The development of complex settlements in northern Inner Oman in the 3rd millennium BC

• Applicant: Dr. Conrad Schmidt
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267203378

The starting point of the proposed research project is the lack of knowledge about the social and economic development on the Omani Peninsula in the 3rd millennium BC, which is reflected the most in the emergence of complex settlements in the northern inner Oman. The internal processes and possibly also external influences that have led to this complex and dynamic change, and which also include the great economic upturn, apparently also connected with Mesopotamias high demand for copper for example, shall be investigated in detail in this project. After the applicant during the past five years very successfully investigated a settlement and burial customs of the Hafit (ca. 3100-2700 BC) and the Umm an-Nar (ca. 2700-2000 has BC) period in his own research project in the Sultanate of Oman, the focus in the here proposed research project is solely on settlements of both periods. As never before domestic buildings of the Hafit period were discovered and archaeologically investigated, the research project aims especially to achieve new information about the early settlement development in Oman. Subject of the research project is the site of Khashbah in the north of the Sultanate of Oman, which has both Hafit as well as Umm an-Nar buildings and thus covers the period of investigation in an ideal way. The focus of the work is on the diachronic comparison of settlement remains, where both the functional structure, including water and agricultural constructions and thus the subsistence base, as well as the social differentiation within Khashbah will be studied. In the first phase of the project in 2015, a local survey shall be carried out covering the entire site. This includes not only the collecting of finds from the surface, but also the documentation of all buildings and landscape features. For this a modern, satellite-based surveying method shall be used, which, after local referencing, allows measurements with centimeter precision and works within a distance of several kilometers. The time-consuming radiation by means of a tachymeter and the drawing by hand can be omittet in the case of the survey. The work will be complemented by orthorectified aerial photographs, which form an important base especially for the subsequent analysis of the survey in a geographic information system. In addition, a geomagnetic prospection is planned in the area of the possible Hafit houses and that of the dam. Test excavations will complete the work of the first campaign. They focus on two areas in the center of Khashbah, on the one hand the unique square building and on the other hand a possible residence.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants