MASPAG 2022 Archaeological Survey – Methodological Perspectives and Preliminary Results
Keywords:
landscape archaeology, remote sensing, field survey, Bronze Age, Iron AgeAbstract
The paper presents the framework of the first MASPAG (Missione Archeologica della Sapienza nella Penisola Arabica e nel Golfo) archaeological survey in Oman (February 2022), focusing on the specific methodology adopted and describing some preliminary results. The surveyed area was still untouched by archaeological researches, and it falls within the al Batinah South Governorate of Oman, in the provinces of Nakhal, al-Awabi and Wadi al-Ma'awil, focusing on the central foothills and widian plains which are interposed between Jebel Akhdar and the Arabian Sea – the Lower Sea, according to the Babylonian geography. This area offered the ideal context to start a new project which would lead to explore the complexity of human mobility and social organizations at the core of the so-called Land of Magan. Integrating satellite imagery analysis with aerial and field surveys, we documented an uncharted multi-millennial archaeological landscape where hundreds of collective burial mounds might be associated to long lasting settlements with high density of surface materials, particularly near the village of Khatum, on the eastern banks of Wadi Far, and near the village of Muslimat, in Wadi al-Ma’awil. Indeed, the preliminary analysis based on the morphology of funerary structures and the study of surface materials suggests a continuous frequentation of these archaeological sites from Hafit through Wadi Suq and Early Iron Age periods.
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