SOUTHEAST ARABIA AT THE DAWN OF THE SEC

First full publication of a cemetery of the Bronze Age Wadi Suq period (2000-1650 BC) in the region of the UAE, a period marked by large scale cultural and economic changes.

The end of the 3rd millennium was a time of significant transformation in south-east Arabia (the United Arab Emirates and northern Oman). The cultural homogeneity of the preceding Early Bronze Age, Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700–2000 BC) came to an end and gave way to the Middle Bronze Age, Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC). Settlements changed, and possibly began to decline in size and number, the economy changed for many and the important trade in copper ore seems to have declined. In addition, there was a marked change in funerary practices as new types of tombs appeared – both collective and individual burials.

All of this took place within the context of a climatic shift that led to a decline in rainfall across many parts of the region. Much of the countryside of south-eastern Iran was abandoned and the urban period of the Indus Valley was weakening. In the midst of this turmoil, the limited agricultural plains of northern Ras al-Khaimah appear to have developed into an island where there was greater continuity than elsewhere.

This book reports on the excavation of a number of monumental collective tombs that were built there and used through the early part of the 2nd millennium. The way that they were constructed and used as well as the burial goods that they contain throw light on the population of this area, and give some indication of how and why it was that life continued in this small pocket in a way that was different to surrounding regions.

Table of Contents

List of figures

1. Introduction
Derek Kennet

2. The Site of Qarn al-Harf: geography, environment and previous work
Derek Kennet with Phil Macumber

3. The Excavations
Introduction
Derek Kennet
The Qarn al-Harf 1 complex (QAH1)
Derek Kennet and Anne E. Mortimer
The Qarn al-Harf 2 complex (QAH2)
Derek Kennet and Anne E. Mortimer
The Qarn al-Harf 5 complex (QAH5)
Derek Kennet and Sarah Ritchie
The Qarn al-Harf 6 complex (QAH6)
Derek Kennet and Anne E. Mortimer
4. Excavations at Qarn al-Harf 67
Derek Kennet

5. The Beads
Anna Hilton

6. The Small Finds
Anna Hilton

7. Soft-stone vessels
Anna Hilton

8. Metal artefacts and archaeometallurgical analyses
Lloyd Weeks, Eddy Faber, Dana Goodburn-Brown, Jian-xin Zhao, Ai Duc Nguyen, and Yuexing Feng

9. Palaeopathology
Alyson Caine and Charlotte Roberts

10. Isotope analysis from human remains
Janet Montgomery, Mandy Jay, Alyson Caine, and Geoff Nowel

11. The Marine molluscs
Hannah Russ

12. The Faunal assemblage
Cameron Clegg

13. Conservation of the Qarn al-Harf Finds
Dana Goodburn-Brown

14. The Phasing and development of the site and its surrounding Area
Derek Kennet with a contribution by Michel de Vreeze and an appendix by Andrew Millard

15. The Wadi Suq Cemeteries of Northern Ras al-Khaimah
Derek Kennet and Christian Velde

16. Qarn al-Harf and the transition from the Umm al-Nar to the Wadi Suq period in Northern Ras al-Khaimah and Southeast Arabia
Derek Kennet with Michel de Vreeze and Hélène David-Cuny

References

Derek Kennet is Howard E. Hallengren Professor of Arabian Peninsula and Gulf States Archaeology at the University of Chicago. He has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in Arabia for over 30 years, having worked in Kuwait, the UAE and Oman. He completed a PhD on the archaeology of Ras al-Khaimah at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2001.

Alyson Caine is a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Merced. She has conducted osteological fieldwork for over eight years and worked in Arabia for the past decade. She completed her Master’s in Paleopathology at Durham University in 2014.

Anna Hilton has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in Arabia for 15 years, having worked in Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Jordan and Egypt. She completed a Master’s on the soft stone vessels and archaeology of Failaka (Kuwait) at the University of Copenhagen in 2011.

Lloyd Weeks is a professor in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and History at the University of New England, Australia. He completed a PhD on the archaeology of early metal production and exchange in the Persian Gulf region at Sydney University, Australia. His field research focuses on Western Asia, including excavations in the UAE and Iran.