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Third millennium oasis towns and environmental constraints on settlement in the Al-Hajar region Part I: The Al-Ḥajar Oasis Towns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Jocelyn Orchard  and
Gordon Stanger
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Extract

Concentrations of substantial ruins, sometimes occurring as isolated but neighbouring structures, have been recorded at a number of locations in the foothill zone of the al-Ḥajar mountain range in south-eastern Arabia (Fig. 1), an area widely identified with the ancient copper-producing land of Magan. These assemblages are always distinguished by the presence of large, circular structures and may also include the remains of houses and other features, as well as cemeteries either in close proximity to the buildings or sited on nearby hills. They are attributed to the 3rd millennium B.C. by their related pottery, by carbon-14 dates where these are available and, when such criteria are lacking, by their architecture, masonry and brickwork which are notably different from those of adjacent 2nd and 1st millennium buildings. In view of their close environmental relationship with the al-Ḥajar range and in order to separate them from the late 3rd millennium buildings and tombs which were first discovered and excavated on the island of Umm an-Nar, Abu Dhabi, and which have since been located at many sites in the al-Ḥajar zone, I shall refer to these 3rd millennium assemblages as the al-Ḥajar settlements.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 56 , 1994 , pp. 63 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1994 

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References

1 Sollberger, 1970: 247–250; Gelb, 1970: 1–8; Gadd, 1971: 439; During Caspers and Govindakutty, 1978: 113–145; Weisberger, 1983: 269–276; Potts, 1990: 133–150.

2 Glob, 1958: 162–165; Thorvildsen, 1962: 191–219; Bibby, 1965: 108–109; Frifelt, 1975: 359–71; de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 101–187.

3 For a view of the masonry see Potts, 1990: Pl. III-b.

4 de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 117.

5 For a summary description of the three groups see Potts, 1990: 102–106.

6 In Fig. 4, the well preserved house is Bayt al-Mwaylḥā, which is situated near Bisyā in Wadi Bahlā. As a result of renovation work in the 1950s it is in good condition and in the semi-arid climate of Oman should survive for a great many years. In contrast, the ruined mudbrick house behind and to the left of Bayt al-Mwaylḥā stands on a slumped mound which is all that remains of its basement from which the revetment stones have been removed. In Fig. 5, the vestigial rectangular outline of a basement represents a further stage in the process of disintegration. In due course, the building's rectangular form, still visible here, will be obliterated leaving only sherd debris to mark its former presence.

7 Cleuziou, 1989: 79–80 (for Hili = all crops); Frifelt, 1990: 20 (for Bāt = dates, wheat and barley).

8 As used in this article, the word falaj, pl. aflāj, refers to the type of irrigation system in which, as with Persian qanāt, a mother well is sunk into a suitable aquifer and the water from that source is transferred by means of tunnels and surface channels to the area to be irrigated. For a detailed description of the falaj system in Oman, see Wilkinson, 1977: Chapters IV and V.

9 For plans of the Hili area see Vogt, 1985: Pl. 21: Cleuziou, 1989: Pl. 10.

10 Frifelt, 1975: 368–369 and Figs 3, 52, 53 and 55.

11 Idem, 1971: 375 and 383 (note 20).

12 Idem, 1990-a: 4–15.

13 al-Noemi, n.d.; Cleuziou, 1976/77: 8 and 9; idem, 1989: 82.

14 Cleuziou, 1976/77: 8–10 and 9; idem, 1989: 82.

15 Cleuziou, 1976/77: 8, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 33 (French), 9, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 32, 34 (English), Figs 1–5 and 19–24; idem, 1978/79:19–29 (French), 30–45 (English), Figs and Tables 46–69. For special studies see 70–74; idem, 1989: 61–87 and Pls 9–33.

16 Idem, 1978/79: 20, 32 and 68 (Table 1); idem, 1989: 64.

17 The method of laying plano-convex bricks on their flat bases is not unique to Hili. At Khafaje, Ur and al-ʿUbaid, for example, plano-convex bricks laid flat were used for the construction of some walls and for features such as buttresses and quoins. Plano-convex bricks were also laid as flat courses in-between herring-bone courses in order to keep the latter in place. See Delougaz, 1933: 15–20, 22–29 and Figs 11–17, 20–23 and 25; idem, 1940:76–78 and Figs 34, 44, 66, 83 and 109; Woolley, 1939: 3–5, 10, 14, Pls 3-a and 7-a.

18 Cleuziou, 1978/79: 23, 34–35, 54, 68 (Table 1); idem, 1989: 71 and Pl. 20.

19 For a plan see Frifelt, 1985: 93 (Fig. 2). The village of al-Wahra, the al-Gishsh area and the an-Nabaghīya foothills are situated 4 km north-west of Bāt. The place-names were given to A. B. D. R. Eagle (one of the Arabists working with the University of Birmingham Archaeological Expedition to the Sultanate of Oman) during a visit to the site of Bāt in January 1993, in the company of the author and J. J. Orchard.

20 Frifelt, 1975: 390 and Figs. 82–83; idem, 1976: 57–73; idem, 1979: 580–587; idem, 1985: 89–104; idem, 1990: 20; de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 172–173 (Sites 57–60), 186–187 (Pls. 24–25).

21 Frifelt, 1975: 382–387, 389, 418–424 (Figs 28–34) and Figs 75–81; idem, 1975-a: 57–80. In view of the differences between the al-Hājar and Umm an-Nar settlements, which I have outlined above, I am inclined to doubt Frifelt's proposal that Umm an-Nar tombs are a later development of the earlier Ḥafīt and Beehive tombs.

22 de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 172 (Site 57); Frifelt, 1976: 61.

23 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming a.

24 Ibid; Hastings, Humphries and Meadow, 1975: 34–35 (Site BB–22).

25 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming a; Humphries, 1974: 62–63 (Site BB–19); Hastings, Humphries and Meadow, 1975: 32–33.

26 In this regard, there is also the small, circular, tiered structure at Ẓāhr Sidrah in Wadi Sarin. This feature has not been dated, but it has a 3rd millennium appearance; de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 151 (Site 1) and Pl. 11.

27 Glob, 1955: 178–193; Andersen, 1986: 165–177.

28 For Khafaje: Delougaz, 1940. For al-ʿUbaid: Hall and Woolley, 1927; Delougaz, 1938: 1–11. For al-Hiba: Hansen, 1978: 72–85. For Sakkara: Stevenson Smith, 1958: 31–33, Pls 16(A) and 21(A); Emery, 1961: 142–145 and 146 (Fig. 85).

29 For Khorsabad: Place, 1867–1870: 137–148; Parrot, 1949: 58–59. For Samarra: Creswell, 1958: 278–280.

30 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming b.

31 Delougaz, 1940: 11–17, Figs 9, 10 and 11; Bibby, 1970: 140–142.

32 Frifelt, 1976: 61; idem, 1979: 584.

33 Smith and Eagle, Forthcoming.

34 Information given to A. B. D. R. Eagle during a visit to Bāt in January, 1993. Eagle is of the opinion that an-Nabaghīya is derived from “nabagha” which means the same in classical Arabic as “nabaʿa”, although it is not used in that sense nowadays.

35 Weisgerber, 1980: 99–100.

36 Yule, 1993: 143 and Figs 2a–2b.

37 de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 159–160 (Sites 24 and 25).

38 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming a; Clark and Bartlett, Forthcoming.

39 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming a; Humphries, 1974: 62–63 (Site BB–6); Hastings, Humphries and Meadow, 1975: 28–29 and 30–31 (Site BB–6); de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 144–145 (Site 33).

40 de Cardi, Collier and Doe, 1976: 103–140, 165–167 (Sites 1–16) and Pls. 1–10.

41 al-Tikriti, 1989: 101–102, 107–111, and Pls 59, 60, 78–81, 83 and 90.

42 A 3rd millennium site which does not conform to the layout of the al-Ḥajar oasis towns is the late 3rd millennium mining settlement at Maysar in Wadi Samad (Weisgerber, 1980; idem, 1981). In fact this site, with its houses constructed with free-standing walls at ground level, seems in many ways to be closer in style to the Umm an-Nar than the al-Ḥajar settlements. Here, at Maysar 25, there is a round tower which resembles those found elsewhere (idem, 1981: 198–204), but the entire late 3rd millennium complex displays a ribbon development that extends for some 7 km along the western bank of the Wadi Samad (ibid: 178, Abb. 3). While this type of growth may reflect Maysar's late 3rd millennium date, it may also be due to the industrial activities undertaken at the settlement.

43 Frifelt, 1979: 583–584; idem, 1985:98 and 104 (Appendix).

44 Cleuziou, 1989: 71.

45 Uerpmann, 1992: 65–109. The discovery of what are believed to be grains of sorghum at Site RH5 suggests that agriculture formed part of the economy of the Ra's al-Hamra-Facies (approximately 4000–3500 B.C.), but since everything else at this site points to a support-system based on fishing supplemented by hunting and herding, it remains to be proved that sorghum was cultivated here. See Biagi. Torke, Tosi and Uerpmann, 1984: 43–61; Biagi and Nisbet, 1984: 455–464; Nisbet, 1985: 415–417.

46 An important Jemdet Nasr sherd has been found in association with these tombs. Orchard and Orchard in Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming a.

47 Weisgerber, 1981: 198–200; Doe, 1977: 46 (Sites 28a–30).

48 Stanger, 1986; idem, Part II (Dr Gordon Stanger's report which forms Part II of this article, is hereafter cited as Stanger, Part II); idem, Forthcoming.

49 Stanger, Part II.

50 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming a.

51 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming b: Stanger, Forthcoming.

52 Orchard and Orchard, Forthcoming b.

53 Cleuziou, 1989: 65 and Pl. 19.

54 Ibid: 64, 67–68 and Pl. 21 A.

55 Brunswig, 1989: 9–50.

56 Stanger, Part II.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid. Compare the Relative Risks with Fig. 3; idem, Forthcoming.

59 Cleuzio and Costantini, 1980: 245–251; Cleuziou, 1989: 65–66 and 79–80.

60 See Bowen, 1958: 43–88; Jocelyn Orchard, 1982: 1–21; Schmidt, 1987: 57–73.

61 See, for example, Hastings, Humphries and Meadow, 1975: 11.

62 Stanger, Part II.

63 Stanger, 1986: Chapter 6.2.

64 Cleuziou, 1989: 68–69 and Pls 13–14.

65 Hastings, Humphries and Meadow, 1975: 10–12 and 15; Frifelt, 1976: 61; Brunswig, 1989: 28 and 35.

66 To this end, the extremely well preserved tower which is currently being excavated at Tell Abraq, Umm al-Qaiwain, should help to shed much light on the construction, internal organisation and furnishing of these defensive structures. Additionally, in view of the careful provenancing of the excavated material at this site, the 2 m of deposit in the interior of the tower should provide a most useful stratified pottery sequence for the latter half of the 3rd millennium B.C. See Potts, 1990a; idem, 1991; idem, 1993: 117–126.

67 Hastings, Humphries and Meadow, 1975: 15.