The New Radiocarbon Dataset for Trilith Monuments of Southeastern Arabia

Abstract

Triliths are megalithic monuments scattered across the coastal plains of southern and southeastern Arabia. They consist of aligned standing stones with a parallel row of large hearths and form a space, the meaning of which is undoubtedly significant but nonetheless still unknown. This paper presents a new radiocarbon (14C) dataset acquired during the two field seasons 2018–2019 of the TSMO (Trilith Stone Monuments of Oman) project which investigated the spatial and temporal patterns of the triliths. The excavation and sampling of trilith hearths across Oman yielded a dataset of 30 new 14C dates, extending the use of trilith monuments to as early as the Iron Age III period (600–300 BC). The earlier dates are linked to two-phase trilith sites in south-central Oman. The three 14C pairs collected from the two-phase trilith sites indicated gaps between the trilith construction phases from 35 to 475 years (2 σ). The preliminary spatio-temporal analysis shows the geographical expansion of populations using trilith monuments during the 5th to 1st century BC and a later pull back in the 1st and 2nd century AD. The new 14C dataset for trilith sites will help towards a better understanding of Iron Age communities in southeastern Arabia.