Since 2012, the French Mission in Oman has discovered several Palaeolithic sites in the south-eastern foothills of the Sufrat Dishshah (a hill of the Sufrat Valley/Wādī al-Сufrāt), in the Adam region of north-central Oman. These sites are attributed to the Lower through to the Late Palaeolithic (Bonilauri et al. 2015). The 2016 field season was dedicated to further investigation of the previously identified sites of the Sufrat Dishshah area. A number of additional artefacts were located and studied on site; four artefacts—two bifaces and two Nubian cores—were retained for further study. These finds have particular importance for the understanding of Middle Palaeolithic variability and cultural diffusion in Oman, and they represent one of the most significant results of the 2016 Adam expedition.
This chapter presents new results of the excavations and surveys at Adam, Central Oman. The funerary landscape of the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) is characterized by collective burials in tower-tombs located on the crests and then large collective multi-compartment graves. From the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC), a complete change is observed: the Wadi Suq graveyards show an important concentration of single burials in new forms of tombs (cists and cairns), all of which are located on the plain. Using the graveyards of Adam as an example, these two practices are compared in order to understand the evolution, continuity, and change of settlement patterns, material culture and society in the "longue durée."
In this paper we present the results of surveys carried out in February 2016 along a palaeo-drainage system near the village of Bisyah. We report first on the geological prospection, which was our main goal, and then present our discovery of the only known localities in north Oman of large Kombewa flake production (>10 cm up to 20 cm). Among the scatter of artefacts, we found cores and large Kombewa flakes with two opposed bulbs of percussion, a technology that had not been known in this region until now. In spite of the local features, the typo-technological traits of the artefacts suggest that at least part of them resemble in some way the Acheulean techno-complex, but there are still many questions remaining on the age of these artefacts.
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