remains from the Excavation of 1989 at al-Wāsiṭ

109

Paul A. Yule, Gerd Weisgerber (†) The Cemetery at al-Akhḍar near Samad al-Shān in the Sharqīya (Oman)

111

Günther Wagner, Paul A. Yule Thermoluminescence Dating of Ceramics from Oman

173

Paul A. Yule Excavation and Prospection in Izkī and Neighbouring Areas of Central Oman 2011

179

Ingeborg Guba Lithological and Mineralogical Description of the Stone Bowl, DA 7540, Grave B42, Bawshar

205

Bibliography

207

Preface

Preface

Those who knew Gerd Weisgerber all agree that he was a charismatic person. Working as an archaeologist in Oman required excellent interpersonal skills and a vision in order to remain active in this challenging environment.

We never doubted Gerd’s ability. Moreover, his approach to the important topic of early copper production and general archaeology in the Sultanate set the tone for other such works in South-eastern Arabia and also in diverse and disparate parts of the world. Between 1977 and 2010, spear-headed by Gerd, the German Mining Museum developed a leading position in Arabian Studies part of which the present study consolidates. The quality, many facetted fields and size of his team are manifest in Gerd’s article of 1981 “Mehr als Kupfer in Oman” (“More than Copper in Oman”). Over its long lifespan the team included archaeologists, mineralogists, metallurgists, a survey engineer, a wood biologist, a physical anthropologist, an Arabist historian, artists, restorers, lab technicians, student assistants, secretaries and others as well.

Based on a sound research design, the Museum committed itself to expending significant amounts of time and financial resources to ensure success.

In 1977, with a help from Maurizio Tosi, on arrival in Oman the country’s prehistory was a blank page waiting to be written. The wealth of new data was awe-inspiring.

Archaeologically, Gerd could paint with a broad brush as did pioneers of the early 1900s. It was perhaps the very richness of this field that led Gerd not down just one path, but down many at the same time. In order to research the ancient copper production he necessarily had to undertake a dangerous challenge in terms of our German foundation structure and conduct basic research today which unfortunately is difficult to organise.

Aside from excavating at al-Moyassar (then al-Maysar), he also dug at the Early Iron Age (EIA) fortress site of Lizq, surveyed and dug on the island of Maṣīrah and at the al-Akhḍar cemetery. A steady stream of surveys, yielded an equally steady stream of information. In addition, he recognised the importance of a catalogue study of the hoard of copper implements from EIA ʿIbrī/Selme, which many years after completion, appeared as a monograph. But campaigning on several fronts was more than even Gerd could do, since he had high academic standards and expectations. Needed was an additional

archaeologist to channel the information into publishable manuscripts. I took up this work first in 1982.

Begun around 1977, the pioneer Gerd never lost sight of the importance of the al-Akhḍar cemetery re-excavation project, but others followed in its foot-steps, for example the excavation of the multi-period cemeteries at Samad al-Shān and al-Moyassar. He recruited me first to catalogue the Selme hoard which served as my main Oman-related project from 1982 to 1988. In 1987 the Samad project commenced and enabled Gerd to recreate the incomplete documentation of other excavations carried out by others, not all of whom were archaeologists. Together we went to great lengths to reconstruct the excavation inventories of al-Akhḍar and later the finds from the tombs at Nizwá and al-Wāsiṭ. Gerd’s gifts also included tenacity and patience, for it took many repeated visits to finally get a circumspect view of find circumstances, as well as a complete documentation.

The finds which are the basis of the present study result from some 17 seasons of excavation predominantly in Central Oman. They are of considerable importance since several contexts, finds and find classes appear here for the first time. The catalogue standard is of a very high quality which provides building blocks for other studies.

Our thanks go out to several funding foundations, the first of which was the Volkswagen-Foundation from 1978 to 1982. From 1987 to 1990 the Oman research was financed by the DFG (grant WE 776/4-1) and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (1986). In 1995 the DFG enabled me to study the finds from the sites Lizq L1, al-Akhḍar cemetery, Aztaḥ grave, al-Wāsiṭ tomb W1 and Nizwá grave N1985 for some 12 months. I catalogued the relevant finds in a database and photocopied relevant passages of the inventory books of the Department of Antiquities. This led us to near completion of the catalogue.

I photographed and drew most of the finds and Irene Steuer-Siegmund (today Irene Blome) and Angelika Weisgerber inked them. However, in 1996 Gerd decided that the documentation especially of the stone vessels required more time. The images of artefacts are posed

7

Preface

the way they were worn, carried or used: daggers and swords point downward, arrowheads and lanceheads point upward.

Technical/organisational notes: The first half of the text on the sites is basically a catalogue; the second half (“Al-Wāsiṭ Tomb W1 and other Sites, Redating the 2nd Millennium Artefacts and Contexts”) contains the main discussion of chronology. The cumbersome references for the dating of the artefact classes appear in Yule’s excavation report for Samad al-Shān which unburdens the following text (Yule 2001a I: 48–140). This includes the sources for the images published in that study. Several Arabic place-names are Romanised. In cases where they are time-honoured (e.g. Wadi Suq) a simple transcription is used. The different abbreviations for the artefact classes originated in German language. For this reason they do not correspond to their English equivalents: arrowheads (P), rivets (Ni), beads (Pe), stone bowls (Sg), stone lids (Sd) etc.

The five studies relating to the archaeology of Oman which appear below either were begun by Gerd, were

8

carried out in the framework of his projects, or are projects undertaken by friends and students. I thank ­Thomas Stöllner for his generous support in making the documentation of Gerd’s Iron Age studies available to me, and granting permission to undertake this work.

By the time of Gerd’s death on 22 June 2010 his goal, the completion of the documentation of our projects, was largely realised. The original plan was for different studies to appear as they reached publication ripeness. AlAkhḍar cemetery should have appeared early in the 1980s. Since this did not happen, I have finished those relating to the Early and Late Iron Ages, terms which Gerd coined alone and together with me. My contribution lies in assembling the publication materials and addressing the research of the past 20 years. During this time Dan Potts and his students set about to recast the chron­ ology of South-eastern Arabia. Thus, when Thomas Stöllner asked me to finish our projects I had to decide, for example, whether to use our time-honoured nomenclature or adopt a newer one.

Paul A. Yule

Paul A. Yule, Gerd Weisgerber (†)

Al-Wāsiṭ Tomb W1 and other Sites: Redefining the Second Millennium BCE Chronology in SouthEastern Arabia Introduction Until around 1990, the time slot from c. 1900 to c. 1300 BCE in South-eastern Arabia was designated Wadi Suq named after the place where its typical pottery shapes and decoration were first observed1. Until recently the few usable contexts available for study (Fig. 1) usually combined with simple investigative methods resulted in differing interpretations for the chronology. Meagre finds and in most cases poorly stratified contexts have resulted in a characterisation for this cultural period as “collapse and transformation”, in contrast to the splendid material culture of the preceding Umm an-Nar Period2.

What follows focusses on the find inventories of new 2nd millennium contexts from Central and North Oman.

Till now discussion of the two key burial contexts in Nizwá and al-Wāsiṭ has centred on their metal finds, but the stone bowls, pottery and other finds equally deserve contextualisation. Below we take the opportunity to present the entire inventories of two aforementioned tombs which were investigated as post hoc salvage excavations in 1984 and 1985 and others. Scope: The ensuing discussion builds on and emends studies regarding the material culture and chronology of late second millennium South-eastern Arabia.

State of Research In 1975 Karen Frifelt first recognised the find material of the 2nd millennium BCE in the northern part of the Sultanate of Oman as an independent complex, which she designated Wadi Suq, after its occurrence in this wadi.

Serge Cleuziou studied the inventory of finds known from 1977 to 1982, especially those from the present-day United Arab Emirates, pointing out some new ones and structuring the pottery sequence of the second millennium BCE by means of the stratigraphy in Hili site H83 – the best but not sole stratified site in the region.

At this same time Andreas Hauptmann and Gerd Weisgerber illuminated the location and character of the historic copper producer Magan/Makkan and the metallurgical development from copper toward bronze as basic industrial materials in Central Oman as well as the

entire interregional trade complex4. This is the most frequently discussed aspect of Gulf archaeology. As early as 1928 H. Peak noted the commonality in the pattern of trace elements in copper artefacts of the Sumerian Period found in what has become Iraq with the slag from Oman5. Copper was the major export product of what has become Oman and thus often appears in cuneiform texts. Here copper alloy was smelted by means of a simple technology and found use for implements in the early 3rd millennium BCE. These occur as early as the Hafit Period in considerable numbers in Umm an-Nar tomb find contexts6. Numerous such archaeological finds are known especially from north-western Oman (the United Arab Emirates) at this time. A production estimate of 2000–4000 tons of copper for the Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq Periods has been forwarded, based on the amounts of slag found at ancient smelting sites7. The relative importance of this earliest copper becomes easier to understand when one considers that it was produced over a time-span of 1200 years of the Bronze Age (1.66 – 3.33 tons/year). Weisgerber assumed intuitively a decline in copper production in the Wadi Suq Period based on a typology for slag, that is smelting debris8.

The length of the production obviously would have an effect on such calculations.

The implements seem to have been cold-smithed9. The smelting of now rare secondary oxidic copper carbonate minerals (e.g. azurite, chrysocolla, cuprite and malachite) in simple kilns resulted in a high amount of residual metal remaining in the slag10. When copper ores have contact with air and water, they oxidise from the vast majority which are of sulphidic type. This means that the metal is chemically combined with sulphur which must be expunged during smelting. With the beginning of the Iron Age the metallurgical technology changes dramatically (see below).

In 1974 at al-Akhḍar in the Wadi Samad in Central Oman representatives of the Department of Antiquities excavated a cemetery partly of Wadi Suq date (report below in this volume). Since the finds recovered were not registered according to the respective grave from which they derived, they allow little more than a general view

9

Paul A. Yule, Gerd Weisgerber

Fig. 1: Wadi Suq and Late Bronze Age sites.

of the local inventory. For example, we cannot distinguish intact, partially plundered from re-used graves. To remedy this situation, in 1981 the German Archaeological Mission excavated numerous such graves at Samad al-Shān and al-Akhḍar– first steps in the definition of the Wadi Suq and Samad Late Iron Age (LIA) Periods.

10

In 1984 Peter Donaldson contributed a first detailed, systematic report on the excavations of collective corridor tombs at Shimal11 and at Ghalīlah in the emirate Raʾs al-Khaimah12. At the time he had hardly any artefacts from nearby contexts as comparisons. Arrowheads, spearheads and other implements drew his attention.

Al-Wāsiṭ Tomb W1 and other Sites: Redefining the Second Millennium BCE Chronology in South-Eastern Arabia

Plate 51

axes 0% daggers 6%

bangles 21%

non-recontructable vessels 33%

pans 3% miniature vessels 4% globular bowls 22%

open bowls 33%

Pl. 51.2: Restored plate from the Selme hoard (DA 3785) shows four fish swimming counter clockwise.

Vessels with pictorial representations are rare.

Pl. 51.1: Find proportions in the ʿIbrī/Selme hoard, 508 metallic artefacts.

Pl. 51.3: Metal vessels as this one (DA 3825.23) were folded to facilitate their transportation to the cache and for re-cycling.

Pl. 51.4: Unrestored finds from ʿIbrī/Selme.

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Paul A. Yule, Gerd Weisgerber (†)

The Cemetery at al-Akhḍar near Samad al-Shān in the Sharqīya (Oman)

Introduction Geographic Location The Omani Ḥajjar central mountain chain extends along the country’s eastern coast from Raʾs al-Ḥadd in the south to Raʾs Musandam which forms the southern side of the straits of Hormuz in the north for a length of approximately 600 km. Not only does it form the watershed for the brief winter rains which fill the wadis (rain gullys), but it also divides Central Oman into its two essential settlement and economic zones. Subterranean water wealth nourishes mountain streams in the east which by outwash fans form the coastal plains which enable an intensive agriculture. The catch from fish-rich coastal waters provides the fisher population nutrition and its very existence.

As early as the Neolithic Period such natural resources were exploited, as we know from excavations1. Since the late 4th millennium, west of the Ḥajjar chain in the Interior an adaptation to the special circumstances enabled agriculture2. The mountain itself earned its economic meaning by means of its natural resources which include copper, soft stone3, chalk and jasper4. Especially the exploitation of these raw materials, which began prior to 3000 BCE was what made possible an unexpected economic and cultural flowering. The export of copper enabled the stimulation which resulted from contact with the developed cultures of Mesopotamia in the north and of the South Asian region to the east. However, it also resulted in market-political dependency as a result of which these international connections again terminated.

As important movements of people and wares came to fruition, the Ḥajjar mountains then as now posed a transportation obstacle which could be circumvented by means of few passes. In the north the transition from the coast through the Wadis Suq and Jizzi provided the key corridor to the prehistoric settlement centre of the oases Buraimī and Hili5. Less important was the southern corridor from al-Khaburah on the coast to ʿIbrī in the Interior although near to this oasis important Bronze Age settlements and copper production centres must have conditioned early trade6. From the present-day capital the Wadi Samaʾīl provides access to Interior Nizwá and

Baḥlāʾ. From this mighty wadi near Bidbid on the one hand a pass leads off to the south leading ultimately to Ṣūr, and on the other, the Wadi Samad to north-western Sharqīya with its centres in Muḍaybi and Sanāw.

Up into the 1980s in the wadi bed the water table was high and the year over in deep places evidenced slowly flowing subterranean water. Following heavy rains it swelled to dangerous proportions.

After the settlement-devoid upper course, al-Rawdah, al-Akhḍar, Sharīya, Samad al-Shān and al-Moyassar (till 1995 al-Maysar) form a concentration of oases in the middle reaches of the Wadi Samad after exiting the highlands increasingly subdivides and finally ends in the desert7. Today Samad al-Shān is an administrative and school centre.

The pre-Islamic cemetery which we deal with in what follows lies on the road to Muḍaybi immediately opposite al-Akhḍar oasis and is 2.5 km north of Sharīya (Pl. 1, 3).

The excavation is located at 22°50’38”N, 58°10’39”E (Google Earth), but further pre-Islamic graves are located directly to the NE (22°50’40”N, 58°10’50”E, Google Earth).

Perhaps it extended previously on both sides of today’s tarmac road, paved some 10 years ago. The NE-SW wadi transsects the cemetery. Al-Akhḍar oasis lies on the western side of the wadi, limited by it, while the other settlements lie to the east or on both sides. Grave walls visible in the once unpaved road suggest this. Building activities for the water transporting falaj8 for the village of Sharīya disturbed the cemetery east of the tarmac road and here clear evidence of graves was not discernible in 2014. The available evidence suggests that the cemetery lay on the terrace in a corner between the track and a branch of the Wadi Samad c. 3 m above the present-day wadi floor (Pl. 1). Over the centuries the wadi eroded the terrace and destroyed thereby part of the cemetery. In the north the surface is marked by the spoil of the excavations and in the south by numerous low hillocks which in part originate from the falaj building and which probably destroyed some of the graves. The location of the falaj’s antique settlement remains unknown. For the closest associated settlement the oasis at Sharīya is a candidate. The Samad al-Shān oasis is improbable, since it

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Paul A. Yule

Excavation and Prospection in Izkī and Neighbouring Areas of Central Oman 20111

Introduction Izkī (Fig. 1) is by popular acclaim Oman’s oldest city, nowadays mentioned in all discussions of the Early Iron Age of Central Oman.2 One reason is its un-Arabic name. Popularly acclaimed ‘oldest cities’ are known the world over, the historicity of which rest more on local patriotism than historic fact. Such include Balkh in Bactria, Damascus in Syria, Nijmegen in the Netherlands, Rome in Italy or Trier

in Germany. Izkī’s antiquity has been locally championed, but till recently real evidence for this has been lacking.

What is the foundation for Izkī’s contention, a continuous settlement, linguistic identity and continuity? Doubtless Izkī is a nodal site for Oman’s early historic development, but does she hold the key to tracing history from the prehistoric period through to early medieval times? Surely information must exist in order to better articulate Izkī’s unique history and claim as the oldest ‘city’.

al-Yemen

Ya?âriba fort

al-Adbî al-Nizâr

Gurnân cave makbara

Fig. 1: Izkī, satellite image of the core area.

Fig. 1 Izki, satellite image of the core area.

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Paul A. Yule

The purpose of the archaeological component of our joint mission was firstly to determine the archaeological potential of old Izkī in Dakhilīya mintiqa for future research.

Complementary to excavation, the traditional village architecture required careful study. The Nottingham-Trent team carried out the architectural part of the project and that from Heidelberg the archaeological one. Originally we planned to record the village languages of Izkī/al-Nizār and al-Yemen (locally l’Yemen or just Yemen) and compare them in the hope of shedding light on the origins of their respective tribes. This documentation also serves as a time-capsule since the present state of preservation of this site is likely to deteriorate in the coming years, as is universally the case of archaeological sites.

Site Setting Izkī town and her oases lie at the centre of the upper Wadi Ḥalfain and at the southern end of the Samāʾil gap which passes through Oman’s central mountain chain to allow communication between the north-eastern coast and the interior. Moisture-laden air condenses to produce precipitation upon contact with the cold mountains. The surrounding geological strata contain no significant aquifers.3 The precipitation amounts to 100–250 mm of rain pro year4 – slightly more than for neighbouring places to the east and west, such as Nizwa. The 65 km long Samāʾil gap is one of Oman’s biggest wadis in terms of the amount of water transported. In recent years the decline of the runoff has resulted from an increase in the population, taking water out of the hydrological cycle. The discharge of the Wadi Samāʾil is exceptional as it lies in Central Oman’s highest rainfall region. This fortunate situation sustained the population at Izkī for centuries. The north– south watershed lies a little over 16 air km to the north, 4200 m south of al-Mughbariyah Oasis at an altitude of 670 m. Three-quarters flows to the coast and the rest to the interior. Without this source of moisture, agriculture would not be sustainable. The vegetation is characterised by mixed xeromorphic, very open shrubland and xeromorphic open grassland5 Date palm groves grow west of the old twin towns of Izkī/al-Yemen and al-Nizār, the former of which is the subject of our study. It is difficult to believe that at the turn to the 20th century J. G. Lorimer estimated the number of trees at 10,0006 since they seem far fewer today.

2–4 km north-west of al-Yemen, a network of canals, the falaj mālki, channels water into Izkī’s northern oases, from which it is then further distributed. With a length of over 14 km, it is one of Oman’s largest aflāj. In addition, the Ḥārat Bani Ḥusayn grove contains an artesian well, which nowadays is augmented by means of a pump.

This reportedly watered some 7000 trees.7 Izkī belongs to Oman proper’s ‘settlement pocket’8 and as a result of runoff, is agriculturally relatively favoured, despite the low amount of rainfall and considerable fluctuations.

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Unlike Samad al-Shān and other oases in Oman, the gardens around Izkī do not evidence obvious surrounding soil heaps. This need not mean that they were not repeatedly excavated to counter alluvial build-up, thus allowing water to enter. Here, and at other sites, these mounds have simply been removed and the soil used elsewhere. This probably holds for Izkī, which works like the other oases.

P. Costa wrote that Izkī historically did not control the main desert route which runs through the plain of Manaḥ directly to Firq and Nizwā. In addition, despite its position at the southern mouth of the Samāʾil pass, Izkī did not effectively control movements to and from to the coast.9 If his view is tenable, the only explanation can be centuries of see-sawing dissension between opposed tribal groups which populated the pass. Today, a Bani Ruwāḥa fort dominates the Samāʾil gap between the al-Maghrabiyah and, downstream from it, the fortified village of Manal (formerly Wabal).10 The twin walled towns, Izkī/al-Yemen and al-Nizār, differ from each other in size and appearance. The former presently has half the surface area of the latter. J. G. Lorimer estimated number of houses in al-Nizār at 450 and in al-Yemen at 350,11 which contradicts this. Al-Nizār is still inhabited; al-Yemen has been deserted for over 30 years, but the house owners still care for their own houses. Its present appearance, especially the regular streets, results from its 18th century destruction12 and the rebuilding of al-Yemen. Signs of this destruction are visible in the Ḥiṣn al-ʿUmayrī, 560 m to the west of the Yaʿāriba period fort (22°58’38.71”N, 57°45’50.35”E).13 As in other cases in Oman,14 the two neighbouring towns were at odds with each other, in this case as a result of the Hināwi and Ghāfirī rivalry, which goes back still further to the tribal Adnāni and Qahtāni dichotomy in Arabia. The inhabitants of al-Yemen derive from the Yemen (originally Bani Riyām) and those from al-Nizār originate from tribes which in 5th and 6th centuries CE drifted from Central Arabia back to the Ḥaḍramawt (originally Bani Samā).15 The size and appearance of the twin walled towns prior to the 18th century remain unknown.

The opposing walls of the twin towns lie 200 m apart.

In the early 19th century the Yaʿāriba Muḥammad b.

Nāṣir al-Jabri16 built a fort 24 m south of the al-Yemen’s northern town wall (Fig. 11) which trained its guns on both towns in order to prevent further altercations. In 1958 the Sultan’s army dismantled the fort.

Izkī´s local place names are often mentioned in the specialist literatur. In the local dialect the place-names often are shortened, for example the falaj mālki instead of falaj māliki. The name Izkī often is shortened to Zkī and al-Yemen becomes l-Yemen.

Excavation and Prospection in Izk朝 and Neighbouring Areas of Central Oman 2011

11~044.110

11~024.001

11~022.001

11~044 .068

2

1 11~048.007

4

3

11~048.045 11~048.057

6

5

7

11~053.001

11~048.040

11~049.003+012

11~049.008

8

10

9

11 11~049.019

11~049.004

13

12 11~044.087 11~044.102

15

14

11~048.021

11~048.066

16

17 11~055.005

11~049.022

19

18 11~055.006 11~049.027

20

21 11~055.007

11~053.002

23

22 10 cm Fig. 26: Izk朝/al-Yemen, Samad-type LIA pottery.

Fig. 26 Izki, Samad/Late Iron Age Period.

195