Nothing but Towers? The Early Bronze Age Landscape of Central Oman

公元前3千年的阿曼是社会复杂性、新资源的使用和生活方式发生根本变化的时期。人们对这一时期的定居模式知之甚少。学者们把有纪念性建筑的遗址看作是一个聚落等级的顶端的中心，这在最近几十年里受到了大量研究人员的关注。然而，缺乏数据来证实这一假设，因为在其腹地的小地点的存在基本上是未经探索的。因此，我在Al-Mudhaybi地区的DFG项目将从2018年持续到2021年（并且正在更新到2022年），旨在结合不同的调查方法和小规模挖掘，详细而全面地了解公元前3千年阿曼中部的定居模式，以及这一时期重大社会变化的原因。到目前为止，该项目发现(1)小型非纪念性聚落非常罕见，因此需要重新考虑聚落等级的常见理论；(2)纪念性建筑在公元前3千年初就已经建成；(3)研究区域的活动在乌姆安-纳尔时期有所下降，这与它代表文化高峰的假设相反。这挑战了早期青铜时代阿曼中部以农业和定居社会为主的等级结构定居系统的叙述，而是强调了流动社区的作用。由于在Mukhtru和Sinaw新发现的定居点中发现了意想不到的大量地表发现，以及2020年春季过早结束的实地调查，并非所有工作都能按计划在2021年10月项目结束时完成。这意味着，关于早期青铜器时代定居系统及其发展过程的统计可靠陈述的数据是缺失的。完成系统的调查对实现项目目标尤为重要。系统调查与传统调查的不同之处在于，它不局限于在遥感或其他方式中先前确定或预期的地点收集人工制品，而是明确地集中在地点之间假定的空白区域。这是找到较小的地点的唯一方法，例如游牧群体的营地，从而产生研究区域的代表性整体画面。因此，我申请项目延期8个月。这些数据将使全面评估公元前三千年阿曼中部的定居系统和社会经济变化的相关意义成为可能。

The 3rd millennium BC in Oman was a period of fundamental change in social complexity, the use of new resources and modes of life. Little is known about the settlement patterns of this period. Scholarship views sites with monumental buildings as centres at the top of a settlement hierarchy, which have received the bulk of researchers’ attention in recent decades. However, there is a lack of data to substantiate this hypothesis, as the presence of small sites in their hinterland is largely unexplored. My DFG project in the Al-Mudhaybi region, which runs from 2018 to 2021 (and is in the process of being renewed until 2022), therefore aims to use a combination of different survey methods and small-scale excavations to gain detailed and comprehensive insights into the settlement pattern of the 3rd millennium BC in Central Oman as well as into the causes of the significant social changes of this period. So far, this project has found that (1) small non-monumental settlements are rare and thus common theories of settlement hierarchy need to be reconsidered, (2) monumental buildings were already built at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC and (3) activity declined in the study area during the Umm an-Nar period, contrary to the assumption that it represents a cultural peak. This challenges the narrative of a predominantly agrarian and sedentary society with a hierarchically structured settlement system in Central Oman during the Early Bronze Age and instead emphasises the role of mobile communities.Due to the unexpectedly large number of surface finds in the newly discovered settlements of Mukhtru and Sinaw, as well as the premature termination of the fieldwork in spring 2020, not all work can be completed as planned by the scheduled end of the project in October 2021. This means that data for statistically reliable statements on the settlement system and its development in the course of the Early Bronze Age are missing. Completing the systematic survey is particularly crucial to achieving the project’s aims. The systematic survey differs from traditional surveys in that it is not limited to surface collection of artefacts at sites previously identified or anticipated in the remote sensing or otherwise, but explicitly focusses on supposedly empty areas between sites. It is the only way to find smaller sites, such as nomadic groups’ campsites, and thus to produce a representative overall picture of the study area. For this reason, I am applying for an 8-month continuation of the project. This data will make it possible to comprehensively assess the settlement system and the related significance of socio-economic changes of the 3rd millennium BC in Central Oman for the first time.