The nature of post Bronze-Age human occupation at Tell Abraq: archaeological insights from the 2023 field season.
Keywords:
settlement dynamics, Persian Gulf connections, pre-Islamic shrine, Sasanian graves, United Arab EmiratesAbstract
Renewed excavations at Tell Abraq, begun in 2019 by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Umm al-Quwain in collaboration with the Tourism and Archaeology Department of Umm al-Quwain, have transformed our understanding of the site after the Bronze Age. After the erection of a large platform during the Iron Age I (c. 1300-1100 BC), and the absence of domestic structures between broadly 1100-800 BC - perhaps not insignificantly coinciding with the foundation of a new settlement at nearby Muweilah - a very limited domestic occupation is witnessed in the second part of the Iron Age II (c. 800-600 BC). The site was reoccupied in the final Iron Age III (c. 600-300 BC) or early Late Pre-Islamic period (PIR.A c. 300-150 BC) and continued until the PIR.C period (c. AD 0-150) when a shrine was erected but evidence for domestic buildings is absent. Remarkable finds from this period include human statues with parallels to those found at Palmyra and Hatra, an Aramaic inscription with possible Palmyran palaeographic influence, and gold imitations of Tiberius aurei. The site developed into a burial ground during the PIR.D period (c. AD 150-300) and surely later, with shaft burials characterised by a lower side chamber which anticipated Islamic practices. This paper will summarise the previously little-known post-Bronze Age occupation of Tell Abraq and highlight the significant discoveries of the Partho-Sasanian period, emphasising the changing nature of human occupation at the site through the different periods.
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