Revealing the Local: A Look Inwards at the Archaeology of Southeastern Arabia

Summary

Rita Wright’s valuable contributions to the archaeology of urbanism and holistic, multi-scalar approaches to settlement patterns is well-attested in her survey work along the Beas River Valley. This paper picks up these themes in a different region of the interconnected Bronze Age world that has been the focus of her research—ancient Oman.

Known as Magan in Mesopotamian texts, a considerable amount of research has been conducted on Bronze Age Oman by focusing on its external connections to other polities. In this paper, I present an alternative, hyper-local perspective on the archaeology of this area. Utilizing ceramic and survey data collected in the spring of 2017 from the region surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat and nearby remains at ‘Amlah, this paper works to shift the focus of research on ancient Oman inwards by examining connections between settlements in the Bat region. An analysis of the ceramics collected in this area suggests a temporally dynamic landscape, with shifting centers of activity. Taking a localized, historically-particular approach to the archaeology of interactions in this small area ultimately reveals the significance of even the smallest known settlements in ancient Oman.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20752