Exchange networks of the Early Bronze Age Gulf: The imported ceramics from Kalba 4 (United Arab Emirates)

Abstract

Imported ceramics from Early Bronze Age contexts in southeast Arabia illustrate a complex multidirectional network of material and social interactions at this time. Significant socioeconomic changes that occurred in the Hafit (3200-2800 B.C.) and Umm an-Nar (2800-2000 B.C.) periods have been linked to external demand for copper, which is argued to have stimulated a change in subsistence patterns. Similarly, disruption to long-distance exchange networks by external factors has been cited as driving change at the end of the Umm an-Nar period. Archaeological evidence from the region suggests a shift in the direction of exchange from Mesopotamia to the Indus occurred around the middle of the third millennium B.C. However, a recent analysis of Mesopotamian historical sources has highlighted the scale of state-organised textile production for export to the lower Gulf in the later third millennium B.C. The site of Kalba 4 has a stratified sequence of occupation deposits dating from the Umm an-Nar and Iron Age (1300-300 B.C.). In this study, a typological analysis of imported ceramics is used to locate the Kalba in the chronological framework of the region and discuss the changing networks of long-distance exchange that were operating. The imported pottery at Kalba 4 indicates that the inhabitants of the site were exchanging goods with a range of polities, including southern Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley (Meluhha), southeast Iran (Marhashi) and Bahrain (Dilmun). A significant quantity of Late Akkadian ceramics at the site suggests it became an important location for Mesopotamian trade at this time.

A Bronze to Iron Age fishing economy at Kalbāʾ 4 (Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)

“…However, all the main cultural phases represented at the site have provided significant amounts of fish remains, allowing a diachronic analysis and comparisons with other sites (Table 1). The phasing of the contexts was performed on the basis of previous work on pottery by Carter (1997) and Eddisford (2022). The richest stratigraphic units correspond to hearths and post‐holes associated with the MBA–LBA structures, used during the second millennium BCE (e.g., contexts 24.063, 24.064 and 34.018).…”

“…A mud‐brick pavement (22.143) and a series of terrace walls (wall features) were identified around the tower. The presence of Baluchi incised grey ware and Omani red sandy wares in the pottery assemblage retrieved from the tower compartments suggests an occupation of the late third millennium BCE for these deposits (Eddisford, 2022; Eddisford & Phillips, 2009). This dating is also supported by the presence of an Umm an‐Nar “Série Récente C” (David, 1996)‐type soft‐stone vessel, whose production took place between c. 2300 and 2000 BCE.…”

Kalba: research on trade networks of a prehistoric coastal community on the Gulf of Oman, United Arab Emirates

“…As it is today, the northern part of the south-eastern Arabian Peninsula was important for exchange networks in prehistory, not least because of its favourable location for trade. The importance of regional and inter-regional exchange for this geographical area has recently been emphasised by focusing on imported pottery from Mesopotamia, Bahrain, southeast Iran and the Indus Valley (Eddisford 2022). Resource management strategies and participation in exchange networks became crucial in the increasingly arid climatic conditions from c. 3000 BC onwards (Lézine et al 2017).…”