The latest Neolithic conquest of “new territories” in the Arabian Sea: The Al-Hallaniyat Archipelago (Kuria Muria, Sultanate of Oman)

Twelve years of the ‘Arabian Seashores’ project: How the extensive investigation of coastal Oman changed the paradigm of the Arabian Neolithic

“…The communities regularly captured large fish, dolphins, sea turtles and nesting birds. From our point of view, the late occupation of Hallaniyya marks the latest step in the conquest of the Arabian Sea (Charpentier et al, 2022). The first occupation of the island is now dated to the end of the fifth to the beginning of the fourth millennium bce (4500–4200 bce ) and marks the completion of the Neolithic conquest of unreached new territories.…”

“…This component can receive, and process GPS+GLONASS L1 signals, improving the accuracy of the survey points and positions with a standard error of a maximum of ±3 m. Points were recorded using UTM coordinates WGS84 mapping datum. The systematic collection was performed only in the case of test sounding, trenches and excavations, following the division system by quadrant (Charpentier et al, 2012(Charpentier et al, , 2022Maiorano et al, 2018). Another important goal of the pedestrian survey was the creation of an archaeological risk map for the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, especially for the sites affected by construction.…”

“…Given the limited information from the eroded archaeological deposits in arid and hyperarid environments, different approaches and methodologies must be developed and tested in the field. The collaboration with ichthyologists (P. Bearez and A. Marrast) was essential to explore the interactions between humans and aquatic environments over time (Berger et al, 2020; Charpentier et al, 2022; Marrast et al, 2019). Collaborations included those with expert anthropologists (O. Munoz and H. Guy) and zooarchaeologists (C. Lefèvre, E. Maini, and M. Mashkour) and palaeobotanist (M. Tengberg) who are currently involved on several fronts of the research.…”

“…One of the specificities of both sites is the production of microdrills produced on straight burin spalls, extracted from bladelets, and used in manufacturing ornaments (Figure 6). This chaîne opératoire is absent in other sites along the coast or at Hallaniyya, and currently unique in the recent prehistory of Arabia (Charpentier et al, 2013, 2022; Thomas, 2015).…”

“…Alongside the large island of Masirah, we focussed our research in 2014 and 2019 on the small Ḥallāniyyat archipelago (formerly known as Kuria Muria). The survey revealed several intriguing spots for ancient and recent archaeology and ethnographical studies (Charpentier et al, 2022). Al-Hallaniyya HLY-4 site, discovered in 1984 by G. Weisgerber and Al-Shanfari (2015, Site 11.1), was the subject of two test pits.…”