Hafit period fuelwood preferences associated with early copper production at Building V, al-Khashbah, Oman

Authors

Keywords:

Wood, Environment, Metalworking, Early Bronze Age, Anthracology

Abstract

Analyses of archaeological fuel remains can provide insight into pyrotechnologies, resource management, and the local environment. In this paper, we examine archaeological charcoals from Hafit period (3300–2700 BC) levels in Building V at al‑Khashbah (al-Khashaba), Oman, to understand fuel harvesting and burning preferences associated with early copper production. Building V is currently thought to be the earliest identified copper-production site in Oman based on the presence of abundant pyrotechnological remains, copper slag, and stratified radiocarbon results. Here, we build on previous anthracological work reconstructing woodland composition from the site. Anthracologists are increasingly recognising that fuelwood collection is often based on social or functional grounds rather than species availability. To that end, we have combined traditional taxonomic analysis with the application of dendro-anthracological methods to examine how intensive wood harvesting was for copper production and whether it had effects on the local vegetation. Dendrological reconstruction of wood calibre and condition at burning combined with spatial patterning of remains provides a more nuanced view of these preferences than can be achieved through taxonomic analysis alone.

References

Akkemik Ü. & Yaman B. 2012. Wood anatomy of eastern Mediterranean species. Remagen/Oberwinter: Kessel Publishing House.

Asouti E. & Austin P. 2005. Reconstructing woodland vegetation and its exploitation by past societies, based on the analysis and interpretation of archaeological wood charcoal macro-remains. Environmental Archaeology 10: 1–18.

Asouti E. & Kabukcu C. 2021. Anthracology: Charcoal science in archaeology and palaeoecology. Quaternary International 593–594: 1–5.

Audra P. & Kindi M. 2023. Fire-set mining in an ancient lead mine: Khaf Al Laasif, Al ‘Āmrāt, Oman. Arabian Journal of Geosciences 16: 454.

Begemann F., Hauptmann A., Schmitt-Strecker S. & Weisgerber G. 2010. Lead isotope and chemical signature of copper from Oman and its occurrence in Mesopotamia and sites on the Arabian Gulf coast. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 21: 135–169.

Beuzen-Waller T., Desruelles S., Marrast A., Giraud J., Gernez G., Bonilauri S. … Fouache E. 2022. Late Pleistocene-Holocene fluvial records of the Wadi Dishshah: Hydro-climatic and archaeological implications (southern piedmont of the Hajar Mountains, Oman). Géomorphologie: Relief, Processus, Environnement 28/4: 223–239.

Chabal L. 1992. La représentativité paléo-écologique des charbons de bois archéologiques issus du bois de feu. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France 139: 213–236.

Charbonnier J. 2017. The genesis of oases in southeast Arabia: Rethinking current theories and models. Pages 53–72 in E. Lavie & A. Marshall (eds), Oases and globalisation. Cham: Springer Geography.

Deckers K., Döpper S. & Schmidt C. 2019. Vegetation, land, and wood use at the sites of Bat and Al-Khashbah in Oman (fourth–third millennium BC). Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 30: 1–14.

Deckers K., Polisca F., Riehl S., de Gruchy M. & Lawrence D. 2021. Impact of anthropogenic activities on woodland in northern Syria (4th–2nd mill. BC): Evidence from charcoal assemblages and oak measurements. Environmental Archaeology 29/2: 129–164.

Delhon C. 2021. Is choice acceptable? How the anthracological paradigm may hinder the consideration of fuel gathering as a cultural behaviour. Environmental Archaeology 26: 159–167.

Döpper S. 2020. Ground stone tools from the copper production site Al-Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman. Journal of Lithic Studies 7: 1–24.

Döpper S. 2022. Survey methods and biases in the Al‐Mudhaybi Regional Survey, Sultanate of Oman. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 34/S1: 1–12.

Dufraisse A., Coubray S., Girardclos O., Nocus N., Lemoine M., Dupouey J-L. & Marguerie D. 2018. Anthraco-typology as a key approach to past firewood exploitation and woodland management reconstructions. Dendrological reference dataset modelling with dendro-anthracological tools. Quaternary International 463: 232–249.

Dufraisse A., Coubray S., Picornell-Gelabert L., Alcolea M., Girardclos O., Delarue F. & Nguyen Tu T-T. 2022. Taming trees, shaping forests, and managing woodlands as resources for understanding past societies. Contributions and current limits of dendro-anthracology and anthraco-isotopy. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10/March: 1–10.

Dumitru I.A. & Harrower M.J. 2018. From rural collectables to global commodities: Copper from Oman and obsidian from Ethiopia. Pages 232–262 in N. Boivin & M.D. Frachetti (eds), Globalization in prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eckstein D., Liese W. & Stieber J. 1987. Holzversorgung im prähistorischen Kupferbergbau in Oman. Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau 40: 426–430.

Ghazanfar S.A. 2003. Flora of the Sultanate of Oman. i. Piperaceae – Primulaceae. (Scripta Botanica Belgica, 25). Meise: Botanic Garden Meise.

Ghazanfar S.A. 2007. Flora of the Sultanate of Oman. ii. Crassulaceae – Apiaceae. (Scripta Botanica Belgica, 36). Meise: Botanic Garden Meise.

Giardino C. 2017. Magan – The land of copper. Prehistoric metallurgy of Oman. (The Archaeological Heritage of Oman, 2). Oxford: Archaeopress.

Gros-Balthazard M., Galimberti M., Kousathanas A., Newton C., Ivorra S., Paradis L. … Wegmann D. 2017. The discovery of wild date palms in Oman reveals a complex domestication history involving centers in the Middle East and Africa. Current Biology 27: 2211–2218.e8.

Hahn R. 2022. UmWeltWandel: Reconstructing Bronze Age landscapes and the paleoenvironment in Central Oman through a new interdisciplinary project. The IASA Bulletin 28: 14–16.

Hauptmann A. & Weisgerber G. 1981. Third millenium BC copper production in Oman. Revue d’Archéométrie 1: 131–138.

Henry A., Zavadskaya E., Alix C., Kurovskaya E. & Beyries S. 2018. Ethnoarchaeology of fuel use in northern forests: Towards a better characterization of prehistoric fire-related activities. Ethnoarchaeology 10: 99–120.

Herrmann J.T., Fassbinder J.W.E., Scheiblecker M., Kluge P., Döpper S. & Schmidt C. 2018. Magnetometer survey of a Hafit monumental complex, al‑Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman (poster). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 48: 119–124.

Horne L. 1982. Fuel for the metal worker: The role of charcoal and charcoal production in ancient metallurgy. Expedition 25: 6–13.

Jagiella C. & Kürschner H. 1987. Atlas der Hölzer Saudi Arabiens. Die Holyanatomie der wichtigsten Bäume und Sträucher Arabiens mit einem holzanatomischen Bestimmungsschlüssel. (Beihefte Zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, 20). Wiesbaden: Reichert.

Al-Jahwari N.S. 2008. Settlement patterns, development and cultural change in northern Oman Peninsula: A multi-tiered approach to the analysis of long-term settlement trends. PhD thesis, Durham University. [Unpublished.]

Kabukcu C. 2018. Wood charcoal analysis in archaeology. Pages 133–154 in E. Pişkin, A. Marciniak & M. Bartkowiak (eds), Environmental archaeology. Current theoretical and methodological approaches. Cham: Springer.

Kabukcu C. & Chabal L. 2021. Sampling and quantitative analysis methods in anthracology from archaeological contexts: Achievements and prospects. Quaternary International 593–594: 6–18.

Lézine A-M., Ivory S.J., Braconnot P. & Marti O. 2017. Timing of the southward retreat of the ITCZ at the end of the Holocene Humid Period in southern Arabia: Data-model comparison. Quaternary Science Reviews 164: 68–76.

Lüning S. & Vahrenholt F. 2019. Holocene climate development of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Pages 507–546 in A. Bendaoud, Z. Hamimi, M. Hamoudi, S. Djemai & B. Zoheir (eds), The geology of the Arab world – An overview. (Springer Geology). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

McParland L.C., Collinson M.E., Scott A.C. & Campbell G. 2009. The use of reflectance values for the interpretation of natural and anthropogenic charcoal assemblages. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 1: 249–261.

Marguerie D. & Hunot J.Y. 2007. Charcoal analysis and dendrology: Data from archaeological sites in north-western France. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1417–1433.

Marston J.M. 2009. Modeling wood acquisition strategies from archaeological charcoal remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 2192–2200.

Marston J.M., Kováčik P. & Schoop U-D. 2021. Environmental reconstruction and wood use at Late Chalcolithic Çamlıbel Tarlası, Turkey. Quaternary International 593–594: 178–194.

Mathieu J.R. & Meyer D.A. 1997. Comparing axe heads of stone, bronze, and steel: Studies in experimental archaeology. Journal of Field Archaeology 24: 333–351.

Neumann K., Schoch W., Détienne P. & Schweingruber F.H. 2001. Woods of the Sahara and the Sahel: An anatomical atlas. Bern: Paul Haupt.

Ochs U., Bretzke K., Crassard R. & Hilbert Y.H. 2020. A Hafit-period stone tool assemblage from Al-Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman. Pages 167–176 in K. Bretzke,

R. Crassard & Y.H. Hilbert (eds), Stone tools of prehistoric Arabia: Papers from the Special Session of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 21 July 2019. (Supplement to Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 50). Oxford: Archaeopress.

Picornell-Gelabert L., 2020. An archaeological approach to people-tree interactions: The ethnoarchaeology of firewood procurement and consumption among the Benga people of the island of Mandji (Corisco, Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports 34: 102591.

Preston G.W. & Parker A.G. 2013. Understanding the evolution of the Holocene Pluvial Phase and its impact on Neolithic populations in south-east Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 24: 87–94.

Proctor L. 2021. Fueling socio-political complexity: Examining fuel use and fuel economies during the Chalcolithic and Iron Ages of northern Mesopotamia. PhD thesis, University of Connecticut. [Unpublished.]

Rehder J.E. 2000. The mastery and uses of fire in antiquity. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Schmidt C. & Döpper S. 2017. The development of complexity at third-millennium BC al‑Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman: Results of the first two seasons, 2015 and 2016. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 47: 215–226.

Schmidt C. & Döpper S. 2019a. A Hafit period copper workshop at Al Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman. Journal of Oman Studies 20: 1–24.

Schmidt C. & Döpper S. 2019b. The Hafit period at Al-Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman: Results of four years of excavations and material studies. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 49: 256–274.

Schmidt C., Döpper S., Kluge J., Petrella S., Ochs U., Kirchhoff N. … Walter M. 2021. Die Entstehung komplexer Siedlungen im Zentraloman: Archäologische Untersuchungen zur Siedlungsgeschichte von Al-Khashbah. (Arabia Orientalis, 5). Oxford: Archaeopress.

Shackleton C.M. & Prins F. 1992. Charcoal analysis and the ‘principle of least effort’ – A conceptual model. Journal of Archaeological Science 19: 631–637.

Smart T.L. & Hoffman E.S. 1988. Environmental interpretation of archaeological charcoal. Pages 167–205 in C.A. Hastorf & V. Popper (eds), Current paleoethnobotany: Analytical methods and cultural interpretations of archaeological plant remains. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Smith A., Dotzel K., Fountain J., Proctor L. & Von Baeyer M. 2015. Examining fuel use in antiquity: Archaeobotanical and anthracological approaches in Southwest Asia. Ethnobiology Letters 6: 192–195.

Thomas R. 2013. Anatomy of the endemic palms of the Near and Middle East: Archaeobotanical perspectives. Revue d’ethnoécologie 4: 0–15.

Weisgerber G. 1980a. und Kupfer in Oman. Der Anschnitt 32: 61–110.

Weisgerber G. 1980b. Patterns of early Islamic metallurgy in Oman. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 10: 115–126.

Weisgerber G. & Willies L. 2000. The use of fire in prehistoric and ancient mining: Firesetting. Paléorient 26: 131–149.

White F. 1983. The vegetation of Africa. A descriptive memoir to accompany the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO vegetation map of Africa. (Natural Resources Research, UNESCO). Paris: UNESCO.

Wright N.J. 2018. Examining dendrological features of oak as possible signals of systematic woodland management in the central Anatolian Bronze and Iron Ages. Quaternary International 463: 298–311.

Downloads

Published

11/06/2024

How to Cite

Proctor, L., Döpper, S., & Schmidt, C. (2024). Hafit period fuelwood preferences associated with early copper production at Building V, al-Khashbah, Oman. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 53, 230–247. Retrieved from https://archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.php/PSAS/article/view/2253

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.