This paper discusses the time and steps of the introduction of intensive agriculture and evolution of irrigation systems to sustain crops in the palaeo-oasis of Salut in the northern Sultanate of Oman. Various geoarchaeological methods allow reconstructing the exploitation of the natural resources of the region and technological development of irrigation methods since the Mid-Holocene. Intensive agriculture started during the Bronze Age and continued with some spatial and intensity fluctuations up to the Islamic period. Cultivations were initially sustained by surface irrigation systems and later replaced by a dense net of aflaj, the typical surface/underground system adopted in the Levant, Arabian Peninsula and western Asia to collect water from deep piedmont aquifers and redistribute it to the fields located in the lowlands. Our results indicate that the aflaj were in use for a long period in the palaeo-oasis formed along Wadi Sayfam and surrounding the citadel of Salut. Uranium-Thorium dating of calcareous tufa formed in the underground tunnels of the aflaj suggests that they were used between ~540 BCE and ~1150 CE.After ~1150 CE Wadi Sayfam were abandoned and the size of the oasis shrank substantially.During the late Islamic period, a surface aqueduct descending from the piedmont of Jabal Shams 2 secured water supply. Our work confirms that in arid lands archaeological and historical communities were able to actively modulate their response to climate changes by using a variety of technological strategies.
The aim of this paper is to present the rich set of finds collected inside the grave Dibba 76/1, in the Emirate of Fujairah, during a season of rescue excavation conducted under the direction of S. Ali Hassan in 1994. The recovered grave‐goods include pottery, soft‐stone vessels, metal finds, personal ornaments, coins, and other items. Although comparable with other corpuses of material excavated in south‐eastern Arabia, the material of Dibba 76/1 stands out for the inner variety of the different artefacts’ classes and their remarkable chronological heterogeneity. The study of the grave‐goods suggests that Dibba 76/1 was reused over several centuries, showing a strong continuity in the funerary destination of this specific place from the end of the Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC) to the first phases of the late pre‐Islamic period (250 BC–AD 400), and the full integration of the area of Dibba in the succession of the various cultural facies known during this long time span.
This paper focuses on the identification of alloys and the manufacturing techniques used for inscribed bronze vessels from Sumhuram (modern Khor Rori, Sultanate of Oman). A group of 19 fragments (dating back to the first to second century ad), thought to belong to the same inscribed vessel, were investigated with the aim of identifying the manufacturing process. The fragments were analysed by scanning electron microscopy with both energy‐dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) and micro‐Raman probe, flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), as well as X‐ray diffractometry (XRD). The results indicate that these fragments belong to different artefacts that all consist of leaded bronze. However, three different groups were identified on the basis of the composition and microstructure of the fragments. The fragments bearing inscriptions were produced by lost‐wax casting with the ‘wax‐thread moulding’ technique (in which each letter is shaped separately with segments of wax lace on the sheet of the wax model).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.