Category Archives: OMAN

A 7,000-year-old tomb in Oman holds dozens of prehistoric skeletons

A 7,000-year-old tomb in Oman holds dozens of prehistoric skeletons

A 7,000-year-old tomb in Oman holds dozens of prehistoric skeletons
The ancient tomb near Nafūn in Oman’s central Al Wusta province has been dated by archaeologists to between 6,600 and 7,000 years old. Nothing like it has been found in the region.

Archaeologists have found the remains of dozens of people who were buried up to 7,000 years ago in a stone tomb in Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula. 

The tomb, near Nafūn in the country’s central Al Wusta province, is among the oldest human-made structures ever found in Oman. The burial area is next to the coast, but it is otherwise a stony desert.

“No Bronze Age or older graves are known in this region,” Alžběta Danielisová, an archaeologist at the Czech Republic’s Institute of Archaeology in Prague, told Live Science. “This one is completely unique.”

The latest excavations are part of a third year of archaeological investigations in Oman led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Danielisová is leading the excavations at the tomb for the institute, which is part of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). The tomb itself was discovered about 10 years ago in satellite photographs, and archaeologists think it dates to between 5000 B.C. and 4600 B.C. 

Ancient tomb

The tomb is beneath an earthen mound and built with walls of thin stone slabs, or ashlars. It was covered by a roof, also made of ashlars, that has now partially collapsed.
Skulls and bones from more than twenty bodies have been found in the tomb; archaeologists think they were deposited there at different times, after the bodies were left elsewhere to decompose.
Czech-led scientists are also investigating ancient sites in the Rub’ al Khali desert in Dhofar province, in the South of Oman.

A report on the project said the tomb’s walls were made with rows of thin stone slabs, called ashlars, with two circular burial chambers inside divided into individual compartments. The entire tomb was covered with an ashlar roof, but it has partially collapsed, probably because of the annual monsoon rains. 

Several “bone clusters” were found in the burial chambers, indicating that the dead had been left to decompose before being deposited in the tomb; their skulls were placed near the outside wall, with their long bones pointed toward the center of the chamber. 

Similar remains were found in a smaller tomb next to the main tomb; archaeologists think it was built slightly later. Danielisová said there is evidence that the dead there were buried at different times, and three graves of people from the Samad culture, who lived thousands of years later, were found nearby. 

The next stage will be to carry out anthropological and biochemical assessments of the human remains — such as isotope analysis, a look at the differing neutrons in the nuclei of various key elements — to learn more about the diets, mobility and demographics of the people who were buried in the tomb, she said. 

The team also hopes to find a nearby ancient settlement where the people may have lived.

Prehistoric Oman

The archaeologists are also investigating inscriptions found on rock faces near the tomb, but which were made many thousands of years later.
The investigations in southern Oman include landscape features like dry riverbeds and fossilized dunes that can tell them more about how the region’s climate has changed over millennia.
The archaeologists in southern Oman have also unearthed this stone hand-ax which may date from the first migrations of early humans out of Africa between 300,000 and 1.3 million years ago.

The work on the tomb is one of several archaeological projects in Oman being led by scientists from the Czech Republic. 

According to a statement from the CAS, these projects include an expedition in southern Oman’s Dhofar province that has found a stone hand ax that may date back to the first early human migrations out of Africa, between 300,000 and 1.3 million years ago.

The scientists are using dating techniques provided by the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS, the southern expedition leader Roman Garba, an archaeologist and physicist with the CAS, said in the statement. The same dating techniques will also be used to learn more about the roughly 2,000-year-old rows of stone “triliths” that have been found throughout Oman since the 19th century. 

Although the triliths are only a few feet (less than 1 meter) tall and were built during the Iron Age, some recent news reports compared them to England’s Stonehenge.

The archaeologists are also investigating rock inscriptions near the tomb, although they were made thousands of years later, Danielisová said. Some of the symbols seem to be pictures, but others appear to be words and names. “We are still fuzzy about that,” she said.

“It’s really interesting stuff,” Melissa Kennedy, an archaeologist at The University of Western Australia, told Live Science. “It all goes to building up a better picture of what was happening in the Neolithic across the Arabian Peninsula.” 

Kennedy was not involved in the latest expeditions in Oman, but she has researched “mustatils” — vast stone desert monuments of about the same age — in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Her team has also found similar tombs where several people were buried at this time, and both finds suggest that people were marking their territory from very early on. 

“These kinds of tombs give us a great insight into family relationships and how they viewed death and perhaps life after death,” she said.

“Arabian Stonehenge” Uncovered in Oman Desert

“Arabian Stonehenge” Uncovered in Oman Desert

Handaxes from the period of the first human migration out of Africa, circular burial chambers, a collection of rock engravings, and the Arabian Stonehenge. Unique findings are being reported by an international team led by the Institute of Archaeology of the CAS in Prague, which has successfully completed its third excavation season in Oman. The collected samples are now being analyzed by experts and will contribute to the reconstruction of the earliest history of the world’s largest sand desert.

Czech archaeologists have been focusing on the still underexplored desert areas of the Sultanate of Oman for a long time. Their last year’s expedition was the third in a row and several more are in the pipeline. More than twenty archaeologists and geologists from ten countries were involved in the excavations at two different sites in Oman.

The first expedition team was situated in the Dhofar Governorate in the south of the country, while the second group operated in the Duqm province of central Oman. The researchers shared their observations directly from the field on Twitter via @Arduq_Arabia.

The expedition camp in the Rub’ al-Khali desert, southern Oman.

The Arabian Peninsula as a migration corridor

In the dunes of the Rub’ al Khali desert in the Dhofar province, researchers unearthed stone handaxes that date back to the first human migration out of Africa some 300,000 to 1.3 million years ago. Due to its geographical location, Arabia served as a natural migration route from the African cradle of humankind into Eurasia.

Among dunes up to 300 meters high, they managed to find eggshells of extinct ostriches, a fossil dune, and an old riverbed from a period when the climate in Arabia was significantly wetter. “Our findings, supported by four different dating methods, will provide valuable data for reconstructing the climate and history of the world’s largest sand desert. Natural conditions also shaped prehistoric settlements, and what we are trying to do is study human adaptability to climate change,” said expedition leader and coordinator Roman Garba from the Institute of Archaeology of the CAS in Prague.

Nuclear physics is helping history research

Archaeologists use special dating methods to determine the age of the finds. “We carry out radiocarbon dating and cosmogenic radionuclide dating in cooperation with the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS, which has newly commissioned the first accelerator mass spectrometer in the Czech Republic,” Garba explained.

Radiocarbon dating and spatio-temporal analysis can also help researchers find out more about the roughly two-thousand-year-old ritual stone monuments – known as triliths. In layman’s terms, they can be likened to England’s better-known Stonehenge. They appear in what is now southern Arabia, and it is not clear exactly what they were used for or who built them.

What is hidden beneath the circular burial chambers?

The second expedition team operated in the Duqm province of central Oman, focusing in particular on a Neolithic tomb dating back to 5,000–4,600 BCE at the Nafūn site.

Excavation of a Neolithic tomb at the Nafūn site, central Oman.

“What we find here is unique in the context of the whole of southern Arabia. A megalithic structure concealing two circular burial chambers revealed the skeletal remains of at least several dozen individuals. Isotopic analyses of bones, teeth, and shells will help us to learn more about the diet, natural environment, and migrations of the buried population,” explains Alžběta Danielisová from the Institute of Archaeology, Prague.

“What we find here is unique in the context of the whole of southern Arabia. A megalithic structure concealing two circular burial chambers revealed the skeletal remains of at least several dozen individuals.

Isotopic analyses of bones, teeth, and shells will help us learn more about the diet, natural environment, and migrations of the buried population,” explained Alžběta Danielisová from the Institute of Archaeology of the CAS in Prague.

Not far from the tomb, there is a unique collection of rock engravings spread out over a total of 49 rock blocs, whose different styles and varying degrees of weathering provide a pictorial record of settlements from 5,000 BCE to 1,000 CE. Researchers also investigated stone tool production sites from the Late Stone Age.

Following the traces of ancient settlements in southern Arabia
The research in Oman is part of a wider project by evolutionary anthropologist Viktor Černý from the Institute of Archaeology in Prague. His research focuses on the biocultural interactions of populations and their adaptation to climate change.

“The detected interactions of African and Arab archaeological cultures characterize the mobility of populations of anatomically modern humans.

It will be interesting to confront these findings also with the genetic diversity of the two regions and create a more comprehensive view of the formation of contemporary society in Southern Arabia,” explained Černý, who received the prestigious Academic Award of the Czech Academy of Sciences for the project last year.

The ARDUQ (Archaeological Landscape and environmental dynamics of Duqm and Nejd) expedition was carried out under the auspices of the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. Researchers from the Czech Republic, USA, Great Britain, Ukraine, Iran, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, France, and Oman took part in the project.

Ancient Artifacts Uncovered in Oman

Ancient Artifacts Uncovered in Oman

Ancient Artifacts Uncovered in Oman

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has announced the discovery of archaeological artefacts at Dibba site in Musandam Governorate, dating back to the first millennium BC, most notably incense burners, bronze axes, and utensils made of copper and steatite.

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, in cooperation with an archaeological mission from the Italian Sapienza University, announced the discovery of a number of artefacts at the Dibba site in the Musandam Governorate, dating back to the first millennium BC.

Work is underway for the seventh and final season of excavations in the mass grave CG2, which is 24 metres long and more than 3 metres deep.

A number of important artefacts have been uncovered, most notably a censer, bronze axes, and utensils made of copper and steatite.

These recent excavations come as a prelude to the establishment of the visitor centre, which will start implementation soon, in cooperation with OQ Company, and it will be the first of its kind in the Sultanate of Oman and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

It will be built directly above the archaeological evidence. The centre will include a museum displaying the artefacts discovered at the site.

It is noteworthy that this site is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Oman and dates back to the first millennium BC, when it was a trading centre associated with neighbouring civilisations in India, Persia and Mesopotamia.

Many diverse and precious collectables, locally made and imported from neighbouring civilisations, were found in it.

Oman has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave

Oman has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave

Oman has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave

From a prehistoric grave dating to the 3rd millennium BC in Dahwa, North Batinah, a team of international archaeologists working under the auspices of the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Tourism have unearthed an extraordinary collection of silver jewellery.

The joint Omani-American team headed by professor Nasser al Jahwari and professor Khaled Douglas from Sultan Qaboos University and professor Kimberly Williams from Temple University, Philadelphia USA, excavate an early bronze age site and Dahwa, Wilayat of Saham of North Al Batinah Governorate.

The collection includes parts of necklaces with beads and several rings.

Stone seal from Mohenjo Dara (Sindh, Pakistan), with the same image of an Indian bison head, lowered into a manger.

One of the silver rings, interestingly, bore a stamp depicting an Indian bison (Bos Gaurus), a defining symbol of the Indus Valley (or Harappa) Culture that suggested the merchants were engaged in interregional trade.

Although quite common on Indus-related circular stone seals in Iran, Bahrain, Mesopotamia, and Oman, this image was relatively uncommon in the Indus Valley.

In fact, it was discovered engraved on stamp seals made from local soft stone in Oman at Salut and Al-Moyassar. This is, however, the first time this image has been discovered on a metal finger ring.

Tomb 1 in Dahwa was interred with silver jewelry, pottery, stone vessels, and other personal ornaments.

According to professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, an expert on ancient technologies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, seal rings are typical of much later periods.

“But this discovery confirms that Bronze Age peoples were much more ingenious and technically advanced than previously thought. They introduced at a very early stage administrative solutions that allowed economic growth in the later millennia.”

What makes the find even more intriguing is the fact that the jewelry found is made of silver that most likely came from Anatolia (Turkey).

Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Stone Board Game in Oman

Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Stone Board Game in Oman

Archaeologists in Oman have found a 4,000-year-old stone board game at a Bronze and Iron Age settlement site near the village of Ayn Bani Saidah in the northern Hajar mountains’ Qumayrah Valley.

Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Stone Board Game in Oman
The Royal Game of Ur (ca. 2,600 B.C.), from the Royal Cemetery of Ur in modern-day Iraq. Collection of the British Museum, London.

“Such finds are rare, but examples are known from an area stretching from India, through Mesopotamia even to the Eastern Mediterranean,” Piotr Bielinski, a University of Warsaw archaeologist who co-led the excavations, said in a statement.

“The most famous example of a game board based on a similar principle is the one from the graves from Ur,” an ancient royal cemetery in Iraq.

The ancient game he is referring to was discovered in 1922, is about 4,500 years old and is a two-player game similar to backgammon. It is now in the collection of the British Museum in London.

The newly discovered large stone board in Oman had grid-like markings seemingly indicating different fields of play, as well as cup holes. Its rules have been lost to time.

Archaeologists excavating a Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement near the village of Ayn Bani Saidah in Oman.

An Omani-Polish team from the University of Warsaw’s Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology and Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has been conducting the fieldwork, led by Bielinski and the ministry director-general of antiquities Sultan Al Bakri.

The area surrounding the dig is one of the least-studied regions of Oman—but finds made by recent studies suggest the Qumayrah Valley was part of a major trade route between several Arab cities.

“This abundance of settlement traces proves that this valley was an important spot in Oman’s prehistory,” Bieliński told the Daily Mail.

A 4,000-year-old board game was found near the village of Ayn Bani Saidah in Oman.

Digs at the site, which has been the subject of excavations since 2015, have also yielded four towers—one at least 60 feet tall—and the first evidence of copper smelting in the region.

“This shows that our settlement participated in the lucrative copper trade for which Oman was famous at that time,” Bielinski said in a statement.

Plans are to continue excavations near Ayn Bani Sa’dah, as well as to investigate the other end of the valley, near Bilt.

An Old Classic Bronze Age board game ‘played 4,000 years ago’ uncovered in the Oman desert

An Old Classic Bronze Age board game ‘played 4,000 years ago’ uncovered in the Oman desert

While innovative and artistic board games may hold our attention today, settlers four millennia ago in the Arabian Peninsula whiled away the time on a stone board game.

An Old Classic Bronze Age board game ‘played 4,000 years ago’ uncovered in the Oman desert
The stone board game featured a grid-like pattern and cup holes to hold game pieces.

Last month, archaeologists discovered a stone slab carved with a grid and cup holes to hold game pieces at a prehistoric settlement in the Qumayrah Valley, located in modern-day Oman, reports Samuel Kutty for the Oman Daily Observer.

The team, led by Piotr Bieliński of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology and Sultan al-Bakri, Oman’s director-general of antiquities, found the large stone board in a structure near the village of Ayn Bani Saidah.

In a statement, Bieliński said that similar kinds of games have been found in “areas stretching from India, through Mesopotamia even to the eastern Mediterranean.” She cited, as an example, one of the earliest-known game boards found in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur’s royal cemetery in 1922, dated around 4,500 years ago. Known today as the Royal Game of Ur, the two-player strategy game was similar to backgammon.

Archaeologists search for Bronze and Iron age artefacts at the Oman dig site, located in the Arabian Peninsula.

Board games have been played across the world for thousands of years. In Jerusalem, bored Roman soldiers were believed to have carved a grid for a board game on the steps of the Damascus Gate some 1,800 years ago, possibly an early form of modern-day checkers, as reported by Ruth Schuster for the Jerusalem Post in November.

The stone board game in Oman was just one of several discoveries made at the excavation site, reports Ashley Cowie for Ancient Origins.

Archaeologists also unearthed the remains of stone towers—one of which is believed to have been 60 feet tall—and evidence of copper production all dated to the Bronze Age, from 3200 to 1200 B.C.E.

“The settlement is exceptional for including at least four towers: three round ones and an angular one,” says Agnieszka Pieńkowska of the Polish Center, who is analyzing the site’s artefacts and stone structures.

Researchers at Ayn Bani Saidah dated the settlement to the Umm an-Nar period, between 2600 to 2000 B.C.E. They discovered several copper items and smelting remains at the site, indicating the site was involved in the early copper trade, reports the Jerusalem Post.

An archaeologist examines a copper artefact found at an exvacation site in the village of Ayn Bani Saidah in Oman.

“This shows that our settlement participated in the lucrative copper trade for which Oman was famous at that time, with mentions of Omani copper present in the cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia,” says Bieliński in the statement.

The team also found evidence that the region remained an important trade and production site through the second phase of the Iron Age, dating from 1100 to 600 B.C.E.

Per the Oman Observer, the Qumayrah Valley has yielded many archaeological finds, likely due to serving as a major trade route between several Arab cities.

“This abundance of settlement traces proves that this valley was an important spot in Oman’s prehistory,” Bieliński tells Ian Randall of the Daily Mail. “Ayn Bani Sadah is strategically located at a junction of [trade] routes.”

The team plans to continue its excavations this year, focusing on areas surrounding the settlement and other parts of the Qumayrah Valley.

3,000-Year-Old Weapons Cache Unearthed In Arabia

3,000-Year-Old Weapons Cache Unearthed In Arabia

In the Arabian Peninsula, an impressive hoard of bronze weapons dating back nearly 3,000 years has been discovered. Bows, arrows, daggers, and axes were discovered strewn around the ruins of what is thought to be an ancient religious building.

Are these all replicas? They are intriguing because they are crafted from metal and considered sacred in some people’s cultures, as a possible offering to a god of war.

They were found inside the ruins of an Iron Age building first discovered in 2009 near Adam, in the Sultanate of Oman.

3,000-Year-Old Weapons Cache Unearthed In Arabia
An incredible cache of bronze weapons dating back almost 3,000 years has been unearthed in the Arabian Peninsula, including two bronze quivers full of arrows (pictured above)

Experts believe the weapons, which date from 900 to 600 BC, were once displayed on shelves, furniture, or hung on walls before they fell off and were discovered alongside ritualistic objects. Two collections of items are of particular interest to archaeologists – small quivers entirely made of bronze, each containing six arrows and other metal weapons. 

They measure 14 inches (35cm) tall, making them small-scale replicas of the real objects, which would have been made of leather and are not usually found in archaeological excavations as they degrade over time.

The site where the weapons were found is known as Mudhmar East and consists of two main buildings located near one of the largest valleys in Oman. The layout of one where the weapons were found is shown.
Archaeologists found five bows (one pictured) which are of a smaller scale than usual and were made of metal, including a bronze string

The fact the quivers are made of metal supports the idea they were ornamental objects, rather than of practical use. Quivers of this kind have never been found in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, and are extremely rare elsewhere.

Experts are also intrigued by other metal weapons, which were also mostly non-utilitarian given their slightly reduced size, material, or unfinished state.

They include five battle-axes, five daggers with crescent-shaped pommels characteristic of the Iron Age, around 50 arrowheads, and five complete bows.

The bows are made up of a flat, curved stave bent at both ends which are connected by a string made of bronze. The size of the bows – 28 inches (70cm) on average – and above all the material used, shows that they were imitations of the real things made of perishable materials such as wood and tendons.

French archaeologists first discovered the site near Adam, which was completely unexplored from an archaeological point of view until the French mission headed by Dr. Guillaume Gernez, of Pantheon-Sorbonne University, began in 2011.

The site is known as Mudhmar East and consists of two main buildings located near one of the largest valleys in Oman which lay at the crossroads of several trade routes.

With a length of 49 feet (15 meters) the larger of the two buildings is located on the slope of Jabal Mudhmar and is made of cut sandstone blocks and earth bricks. 

The cache of metal weapons includes five battle-axes, five daggers with crescent-shaped pommels characteristic of the Iron Age, around 50 arrowheads and five complete bows (shown) as well as two quivers

It is in this building, in a small, apparently doorless room, Dr. Gernez uncovered the bronze weapons.

‘This exceptional discovery provides new information about weaponry during the Iron Age in the eastern Arabian Peninsula and about social practices at the time,’ he said.

‘The non-utilitarian nature of most of the weapons may indicate that they were designed to be offered to a deity of war, and/or as a key element in social practices not yet understood.

‘The first hypothesis is reinforced by the presence in the site’s second building of several fragments of ceramic incense burners and small bronze snakes, objects often associated with ritual practices at that time.’

He said the cache of weapons was made at a time when metallurgical production was on the rise in the eastern Arabian Peninsula during the Iron Age.

‘This economic and technical development went hand-in-hand with an increasingly complex society, as shown by the proliferation of fortified sites and monumental architecture,’ he explained.

‘However, understanding the political system and social structure of this pre-literate society remains a difficult task.

‘Continued archaeological exploration of the site and its immediate surroundings, as well as of the central region of Oman, will be key to reconstructing the dawn of history in the Arabian Peninsula.’

Experts said the weapons were made at a time when metallurgical production was on the rise in the eastern Arabian Peninsula during the Iron Age. This image shows an unfinished axe made of copper and bronze