the necropolis of jebel al-buhais - prehistoric discoveries in the emirate of sharjah, united arab...

The Necropolis of Jebel al-BuhaisPrehistoric Discoveries in the Emirate of Sharjah

United Arab Emirates

Sabah Abboud Jasim

Published by:The Department of Culture & Information, Government of Sharjah, UAE.

Published by:The Department of Culture & Information, Government of SharjahP O Box: 5119, Sharjah, United Arab EmiratesTel: 00971-6-5123333Fax: 00971-6-5123303Email: [email protected]

Cover Designed by: D. M. El doshLayout: Amir Ibrahim Ahmed D. M. El dosh

© 2012, Department of Culture & Information

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorised reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechani-cal, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

939. 49 SA.N

Sabah Abboud Jasim

The Necropolis of Jebel al - Buhais: Prehistoric Discoveries in the Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates/Sabah Abboud Jasim - Sharjah ( United Arab Emirates) : The Department of Culture & Information : 2012

P. :324 illus. : 29X21 cm.

Includes bibliographic notes.

ISBN : 9948 - 04 - 930 - 6

Jebel al-Buhais - Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) - Archaeology - Sharjah (United Arab Emirates)

Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) - Antiquities

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Page

Preface ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9

Jebel al-Buhais: Geographical and Environmental Setting ---------------------------------------------- 11 Necropolis of Jebel al-Buhais ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15

Tomb BHS 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15Tomb BHS 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20Tomb BHS 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33Tomb BHS 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37Tomb BHS 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 Tomb BHS 6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 38Tomb BHS 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41Tomb BHS 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42Tomb BHS 9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50Tomb BHS 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52Tomb BHS 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 55Tomb BHS 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 55Tomb BHS 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63 Tomb BHS 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63Tomb BHS 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63Tomb BHS 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67Tomb BHS 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67Tomb BHS 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 70Tomb BHS 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71Tomb BHS 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71Tomb BHS 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 74Tomb BHS 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 77Tomb BHS 23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 77Tomb BHS 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 81Tomb BHS 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 85Tomb BHS 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 85Tomb BHS 27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 87Tomb BHS 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 98Tomb BHS 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 98Tomb BHS 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 98Tomb BHS 31 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------100Tomb BHS 32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------105Tomb BHS 33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 107Tomb BHS 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 107Tomb BHS 35 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 113Tomb BHS 36 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 113Tomb BHS 37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 113Tomb BHS 38 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 116

Table of Contents

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Tomb BHS 39 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 118Tomb BHS 40 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 118Tomb BHS 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 128Tomb BHS 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 133Tomb BHS 43 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 133Tomb BHS 44 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 136Tomb BHS 45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 136Tomb BHS 46 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 139Tomb BHS 47 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 139Tomb BHS 48 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 142Tomb BHS 49 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 143Tomb BHS 50 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 143Tomb BHS 51 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 143Tombs BHS 52 - 55 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 145Tomb BHS 56 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 152Tomb BHS 57 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 152Tomb BHS 58 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 157Tomb BHS 59 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 157Tomb BHS 60 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 164Tomb BHS 61 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 164Tomb BHS 62 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 169Tomb BHS 63 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 169Tomb BHS 64 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 169Tomb BHS 65 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 170Tomb BHS 66 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 174Tomb BHS 67 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 187Tomb BHS 68 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 191Tomb BHS 69 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 193Tomb BHS 69a ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 196Tomb BHS 70 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 196Tomb BHS 71 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 199Tomb BHS 72 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 206Tomb BHS 73 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 208Tomb BHS 74 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 211Tomb BHS 75 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 213Tomb BHS 76 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 213Tomb BHS 77 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 215Tomb BHS 78 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 220Tomb BHS 79 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 231Tomb BHS 80 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 231Tomb BHS 81 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 231Tomb BHS 82 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 234Tomb BHS 83 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 234Tomb BHS 84 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 237Tomb BHS 85 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 248Tombs BHS 86 - 87 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 262Tomb BHS 88 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 262Tomb BHS 89 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 270

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Tomb BHS 90 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 279

Tomb BHS 91 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 281

Concluding Remarks ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 283

Hafit/Umm an-Nar Period ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 283 Wadi Suq Period --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 289 Iron Age period ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 292 Jebel al-Buhais and the outside world -------------------------------------------------------------------- 298

Bibliography -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 299Appendices --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 305

Appendix 1: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 307 Anthropological Notes on the Human Remains from Tomb BHS 88, Sharjah (UAE)Adelina & Johannes Kutterer

Appendix 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 313Excavation 2010 and osteological report from Tomb BHS 89, Sharjah (UAE)Adelina & Johannes Kutterer

Appendix 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 323Anthropological Notes on the Human remains from Tomb BHS 90, Sharjah (UAE)Adelina Kutterer

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In the autumn of 1994, as a part of wider programme of archaeological surveys and excavations throughout the territory of the Emirate of Sharjah, the Department of Antiquities commenced work in the area of Jebel al-Buhais, located on the al-Madam plain in the central sector of the Emirate of Sharjah.

The Jebel (mountain) has been the focus of successive archaeological teams working in Sharjah since the early 1970’s when an Iraqi team uncovered the remnants of a stone fort located on top of the mountain’s north eastern slope. (Madhloom 1974; Jasim 2009). In 1990 a French mission excavated a group of seven stone structures that were visible on the southern slope of the Jebel, of which three yielded material dating to the 1st Millennium BCE (Boucharlat and Mouton 1991, 24; Boucharlat, R. and Pencont-Lambert 1997, 15-22), while excavations in the area of the slope just below the stone fort yielded some nine badly disturbed tombs that produced limited material of an Iron Age date (Benoist and Mouton 1994, 46).

Our initial aims in 1994 were modest: to examine and date some of the stone structures that can be seen pro-truding from the ground near the foot of the mountain. We did not anticipate that this would lead to a campaign of systematic excavations lasting for twelve consecutive years (1994 – 2005) and resulting in the discovery of some 91 tombs of different types and dates, including totally concealed subterranean examples as well as a large number of rock shelter tombs that were uncovered at various altitudes along the slopes of the Jebel.

Of particular interest was the discovery of a prehistoric site (BHS 18) which, according to radiocarbon dating of associated samples, is dated to the aceramic Neolithic Period (circa 5200-4300 BCE). BHS 18 is a large burial ground containing hundreds of human skeletons, some of whom were interred with personal adornments such as jewellery made of seashell, stone, oyster pearls and carnelian beads. The presence “of the fossil spring near the site seems to be the prime reason for the site’s existence at this spot” (Uerpmann 2008, 14). Evidence of contemporaneous settlements was also discovered in close proximity to the Neolithic burials. Excavations at BHS 18 commenced in 1995 upon the discovery by the Department of Antiquities of a large graveyard at the eastern foot of Jebel al-Buhais. This lead to the formation of a joint team consisting of the Directorate of Antiquities of Sharjah headed by myself, and the Institute of Pre-and-Protohistory of Tubingen University (Germany) led by Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Uerpmann and Margarethe Uerpmann. This collaborative effort commenced in 1996 and continued in a series of yearly excavations until 2005, the detailed outcome of which has finally been made available in a series of publications.1

With the exception of BHS 18, the excavation of the entire necropolis was undertaken by the local team with the assistance of Eisa Abbas (Archaeologist), Khalil Darwish (Draughtsman) and Sony Revira (Engineer). I have been privileged to head this team and my appreciation and thanks must go to all of them for their seem-ingly inexhaustible efforts, un-flagging enthusiasm, good humour and interest despite the harsh environmental conditions associated with excavation in a desert environment, especially during the scorching months of sum-mer. Their commitment contributed directly to the success of the expedition.

Thanks are also extended to the Department of Culture and Information, in particular to its chairman Mr. Abdullah Mohammed Al-Owais for supporting and fully financing our work. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter & Margarethe Uerpmann, Adelina & Johannes Kutterer for their cooperation in the excavation and studying of the osteological remains from a number of tombs included in this study. I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. Mercedes Farjas, Emma Megias and Victor Perez for compiling the topographic map of Jebel Al Buhais (Fig. 342).

Above all thanks and gratitude are due to His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammad Al-Qasimi, member of the Supreme council, Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah for his repeated visits to the sites during the course of excavations as well as his continuous encouragement and unlimited support, for this project in particular, and for all the other archaeological projects undertaken in Sharjah.

Sabah Abboud Jasim

P r e f a c e

1 Funeral Monuments and Human Remains from Jebel al-Buhais. The Archaeology of Jebel al-Buhais. (Vol. 1, 2006; Vol. 2, 2008), H.Uerpmann, M. Uerpmann & S.A. Jasim (eds.) Kerns Verlag. (Two more volumes are forthcoming).

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Jebel al-Buhais lies at approximately 25° north and 56° east within the northern part of the Oman Peninsula, at a distance of approximately 60 km from both the Arabian Gulf to the west and the Gulf of Oman to the east (Fig. 1). The Jebel represents the southernmost end of a chain of high outcrops to the west of the Hajar Moun-tain range. It is one among a group of small mountains including Jebel Aqbah, Jebel Emalah, Jebel Faya and Jebel Mleiha that extend in a south-north direction (Fig. 2). Its outcrops extend in a north-south orientation along a distance of about 20 km from the al-Dhaid to the al-Madam plains in the central sector of the Emir-ate of Sharjah. To the north of the Jebel lies the oasis of al-Madam “which has developed in the thin cover of Pleistocene and Holocene glacis (Dalongeville 1994, 39) (Fig. 3).

The Jebel itself is composed of calcareous layers that were formed approximately 65 -70 million years ago, and contains several narrow valleys that cut through its slopes. It is thought that “most parts of the area around Jebel al-Buhais already existed in its present shape during the early Holocene” (Drechsler 2008, 40). Spanning an area of over 2 kilometres, with widths reaching up to 1.375 kilometres, the Jebel rises to approximately 340 metres above sea level thus dominating the surrounding countryside to its east and west.

This part of north-eastern Arabia is today characterized by hostile weather conditions, however it is likely to have enjoyed a more favourable climate during the Neolithic Period. The availability of surface water would have been vital to the Neolithic population around the area of Jebel al-Buhais, and “there are fossil indications for spring activities at an earlier period, apparently long before the Holocene” (Uerpmann 2008, 13). The exist-ence of a playa lake in the region has been suggested as an explanation for the presence of a pre-agricultural human population within the area (Benton & Potts 1994). A number of ancient lakes have recently been identi-fied by Adrian Parker and Gareth Preston (2008, 74). Such lakes do seem to have existed in the area south of Jebel Emalah and close to the northern end of Jebel Faya (Uerpmann 2008, 14). A comprehensive overview of the environmental conditions and the history of the archaeological landscape of the area have been covered by Uerpmann (2008), Drechsler (2008), and Parker & Preston (2008).

Jebel al-Buhais has been the venue for a variety of human activities since the Neolithic Period as represented by the presence of scores of flint pieces and artefacts that still litter its pediments. The discovery of a diverse range of tombs along all of its peripheries and some of its valleys suggests that the Jebel was also the focus of sacred human activities involving death and burial. The exclusive dedication of this particular area to burials, combined with its continuous use over seven thousand years, renders the use of the term necropolis an appro-priate one in this context.

Dating of the tombs in the necropolis was primarily based on associated archaeological evidence. Conven-tional terms, such as Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age were used as general historical indicators for the involved discoveries however subdivisions within the Age categories were also applied. Thus, references to the Early Bronze Age/Hafit Period apply to the period from 3200-2500 BE, while the Bronze Age/Umm an-Nar Period denotes the period from 2500-2000 BE. The Bronze Age/Wadi Suq Period refers to the time period between 2000-1300 BCE and is followed by Iron Age I C. 1300-1100 BCE, Iron II C. 1100-600 BCE and Iron III C. 600-300 BCE. Most of the Iron Age discoveries at Jebel al-Buhais date to the Iron Age I and II.

Jebel al-Buhais: Geographic and Environmental Setting

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Fig. 1: Map of the northern Emirates highlighting the location of Jebel al-Buhais.

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Fig. 2: A group of small mountains, including Jebel al-Buhais in the central sector of Sharjah.

(Reprinted from page 11 in: Uerpmann, H.-P.: The Environment of Jebel al-Buhais: Human Geography of a Neolithic Landscape. In: Uerpmann, H.-P., Uerpmann, M. & Jasim, S.A. (2008) “The Natural Environment of Jebel al-Buhais: Past and Present.” Vol. 2 in the Series: The Archaeology of Jebel Al-Buhais, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Kerns Verlag, Tübingen).

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Fig. 3: An aerial view of Jebel al-Buhais, the al-Madam Plain and the site of al-Thuqaibah.

(Reprinted from page 18 in: Uerpmann, H.-P.: The Environment of Jebel al-Buhais: Human Geography of a Neolithic Landscape. In: Uerpmann, H.-P., Uerpmann, M. & Jasim, S.A. (2008) “The Natural Environment of Jebel al-Buhais: Past and Present.” Vol. 1 in the Series: The Archaeology of Jebel Al-Buhais, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Kerns Verlag, Tübingen).

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On the 7th November 1994 work commenced at the middle sector of the area of Jebel al-Buhais. Starting with BHS 1, the first tomb to have been uncovered, a full account of each of the excavated tombs is provid-ed below in chronological order relating to the date of discovery.

BHS 1Type: Above ground Tomb

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq Period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 39.17884 “, E 55° 47’ 55.76236 “

Plan and Architecture:A large, oval shaped, over ground tomb with inter-nal dimensions of 6 x 4.5 metres (Fig. 4). The burial chamber is encircled by an outer wall constructed with locally available irregular stones. An opening in the middle of the western outer wall serves as an entrance and provides access to the corridor between the outer wall and the burial chamber. A second en-trance, located on the northern end of the outer wall leads into the central funeral chamber, the long axis of which has a north-south orientation.

The large stones that make up the walls of the burial chamber are smoothly faced on all sides thus creat-ing a uniform appearance from both inside and out. A large rectangular shaped buttress was erected at the centre of the burial chamber, presumably to support the roof slabs, some of which had fallen inside the chamber (Fig. 5). The funeral chamber of this over ground tomb is reminiscent of other 2nd Millennium BCE tombs from Ras Al-Khaimah such as SH103 at Shimal (Vogt 1987, Fig. 22), Qarn al-Harf 67 (Hilal 2003, Fig. 6), and Ghalilah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 16).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A large quantity of human skeletal remains was found scattered all over the gravel floor of the burial cham-ber. In the north eastern corner of the chamber an articulated skeleton in a flexed position was found alongside two bronze bowls (Figs. 6; 7: 1-2), a pottery bowl (Fig. 8: 3) and a complete necklace consisting of gold, electrum, and carnelian beads (Figs. 7: 6; 9).

The Necropolis at Jebel al-BuhaisThe necklace had been carefully coiled and placed within a silver bracelet. Also found nearby was a cari-nated vessel with a projected flat base and gently in-curved high sides (Fig. 7: 1). This vessel recalls one from Shimal (Velde 2003, Fig. 7: 6).

A variety of Wadi Suq materials were present inside the burial chamber of which pottery vessels were nu-merous. Painted beakers were represented by almost just one shape in different sizes (Fig. 8:1-2, 4-7); these are practically identical to specimens from both Site 1 at Ras al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Figs. 3-5) and Tomb 6 in Shimal (De Cardi 1988, Figs. 5-6). The site of Qarn al-Harf 67 at Ras al-Khaimah has also pro-duced similar beakers (Hilal 2001, Fig. 9:1). Painted beakers of similar shape were also found at Tomb K3 in Kalba (Phillips 1996, Fig. 8), of particular inter-est is one example displaying rectilinear painted lines (Fig. 8: 3) which recalls examples from Hili 8 (Cleuz-io 1981, Fig. 4: 18, 20) and one from Kalba K4 (Phil-lips 1996, Fig. 8: 3; Carter 1997, Fig. 20: K4. 40). Jars are represented by the presence of rim sherds (Fig. 8: 3-4) indicate the presence of jars. Fig. 4 represents the upper part of a vessel with a thickened flaring rim bearing painted decoration in the shape of a single wavy band which would probably have been one of a set of three or more similar bands reminiscent of examples from Tombs BHS 6 (Fig. 44: 1) and BHS 65 (Fig. 193: 9). Two fine reddish accentuated flat bases which look like Umm an-Nar style were also present (Fig. 8: 8-9). Also present were soft stone bowls and lids deco-rated with dot and circles motifs are reminiscent of bowls from other Wadi Suq sites. Other finds include a bronze/copper blade (Fig. 7: 4), a needle (Fig. 7: 3), rings (Fig. 7:12, 15-18), an elongated cylindrical silver bead (Fig. 7: 9), a gold coiled bead (Fig. 7: 10) and variety of other beads (Figs. 7: 5-8; 11; 13-14).

Subsidiary Graves:A small subsidiary grave was found attached to the outer wall at the western side of the tomb. There is evidence of at least one adult and one child of 6 to 10 years of age however the burials are disturbed and the bones fragmentary. The material accompanying the child burial indicates that it took place during the 1st Millennium BCE. Two complete vessels of an Iron Age II date were among other material found inside the grave; a small undecorated cup with a flat base

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Fig. 4: Plan and section of Tomb BHS 1.

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Fig. 6: Two bronze bowls discovered inside the tomb.

Fig. 5: Tomb BHS 1 after excavation.

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Fig. 7: Bronze/copper bowls (1-2), bronze needle (3), bronze blade (4) and a variety of personal adornments (5-18) discovered inside Tomb BHS 1.

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Fig. 8: Wadi Suq pottery (1-8) and Iron Age pottery (9-12) discovered inside the tomb.

Fig. 9: Necklace consisting of precious stones, electrum, silver and gold beads.

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and slightly out flared side (Fig. 8: 3) which is similar in shape to one from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987: Fig. 20: 9) and one from Sharm (Barker 2002, Fig. 24: 4). The other vessel is an open bowl with a flat base, out flaring sides and a single ridge on the lower half (Fig. 8:12).

BHS 2Type: Semi-subterranean

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 35.12772”, E 55° 47’ 51.98905”

Plan and Architecture:This is an oval shaped, semi-subterranean tomb. The interior dimensions are 2.8m x 1.3m, descending to a depth of 1.4m below ground and extending upwards to a height of 0.5m above ground (Fig. 10). The inter-nal walls are comprised of seven stone courses that incline gradually, resulting in a narrowing of the top opening thus serving to ease the placement of the roof-ing slabs that protect the whole of the burial chamber. The entrance – which was blocked from the outside by a large stone - is set in the southern end of the tomb and enables access by way of a step leading down to a sill laid in the floor. An outer wall, constructed with various sized stones, surrounds the burial chamber (Fig. 11).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A few human skeletal remains were found scattered across the gravel lined floor of the burial chamber. A number of steatite/chlorite, hereafter described as soft stone vessels, were found on the floor just below the entrance sill. Among these was a small, complete bowl together with its lid (Figs. 12:1-10; 13). All the stone vessels and lids are decorated with the dot and circle motifs prevalent during the Wadi Suq period. The shape and design of the bowls is very much in line with representations of this type of industry from other Wadi Suq sites in UAE and Oman and includes a variety of forms, some of which have lugs (Fig. 12: 3 - 4, 10), while others are spouted (Fig. 12: 5) and thus reminiscent of an example from Site 1 at Ras Al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 11:2).

A limited number of pottery vessels were found in-side this tomb - this is almost certainly the result of looting at a later date (Figs. 14:1-3; 15: 1-10). The beaker shown in Fig. 14:1 is very similar to examples

from K4 at Kalba (Phillips 1996, Fig. 8: 3) and Site 1 at Ras al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Figs. 3-4). A rim sherd belonging to a large beaker (Fig. 14: 2) and one from a globular jar were also found. Other finds included bone rings and cowries and shells and beads (Fig.15: 11-18).

Metal industry is attested by both weaponry and household utensils. The first category is represented by numerous bronze/copper socketed spear heads, some of which were found on the floor of the funer-ary chamber (Fig. 16:1-3). Socketed weaponry is believed to date back to Umm- Nar period (Late 3rd Millennium BCE) and “were also typical of the first three quarters of the 2nd Millennium BCE (Wadi Suq Period)” (Potts 1998, Fig. 1, 184); they were found at Jebel Hafit (Cleuziou 1976/77, Pl. 16:1; Cleuzio 1979, Fig. 11), Ghanada (al-Tikriti 1985, Pl. 16J), Asimah (Vogt 1988, Figs. 56-57), Ghalilah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 28:10), the Umm an-Nar tomb at Mleiha, as well as Qattarah, Shimal SH 102 (Cleuzio 1979: 8; Vogt and Kastner 1987: Fig. 21; De Cardi 1988, Fig. 4: 8), Bidya 1 (al-Tikriti 1989: Pl.73), and both Samad cem-etery and Wadi Bahla (Vogt and Kastner, 33), in addi-tion to other sites in the UAE and Oman (Potts 1998, Figs. 1; 2a; 2b).

A pair of attached socketed bronze spearheads were discovered driven into the ground outside the tomb on its eastern side (Figs.16: 4-5; 17) which could be interpreted as ritualistic behaviour practiced during Wadi Suq period (Jasim, 2011). Socketed spearheads driven into tomb walling or into the ground seem to have been a common feature of the Wadi Suq period and were attested at a number of contemporaneous tombs at various sites such as SH 102 at Shimal (Vogt and Kastner 1987: 33, Pl.6).

A funerary practice associated with this tomb was re-vealed by the presence of two metal hoards uncovered in the immediate vicinity of the tomb (Figs. 10, 19-20).

The first hoard (Figs. 18-19) contained thirty seven socketed spear heads (Fig. 21), three rectangular shaped blades/razors, three short daggers - two with a single hole for affixing to the handle (Figs. 22: 6-8; 23), two large, deep, high sided bowls (Figs. 24: 4-5; 25-26) and a chalice/goblet with an everted rim and an almost hemispherical body seated on high splayed flat pedestal (Figs. 24: 2; 27). The chalice - which re-calls examples from both Asimah and Hamala North/Bahrain (Vogt 1994, Fig. 55: 1-2) - was broken and re-paired in antiquity as evidenced by a patch fixed into

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Fig. 11: General view of Tomb BHS 2 after excavation.

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Fig. 12: Soft stone vessels and lids bearing a dotted circle decoration.

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Fig. 14: Wadi Suq pottery vessels (1-3); Iron Age open bowls (4-8). Fig. 15: Wadi Suq decorated pottery shards (1-10); bone rings, cowrie shells and beads (11-18).

Fig. 13: Soft stone vessel with its lid bearing a dotted circle decoration.

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Fig. 16: Bronze socketed spearheads.

Fig. 17: A pair of socketed spearheads discovered driven into tomb’s wall.

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Fig. 18: Metal hoard discovered just outside Tomb BHS 2.

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Fig. 20: Bronze hoard (No. 2).

Fig. 19: Bronze hoard (No.1).

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position with two rivets at the top of the vessel. The items in this hoard find their closest parallels at other Wadi Suq sites in the Oman Peninsula such as Shimal, Bidya (Velde 2003, Fig. 7), al-Wasit and Wadi al-Jizzi (Weisgerber 2007, 277).

In close proximity to the first hoard was a large, well made, painted pottery jar of reddish paste (Fig. 28) which contained a shell and two cylindrical carnelian beads. This vessel is a unique in shape with its globu-lar body, wide flat base and ledged rim bearing four perforations in opposite sides, presumably for suspen-sion. The upper half of the jar bears painted decora-tion consisting of two parallel corrugated bands across the shoulder. These are interrupted at four regular intervals by two vertical lines that emerge from two horizontal lines that encircle the vessel slightly lower down. No parallel to this jar is known from the Wadi Suq ceramic repertoire so far.

The second hoard (Fig. 20) was found adjacent to the first and contained thirteen spear heads (Fig. 29), five daggers - four with a single hole for fixing (Fig. 22: 1- 5), five large bowls (Fig. 30: 2-5), and a smashed, large, open, bucket-like container with two riveted handles (Fig. 31), similar to ones from Bidya (al-Tikriti 1989, Fig.71A). Also found, together with its lid, was a soft stone bowl with four projected small lugs distributed equally around the body. The up-per half of the bowl is decorated with a band of dot-ted circles running between parallel horizontal lines while a wide band of parallel diagonal lines forms a zigzag around the lower half of the vessel. The lid is decorated with five parallel diagonal lines around its handle (Fig. 24: 1). This vessel recalls examples from Tomb BHS 68 (Fig. 229: 1) and one from Khor Fakkan (Jasim 2000, Fig. 39: 2). A pottery beaker was also present (Fig. 24: 3). On the exactly the opposite side of the burial chamber, a small footed rimless cop-per alloy chalice with a flat splayed base was found placed in an upright position (Figs.30:1; 32). These items were uncovered immediately beneath the spot where the pair of spear heads had been driven into the wall outside the burial chamber.

These hoards are somehow reminiscent of the large metal hoard from ‘Ibri/Selme in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber 2001) however a collection of more com-parable metal objects was found in a cist below the floor of the burial chamber in both Bidya 1 and in the Qattarah long tomb (al-Tikriti 1989, 105-106). These discoveries have been attributed to “some ritual role in the burial procedures of the time” (al-Tikriti, 1989, 106), as well as interpreted as possible founda-tion deposits (Carter 1997, 49). It has also been sug-gested that metal hoards are the result of the plunder-ing of graves in earlier Pre-Islamic periods and that the smashed metal items that are often found in such hoards were damaged deliberately in order that they could be transported more easily (Yule and Weisger-ber 2001, 38).

Subsidiary GravesSome subsidiary graves appear to have been embed-ded within the outer wall; three or more badly dis-turbed ones were noticed at the eastern and northern side. These were a latter addition as evidenced by the prevalence of Iron Age II pottery sherds. Open mouthed bowls with ridged walls (Fig. 14: 4-5) recall examples from Tombs BHS 72 (Fig. 248: 2), BHS 77 (Fig. 259: 4-5), BHS 84 (Fig. 290:10) and also resem-ble ones found at Rumeilah, Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Fig. 45), Fashgha 1(Phillips 1987, Figs. 11-12), Sharm (Baker 2002, Fig. 22: 9-10) and al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pls. 20-21).

A wide mouthed bowl with incurved sides and a straight tapering rim (Fig. 14: 6) is reminiscent of one from Rumeilah Period 2 (Boucharlat and Lom-bard 1985, Pl. 58: 3) and one from Tell Abraq (Iron III) (Magee 1996, Fig. 3: 10). Two open bowls (Fig. 14: 7-8) are comparable to Iron Age 1 examples from Sharm (Baker 2002, Fig. 18: 3), and Rumeilah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 46: 5-6). Skel-etal remains were very few and fragmentary and were found scattered together with a few stone beads.

The Iron Age subsidiary graves and the concealed bronze hoards resulted in significant disturbance to the outer ring wall which would originally have sur-rounded the tomb during the Wadi Suq period.

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Fig. 21: Bronze socketed spearheads within hoard (No.1).

Fig. 22: Bronze daggers within hoard (No.2).

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Fig. 23: Bronze daggers within hoard (No.2).

Fig. 24: Soft stone vessel and lid (1), bronze chalice (2), pottery beaker (3) and two bronze bowls (4-5). All discovered within Hoard (No. 2).

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Fig. 25: Bronze bowl (Fig. 24: 5).

Fig. 26: Bronze bowl (Fig. 24: 4).

Fig. 27: Bronze chalice (Fig. 24: 2).

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Fig. 28: Wadi Suq painted pottery jar.

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Fig. 32: Small bronze pedestal chalice discovered outside Tomb BHS 2.

Fig. 31: Smashed bronze bucket within hoard (No. 2).

Fig. 30: Bronze vessel within hoard (No.2)

Fig. 29: Bronze socketed spearheads within hoard (No. 2).

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BHS 3Type: Subterranean Tomb


Co-ordinate: N 25° 00’ 34.58264”, E 55° 47’ 49.27293”

Plan and Architecture:This is an oval-shaped subterranean burial chamber consisting of seven stone courses that descend to a depth of 1.1m beneath the ground (Figs. 33-34). The square shaped, stone lined entrance is located to the east of the tomb and steps immediately down into the burial chamber however it has been blocked from the outside with heavy stones (Fig. 35). The roof is com-prised of large, heavy pieces of stones, some of which have fallen into the chamber.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Two burial levels were identified; the lower level was


classified as Wadi Suq period and would have con-stituted the original floor of the burial chamber. This lower level contained a number of human skeletons which – with the exception of one well preserved skeleton - were found in a rather disturbed condition. This individual had been buried in a flexed position, facing northwest with the skull oriented towards the north. A necklace consisting of carnelian beads was found around the neck (Fig. 36: 5) and a collection of Wadi Suq type pottery consisting of large globular jars and an open bowl were placed nearby (Fig. 37: 1-5). Of particular interest is a large globular vessel with a wide flat base which has five stepped ridges ascending from it and bears decor consisting of par-allel horizontal bands around the shoulder and neck (Fig. 37: 1). This vessel is a unique in its combination of various degrees of ridging and rectilinear painted decoration. The open bowl (Fig. 37: 6) meanwhile re-calls an example from Site 1 at Shimal (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 6: 44).

A pair of attached socketed spear heads were found

34


Fig. 35: The entrance to Tomb BHS 3 blocked with a large stone from outside.

35

Fig. 36: Miscellaneous objects from Tomb BHS 3.

36

Fig. 37: Wadi Suq pottery vessels discovered inside the burial chamber.

Fig. 38: A pair of socketed bronze spearheads inside the burial chamber.

37

lying on the floor inside the burial chamber (Figs. 38-39: 4). Two other spear heads were also found (Fig. 39: 5-6). The association of bronze socketed spear heads, usually found in pairs or threes, with a number of the burial tombs of the Wadi Suq period can be seen as a ritualistic feature (Jasim, 2011) that is “…in-variably found in or associated with funerary contexts in Southeast Arabia” (Carter 1997, 48). The floor of the burial chamber also yielded a Dilmun type seal (Figs. 36: 3; 40), the discovery of which is significant in terms of establishing a chronology and revealing information about the relationship between the local population and the outside world (Jasim 2008, 54-57). Other finds include a bronze ring, a soft stone pen-dant, a stone retouched tool, a bronze needle and small square shaped beads (Fig. 36: 1, 2, 4, 8). A thin, al-most square shaped copper alloy blade was also found (Fig. 36: 7); tools of this type, which may have been used as razors, were represented in different shapes and were also found at other Wadi Suq tombs in Jebel al-Buhais (Figs. 18; 36: 7; 45: 4; 84: 2; 121: 2; 127: 2; 149: 17; 210: 13; 269: 8). They are also known from sites at Ras Al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984: Fig. 27: 11-12; De Cardi 1988, Fig. 4: 5-7; Velde 2003, Fig.

Fig. 39: Bronze arrowheads (1-3) and socketed spearheads (4-6).

Fig. 40: Dilmun stamp seal found on the floor of the burial chamber.

7: 5) and from Bronze Age sites in India (Yule 1985, Cat. Nos. 23, 540, 547).

The upper layer in the burial chamber contained only a few skeletal remains (Uerpmann, et.al. 2006, 82), together with some pottery sherds and bronze arrow heads typical of Iron Age assemblage (Fig. 39: 1-3).

Subsidiary Graves:Subsidiary graves were found on the northern, west-ern and southern sides of the burial chamber. No co-herent plan was observed to their layout. Only a few bone fragments mingled with Iron Age pottery shards and few beads were found. Iron Age burial seems to have occurred intensively within the immediate sur-face area surrounding the tomb.


Date: Iron Age

Coordinates: N 25° 00’ 34.19424”, E 55° 47’ 49.42044”

Plan and Architecture:No observable plan could be recognized due to the heavy destruction that had occurred in both antiquity and more recent history. Stone courses were found to have collapsed inside the burial chamber. Only a few bone fragments and some stone beads were found in-side the tomb.

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BHS 5Type: Above Ground Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 33.48079”, E 55° 47’ 50.03783”

Plan and Architecture:An almost oval-shaped, simple burial cist measuring 1.2 x 0.8m with a depth of approximately 0.6m. Three irregular rows of stones surround the pit from above (Fig. 41).

Skeletal remains and Funerary Offerings:No skeletal remains were found. Very few potsherds of an Iron Age date were scattered on the burial cham-ber.

Subsidiary Graves:A small subsidiary grave was found directly attached to the south-western side. No skeletal remains or any items were found inside.

BHS 6Type: Semi-Subterranean Tomb

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq)

Co-ordinates N 25° 00’ 26.12076”, E 55° 47’ 48.29867”

Plan and Architecture:A long, semi-subterranean burial chamber measuring 4m in length and 1m in width and with a North-South axis (Figs. 42-43). The walls of the burial chamber consist of seven stone courses occupying a depth of 1m below ground, while rising to a height of 0.6m above ground. The walls lean inwards as they rise thus narrowing to a top opening of some 0.6m upon which roof slabs were placed. No definite entrance to the tomb was detected. The floor inside the burial cham-ber was covered with a layer of gravel. Long burial chambers are known from Shimal, SH 101 and SH 102, and Adhen at Ras Al-Khaimah (Vogt 1987, Fig. 6; Vogt and Kanster 1987, Fig. 7; Donaldson 1984, Fig. 2; Vogt 1998, Pl. 2a).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Only few skeletal remains found and were associated with a variety of Classic Wadi Suq pottery. Of interest is a complete, pear shaped jar with a flat base, short

neck and rounded out flared rim (Fig. 44: 2), it bears painted decoration on its upper half consisting of two broad bands followed by vertical sinuous bands and horizontal bands. This jar is closely comparable to one from Tomb K4 at Kalba (Carter 1997, Fig. 22: K4. 98). Another jar with rounded body, short neck and broad everted rim bears painted decoration con-sisting of three horizontal wavy lines on the shoulder (Fig. 44: 1). This particular jar is identical to others from the al- Buhais cemetery; these were found at BHS 12 (Fig. 72: 2), BHS 65 (Fig. 184: 9) and BHS 70 (Fig. 228: 2) however the latter has five wavy lines instead of three. Painted globular jars with short necks and out flared rims are known from Bidya 1 (al-Tikriti 1985, Pl. 64: B), Tomb K3 at Kalba (Phillips 1996,

39



40

Fig. 44: Wadi Suq painted pottery.

41

Fig. 8: 9), and Wadi Suq graves (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 22a). Body sherds bearing painted decoration con-sisting of rectilinear, horizontal bands, chevrons and triangular shaped patterns were also found (Fig. 44: 3-6). The decor of Figs.4 and 6 is reminiscent of that seen on a beaker from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1981, Fig. 4: 11).

Other finds (Fig. 45) include soft stone fragments from bowls with lids, an Iron Age II bronze arrow (5), bronze/copper rings (3, 6), a necklace consisting of carnelian beads with one elongated bead inlaid with silver (2) and a thin rectangular bronze blade (4).

The tomb seems to have been re-used during the Iron Age hence the discovery of a few potsherds, some soft stone fragments and a bronze arrow head. Similarly to BHS 3, subsidiary Iron Age graves were numerous in the immediate vicinity of the tomb.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 25.6604”, E 55° 47’ 49.04818”

Fig. 45: Miscellaneous objects from Tomb BHS 6. Fig. 46: Plan and section of Tomb BHS 7.

Plan and Architecture:This is very closely located to the east of BHS 6 while its layout is similar to that of BHS 5. The tomb meas-ures 1.3m in length and 0.9 in width with a depth of 0.60m. Rows of irregular stones surround the oval-shaped pit from above (Fig. 46).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsThere were no skeletal remains or any other items found inside the tomb.

42



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 23.81566”, E 55° 47’ 44.42576”

Plan and Architecture:This rectangular shaped tomb with rounded corners was found in a fairly intact condition (Fig. 47). The interior measurements are 5.8m x 3m, extending to a depth of 1.4m below surface level. The internal walls of the burial chamber are constructed with seven stone courses, the first layer of which consists of large, reg-ularly shaped blocks which are laid vertically into the earth (Figs. 48-49).

The tomb’s entrance, located at its southern side, is paved with large stone slabs that serve as its thresh-old. It is flanked by vertical slabs, while the capstone lintel is missing (Fig. 50). Two large blocks of stone had been placed against the entrance to impede ac-cess to the tomb. At the centre of the burial chamber a 5m stone buttress divides the space into two corridors. The buttress extends westwards to join a curved wall on one side, while leaving a gap on the other side in order to permit movement. An opening in the middle of this structure enables access to both the corridors on either side of the buttress (Fig. 51). This is remi-niscent of a buttress with a central aperture found at Shimal 103 at Ras Al-Khaimah (Vogt & Vogt 1987, Fig. 22).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsThe southern corridor of the tomb contained fifteen human skeletons while five were found in the north-ern corridor (Fig. 52). (Uerpmann et.al.2006, 82). A variety of artefacts were also found throughout, these include pottery, soft stone, metallurgical and other objects.

Typical examples of classic Wadi Suq pottery were present in a variety of shapes (Figs. 53-56). Large globular jars with painted decoration on the upper half of the body, seem to have been a common com-modity (Fig. 53: 1-5, 8- 9). The decoration on these was executed in either dark brown or black on red with the painted designs consisting of panels of black vertical lines alternating with concentric half circles.

These were either plain, single circles (Fig. 53: 2), or fringed with short vertical strokes (Fig. 53: 8). Plain concentric circles also occur (Fig. 53: 4). This type of decor is reminiscent of that seen on beakers from Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 12:16-18; 2003, Fig. 2: 5), and Site 1 at Ras al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 6: 4-5).

Another globular jar is decorated with vertical pan-els containing cross hatched triangles arranged in an hourglass pattern and separated by three vertical lines (Fig. 53: 9) which recalls examples from Wadi Sunay-sil graves in Oman (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 26: d, f).

Some of the painted jars are provided with spouts oc-cupying the rim and upper half of the shoulder (Fig. 53: 4-5). Spouted jars were common throughout Wadi Suq sites in the UAE and Oman Peninsula such as Site 1 at Ras al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 7-8), Shimal (De Cardi 1988, Figs. 8-9; Vogt and Velde 1987, Fig. 24: 3-7; 2003, Figs. 2: 11-12; 3: 3-4; Velde 2003, Fig. 3: 1, 3-4), Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1981, Fig. 3), Site K3 at Kalba (Phillips 1996, Fig.5) and the type site of Wadi Suq in Oman (Frifelt 1975a, Figs. 20a and 20b).

Of particular interest is a fragment from a large, pos-sibly spouted jar of reddish ware which bears painted black decoration depicting long-necked animals (pos-sibly camels or ostriches), all of which are facing to the right and contained within a single panel. The panel is bordered initially with triple vertical lines from above and below, followed by multiple vertical zigzag lines (Fig. 53:1). Large globular jars decorated with ani-mals’ shapes are known from Wadi Suq graves (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 20: b; Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, Fig. 281) and from Maysar in Oman (Weisgerber 1981, Abb. 5b). A fragment decorated with animals shapes was also found at Kalba K3 (Phillips 1996, Fig.4: 1). Ani-mal figures were also used to decorate a beaker from Tomb 6 at Shimal in Ras al-Khaimah (De Cardi 1988, Figs. 2; 5: 6) however human figures are rarely de-picted (Vogt 1998, Fig. 3c).

The tomb has also produced a variety of red or buff slipped beakers/cups (Figs. 54-55); these are general-ly characterized by their relatively small size, thin up-right and slightly sinuous sides with either straight, ta-pered, everted or out-flared rims and slightly rounded or flat bases which commonly demonstrate a string-cut technique. This category of vessels bear painted deco-ration ranging from bands of diagonal and horizon-tal lines (Fig. 54: 1), horizontal cross hatched bands

43

Fig. 47: Tomb BHS 8 before excavation.


44


45

Fig. 50: Entrance to the tomb, leading to the southern chamber.

Fig. 51: The central partition wall with an opening facing the entrance.

Fig. 52: Skeletal remains inside the southern burial chamber.

46

(Fig. 54: 2-3, 6), band of chevrons and horizontal lines (Fig. 54: 4-5), rectilinear bands (Fig 54: 7-8), rectilinear and wavy bands (Fig. 54: 10), multiple ver-tical zigzags (Fig. 54: 11), half circles and multiple parallel horizontal lines (Fig. 54: 12). In most exam-ples, the painted decoration is mainly confined to the upper third or upper half of the vessel. Of interest is the beaker entirely decorated with alternating straight and wavy triple vertical lines and bordered by triple horizontal lines (Fig. 54: 9). Comparable beakers are to be found at Shimal (Velde 1987, Fig. 12; De Cardi 1988, Figs. 5-6). Example (Fig. 54: 10) is reminiscent of example from Hili (Cleuziou 1981, Fig. 6: 2) while a body sherd belonging to a beaker decorated with bands of half circles between multiple parallel hori-zontal lines (Fig. 54: 12) is reminiscent of one from

Tomb K4 at Kalba (Carter 1997, Fig. 20: k4-251).

Undecorated vessels dating to the late Wadi Suq pe-riod were also present (Fig. 56: 2 -6). These are repre-sented by miniatures (Figs. 2; 4), small beakers (Figs. 3; 5) and a small globular jar (Fig. 6). Jar 2 is pro-vided with a single small hole just under the upper rim which was presumably used for suspension. The shape of this miniature vessel is reminiscent of one from Shimal (Velde 2003, Fig. 11: 2), and a plain one from Shimal 103 (Vogt and Velde 1987, Fig. 23: 3). Beaker 3 (No. 3) also recalls an example from Shimal SH102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 12: 11-12).

Other vessels found at BHS 8 include deep, open hem-ispherical bowls bearing painted decoration consisting

Fig. 53: Wadi Suq painted pottery vessels.

47

Fig. 54: Wadi Suq pottery beakers.

48

of multiple zigzags bordered with single horizontal lines on the upper half of the body (Fig. 53: 6-7). Fig. 7 resembles one from Tomb K4 at Kalba (Carter 1997, Fig. 20, K4.460).

Soft Stone Vessels: (Fig. 57)Soft stone vessels and lids are represented by a vari-ety of shapes. The incised decoration on them consists mainly of dotted circles arranged in either single or double rows, diagonal lines and short strokes. These recall examples from other Wadi Suq sites in the UAE and Oman Peninsula.

An Iron Age Burial: The presence of an upper layer containing Iron Age objects such as arrow heads, soft stone bowls and skeletal remains indicates that the tomb was in use during the Iron Age. These items were found together with a few skeletal remains in a rather fragmentary condition.

Plain pottery of an Iron Age horizon - including an open, wide-mouthed bowl with a wide everted rim and flat base (Fig. 56: 7) – was found. This type of bowl is reminiscent of examples from Rumeilah Pe-riod 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 46: 1-9). A number of varied soft stone vessels and lids are also represented, all bearing incised decoration consisting of zigzags, chevrons, diagonal and rectilinear lines (Figs. 57: 4; 58). Fig 58: 2 shows a small vessel

Fig. 55: Samples of Wadi Suq pottery beakers.

Fig. 56: Wadi Suq plain pottery lid and vessels (1-6) and an Iron Age open pottery bowl (7).

49

Fig. 57: Wadi Suq soft stone vessel (1) and lids (2-8).

Fig. 58: Iron Age soft stone vessels and a lid (1).

50

decorated with a herring bone pattern running be-tween horizontal lines and followed by gadroons. Fig. 58: 3 shows a small spouted vessel, void of decoration apart from a couple of short diagonal lines on each side of the spout. A rim sherd decorated with horizon-tal lines as well as a herring bone design can be seen in Fig. 58: 4. Two lids with incised decoration were also found (Figs. 57: 4; 58: 1). Other finds include a pottery lid (Fig. 56: 1), bronze/copper arrow heads (Fig. 59: 2-3), a silver nose ring/earring (Fig. 59: 1), personal adornments consist of a variety of stone and carnelian beads (Fig. 59: 40) stone implements or tools (Fig. 59: 5-7), a perforated pottery disc (Fig. 60: 1) and shells (Fig. 60: 2-11).

BHS 9Type: Rock Shelter Tomb

Date: Iron Age II

Fig. 59: Bronze earring (1), bronze arrow heads (2-3), necklace (4) and flint implements (5-7).

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 28.57628”, E 55° 47’ 46.72552”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 9 is a rock shelter burial incorporated within the slope of the Jebel and surrounded by a construction of large stones rising to a height of 0.9m. The space between the natural slope and the surrounding wall measures 3m x 2m. There is a 0.80m wide opening in the south eastern corner that provides access to the burial chamber (Fig. 61).

Skeletal remains and Funerary Offerings:Very few skeletal remains and only a single pottery sherd representing the whole mouth and rim of a jar were found inside the burial chamber (Fig. 62: 3). Soft stone vessels and lids were however present in-cluding two open mouthed, spouted bowls bearing in-cised decoration consisting of rectilinear, vertical and crossed lines (Fig. 62: 4-5). These two examples re-call other bowls from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Figs. 25: 9; 30: 25), Hili (Ur-Rahman 1978/1979, Fig. 4: 4), Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 25: 3-4) and al-Qusais (Taha 2009: Pl.29: D).

Fig. 60: Perforated shell disc (1) and a variety of shells (1-11).

51

Fig. 61: Plan and section of rock shelter BHS 9.

52

Other finds include a small leaf-shaped bronze/cop-per arrow with central rib (Fig. 62: 1). This can be matched to examples from Hili 2 (Ur-Rahman 1978-79, 18), Rumeilah (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 62: 1-3), Qarn bent Sa’ud (Taha 2009, Pl. 59), Nizwa (al-Shanfari and Weisgerber 1989, Fig. 3), Site 2 at Ras al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 26: 2-4) and al Qusais (Taha 2009, 120).


Date: Iron Age II

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 26.72513”, E 55° 47’ 44.15003”

Plan and Architecture:Within this tomb two burial chambers are formed through the placement of two curved stone walls against the natural outcrops in the foothill of the Jebel. Each burial chamber measures approximately 6m x 3.5m. No obvious access was noticed (Fig. 63).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A limited number of skeletal remains were found as-sociated with Iron Age sherds and a variety of deco-rated soft stone bowls which are comparable to ves-sels from other Iron Age sites in the UAE. The open mouthed, spouted bowls (Fig. 64: 1-2) recall exam-ples from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Figs. 23: 5; 25: 9; 30: 25), Rumeilah (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 72: 3), and al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pls. 29: D; 31: D). These include a hemispherical bowl with incurved ridged sides and decorated with three horizontal lines, followed by a band of gadroons, just below the rim (Fig. 64: 3). The deep, high sided bowl fully deco-rated on the external with four horizontal panels of cross hatching, chevrons, and vertical strokes run-ning between either triple or double horizontal lines (Fig. 64: 7) is reminiscent of one from Fashgha 1 in term of shape (Phillips 1987, Fig. 24: 4). One vessel (Fig. 64: 8) recalls examples from Fashgha1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 25: 12), and Hili 2 (Ur-Rahman 1978/1979, Fig.7: 1). An open mouthed bowl with a flat base and broad everted rim that is decorated with multiple di-agonal lines (Fig. 64: 6) can be compared to one from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 28: 18).

The complete jewellery box found with its lid is of particular interest (Fig. 65: 4): the container is deco-

rated with simple rectilinear lines below the rim and above the base, while the lid is ornamented with four zigzag lines radiating diagonally from the middle nub toward the corners. The incised pattern on the upper face of the handle appears to depict the sun. Most no-tably a silver u-shaped nose-ring/earring was found inside the container thus attesting to the use of this particular type of container as a jewellery box (Figs. 65: 9). Boxes of this type were found in other tombs at Jebel a-Buhais (Figs. 103:1; 303: 5; 329: 9), and are

Fig. 62: Bronze arrowhead (1), soft stone lid (2), pottery rim shard (3), and soft stone spouted vessels (4-5).

53

Fig. 63: Plan and section of rock shelter Tomb BHS 10.

Fig. 64: Iron Age soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 10.

54


55

widely known from various sites in the Oman Penin-sula since the Umm an-Nar period (Jasim 2003, Fig. 35).

Other finds include a bronze arrow head (Fig. 65: 8), carnelian and white stone beads, and steatite spindle whorls (Fig. 65: 1-3).


Date: Iron Age II/III

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 28.84198”, E 55° 47’ 42.85063”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is very similar to BHS 7. It is a circular shaped burial chamber measuring 1.5m in diameter with a depth of 1.4m and consists of a simple cist sur-rounded by two rows of random stones placed at sur-face level. It was originally roofed with large stone slabs as indicated by the presence of some pieces which had fallen inside (Fig. 67).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A few fragmented skeletal remains were uncovered. The associated finds were pot sherds and steatite ves-sels fragments with familiar Iron Age decoration.

BHS 12 Type: Subterranean Tomb

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq period)Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 24.43659”, E 55° 47’ 44.52743”

Plan and architecture:BHS 12 is a large, U-shaped, subterranean burial chamber (Fig. 68). Access to the burial chamber is through a rectangular entrance with a large stone sill. Seven stone courses, most of them still in situ, had been used to construct the internal walls which in-cline gradually to form a vault shape. A stone partition wall measuring 4.1m divides the burial chamber into two sections (Fig. 69).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The southern section of the burial chamber contained nine human skeletons, while another four were found in the northern section (Fig. 69) (Uerpmann, et.al.

Fig. 66: Soft stone jewellery box with its lid and silver earring in situ, Tomb BHS 10.

56


57


58

2006: 82). There was evidence of four successive lay-ers of burial; both the first level, which lay directly on the original floor of the burial chamber, and the second level are dated to the 2nd Millennium BCE according to the associated material. Finds here included pottery jars, soft stone vessels and lids, personal adornments and a bronze bowl. The bones of domesticated sheep were also found in the second layer.

The third layer was located at approximately 0.25m beneath the uppermost layer and contained Iron Age objects thus indicating that the tomb was reused. Two Iron Age graves were found attached to the southern side of the burial chamber (Figs. 68-69). The forth and uppermost layer was located approxi-mately 0.8m from the apex of the burial chamber and contained the articulated skeleton of a man over 60 years of age lying in a tightly flexed position on his right side with his arms and legs bent close to his body. The skeleton was oriented east-west with the head to the west and facing south (Fig. 74) and was found associated with Iron Age materials (Fig. 73: 2-11). The skeleton of a 30 year old male was found in a disturbed condition while a further individual of 30-40 years of age and thought to be female was also found (Uerpmann, et.al. 2006: 82).The skeleton of a camel was found near the entrance

of the burial chamber (Fig. 75). This was dated to 600 AD according to C14 testing of its stomach con-tents. (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1999).The burial of this animal within the tomb indicates a form of ritualistic sacrifice practiced during the pre-Islamic era (Jasim1997). A large quantity of Wadi Suq pottery sherds were found in association with the two lower levels. Of interest is a large, open channelled, spouted, globu-lar jar (Figs. 70; 71:1). The upper half of the body bears painted decoration consisting of three horizon-tal panels that contain suspension loops associated with short strokes on the lower lines and separated by single lines. The panels are bordered by double lines around the upper rim and at the middle of the body. The middle part of the vessel, just below the spout, is decorated with a vertical panel comprised of three groups of short horizontal lines connecting to four vertical lines on both sides. This jar recalls an example from Kalba K3 in Sharjah (Phillips 1996, Fig. 9: 1-2), and other vessels from Wadi Suq sites in the UAE and Oman, such as Shimal, Hili 8 and Wadi Suq (Donaldson 1984, Figs.7-10; Velde 2003, Fig. 2: 11-12; Cleuziou 1981, Fig. 3; Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 20) and Qusais (Taha 2009, 112-113), however the spouted jars from those sites are characterized by a flat base whereas the jar from BHS 12 has a rounded base.

Fig. 69: General view of Tomb BHS 12 after excavation (easterly direction).

59

Also found was a globular jar decorated very simply with three wavy lines on its upper shoulder (Fig. 71: 2); this jar is almost identical to ones from BHS 6 (Fig. 44: 1), BHS 60 (Fig. 193: 9) and BHS 70 (Fig. 237: 2). The shape of this jar resembles one from Kalba K3 (Phillips 1996, Fig. 10: 2) and one from Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 13: 6-9).Soft stone vessels and lids were present at both Wadi Suq and Iron Age levels. The former is represented by plenty of fragments and lids decorated with a dot and circle motif (Fig. 72: 2), the latter by vessels and lids bearing Iron Age patterns (Fig. 72: 4-5). Of interest is a soft stone spindle whorl ornamented with dotted circles from the Wadi Suq context (Fig. 72: 1).Vessels and lids bearing Iron Age II/III patterns are also present and include a wide mouth vessel with a flat base and rounded rim that bears incised rows of parallel horizontal lines just below the rim and paral-lel diagonal and vertical lines that terminate over a stepped line above the base (Fig. 72: 4). Also a lid with incised decoration consisting of lines radiating from the base of the handle and a saw tooth pattern along the lid edge (Fig. 72: 5). The other lid included here (Fig. 72: 3) has a compound knob bearing on its top double circle, while the surface is decorated with what looks like a flower motif with petals radiating from the base of the handle towards the edge of the rim.

Fig. 70: Wadi Suq globular spouted jar from Tomb BHS 12.

Fig. 71: Wadi Suq painted globular jars from Tomb BHS 12. Fig. 72: Wadi Suq soft stone spindle whorl (1), soft stone lid (2) and Iron Age soft stone vessel and lids (3-5).

60

Fig. 73: Miscellaneous metal objects from Tomb BHS 12. A ram shaped figurine (1), arrow heads (2-5, 7-10), needle (6), ring (11) and a bronze hemi-spherical bowl (12).

61

Fig. 74: Iron Age burial with bronze arrow heads in situ in the upper level inside Tomb BHS 12.

Fig. 75: Camel skeleton near the entrance to Tomb BHS 12.

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Fig. 76: General view of Tomb BHS 13.


63

Metal objects are represented by eight-tanged cop-per alloy arrow heads with a central rib (Fig.73: 2 – 5, 7–10). These were found at the Iron Age lev-els together with a copper needle (Fig. 73: 6) and a ring (Fig. 73: 11). The last two items recall bronze artefacts from Site 2 at Ras al-Khaimah (Donald-son 1984, Fig. 27: 21, 26) and Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 18: 9, 10). Other items include a bronze hemispherical bowl (Fig. 73: 12) and a par-ticularly interesting bronze figurine (possibly a pen-dant or a plaque) of what looks like a ram - this was found on the floor of the burial chamber (Fig. 73: 1).

Items of jewellery in the form of metal figurines, pendants or plaques that were made of gold or elec-tron and depicted stylised animals such as goats or bulls were probably sewn onto clothes as decorative elements. Examples are known from other Wadi Suq sites in the UAE such as Qattarah and Bidya (al- Tikri-ti 1989, Pl. 74: A – D; Cleuziou 1978/79 p. 44; Cleuzi-ou 1981, Fig.13), Shimal and Dhayah (Kastner 1991, Fig.6a; Velde 2003, Fig. 7: 11). It has been suggested that the number and distribution of these plaques/pendants implies that they were locally made (Velde 2003, Fig.7: 11). It has also been suggested that ani-mal shaped metal pendants were influenced by Central Asian animal art (During Caspers, 1994, 45). Similar items of an earlier date were also found at a tomb in Tell Abraq (Potts 2000, 54).

BHS 13Type: Megalithic

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 28.92153”, E 55° 47’ 42.12059”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is located in the Wadi bed which runs through the Jebel. It consists of a huge freestand-ing stone which balances naturally and is encircled by stone rows (Figs. 76-77). The space between the rock and the surrounding stone wall forms the burial chamber. This type of tomb may also be described as a “mausoleum” (Jasim 2009, 80). It is of unprec-edented typology among the Iron Age graves at Jebel al Buhais and has only one parallel (BHS 44).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Large quantities of bones in a fragmentary condition were found. A large number of pottery sherds, frag-

ments of soft stone vessels, one bronze arrow head and scattered beads, all with typical Iron Age features, were also present.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 29.34965”, E 55° 47’ 41.63533”

Plan and Architecture:Located approximately 20m to the north east of BHS 13 on the foothill of the Jebel, BHS 14 is an oval-shaped, simple cist burial, reminiscent of BHS 7 and BHS 11, which is surrounded by three rows of various sized stones and measuring 1.5m x 0.9m with a depth of 0.3m. The outer row is comprised of two stone courses rising to a height of 1m (Fig. 78).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Neither skeletal remains nor any funerary offering were found.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 29.90680”, E 55° 47’ 40.82986”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is situated at a distance of 100m to the west of BHS 13 and sits on a high slope overlooking the adjacent Wadi. It consists of a natural outcrop sur-rounded by stone walls, thus forming a rectangular shaped burial chamber measuring 6m x 4m. No obvi-ous access was detected (Fig. 79).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmented skeletal remains were plenty and were found associated with a large number of soft stone vessels and lids together with a few pottery shards, all bearing characteristic Iron Age decoration (Fig. 80: 1-5). Most interesting is the intact, semi-conical shaped example with high sided walls and a slightly concaved base that is fully decorated with incised pat-terns consisting of four panels of rectilinear, herring bone, diagonal and concentric triangles running hori-zontally around the body (Figs. 80: 3; 81). The shape

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Fig. 79: Plan and section of rock shelter Tomb B

HS 15.

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Fig. 80: Soft stone vessel and lids (1-5) and bronze arrow head (6) from Tomb BHS 15.

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Fig. 81: Soft stone vessel with lid from Tomb BHS 15.

of this vessel recalls one from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1986, Fig. 30: 26) and can be paralleled to examples from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, 96). Other finds include bronze/copper arrow head (Fig. 80: 6), and few car-nelian beads.

Subsidiary Graves:Immediately to the north of BHS 15 a small rock shel-ter surrounded by a stone wall appears to represent a subsidiary burial chamber, however, no skeletal re-mains or any other finds were found inside.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 30.08465”, E 55° 47’ 42.26717”

Plan and Architecture:This is a rock shelter burial formed through the use of natural outcrops to create a space of 4m x 1.5m that is encircled by a curved stone wall thus forming a burial chamber. No obvious access was detected (Fig. 82).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsAlthough very few skeletal remains were found inside the tomb, some funerary items were present. These include pottery sherds, fragments of soft stone ves-sels and lid in addition to other items such as a bronze arrow head (Fig. 83: 3-5) and a thin, flat rectangu-lar shaped copper alloy blade with concave sides that might have been used as a razor (Fig. 83: 2). Similar pieces were also reported from BHS 2, BHS 3, BHS 6, BHS 16, BHS 28, BHS 30, BHS 37, BHS 66 and

BHS 79 and other sites in the region. Of interest is the presence of a round piece of shell decorated with an incised motif consisting of thirteen petioles, each with a small circle at the top, to represent a flower; this might have been used as distinguished button (Figs. 83: 1; 84). Animal bones identified as a sheep were also found in the burial chamber, these might be inter-preted as ritualistic items.

BHS 17Type: Rock Shelter tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 25.51013”, E 55° 47’ 42.40722”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 17 is comprised a series of three rock shelters with stone constructions in front of them and is lo-cated at a distance of 30m to the west of BHS 12 on a slope which rises to about 10m above the surrounding plain (Fig. 85).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:BHS 17 yielded very few skeletal remains in a frag-mented condition together with animal bones and other material such as Iron Age pottery sherds, ste-atite vessels bearing Iron Age incised decoration and three bronze arrow heads, two of which carry incised decoration on the lower middle rib (Fig. 86: 2-4). Ar-row heads with incised decoration find close parallels at other tombs at Jebel al-Buhais such as BHS 23 (Fig. 102: 2), BHS 26 (Fig. 109: 5-6), BHS 30 (Fig. 128: 1), BHS 60 (Fig. 193: 3), BHS 66 (Fig. 218: 1-6), BHS 77 (Fig. 262: 8). A very close parallel to Fig. 114: 4 comes from Jebel al-Emalah (Benton and Potts 1994, Figs. 9-10); both examples bear incised marks consisting of double horizontal lines across the tang followed by an X-shape and a triangle. Incised arrow heads were also reported from sites at Ras al-Khaim-ah like Site 1 (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 26: 6-8, 9), SH 102 (Vogt and Vogt 1987, Figs. 19-20) and Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 38: 11-13). More examples come from Asimah (Vogt 1994, Figs. 62: 26; 44: 1-2), al-Qusais (Taha 2009: Pl. 46), Qarn Bint Saud (Stevens 1989, Fig. 23: 151), Sharm (Lloyd 2000, Figs. 4-5), Tell Abraq, and other sites in Oman Peninsula and south-eastern Arabia (Magee 1998a).BHS 17 yielded a notable find in the form of a neck-lace consisting of discoid carnelian beads, long pen-dant-like beads and three horn-like beads decorated

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with deep incisions (Fig. 86: 1). Large shells contain-ing red ochre, which was presumably used for cos-metic, were also found near to a hearth full of black ashes. The presence of hearths close to burial places is likely to be associated with mortuary practices.

BHS 18Type: Neolithic Settlement

Date: 5th Millennium BCE

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 23.38198”, E 55° 47’ 43.29750”

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:This site was found in close proximity to both BHS 8 and BHS 12 (Fig. 87). Excavations here began on 25th January 1995 when a 10m x 6m square was

Fig. 85: General view of rock shelter Tomb BHS 17. Fig. 86: Necklace (1) and bronze arrow heads (2-4) from BHS 17.

Fig. 84: Conical shaped piece of shell decorated with flower pattern.

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plotted within the boundaries of a large area where some fragmented bones and heavily burnt soils had previously been detected. Immediately below the surface were found scores of well preserved articu-lated skeletons (Figs. 88-89) adorned with jewellery comprised of tens of thousands of ornamental objects (Kiesewetter, Uerpmann and Jasim 2000; Uerpmann, Uerpmann and Jasim 2000; De Beauclair, Jasim & Uerpmann 2006). A variety of stone implements were also recovered (Fig. 90).

A joint team comprised of the Department Of Antiq-uities of Sharjah and the Department of Early Pre-history and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tubingen in Germany proceeded to conduct a series of excavations at BHS 18 from 1996 until 2005. This long excavation campaign resulted in many notable finds that provided an insight into life and death in South Eastern Arabia during the Neolithic Period (Jasim et al 2005). A detailed overview of the exca-vations and the human remains at this site has been published in a series dedicated to “The Archaeology of Jebel Al-Buhais” Vols. 1-4, and will not be expand-ed on further here. (Uerpmann, Uerpmann & Jasim (eds.) 2006; 2008, op.cit)

BHS 19Type: Semi-Subterranean


Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 22.80818”, E 55° 47’ 39.50116”

Plan and Architecture:This is a long chambered tomb (3m long x 1m wide x 0.5m deep) with an east-west axis. The long, rectan-gular shaped burial chamber is surrounded by several rows of stones (Figs. 91-92).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The tomb contained a few skeletal splinters mixed with some Wadi Suq pottery sherds and soft stone vessel fragments. The burial chamber appears to have been heavily plundered in antiquity.

BHS 20Type: Semi-Subterranean

Date: Wadi Suq / Iron Age

Fig. 87: General view of Site BHS 18.

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Fig. 88: Skeletal remains at BHS 18.

Fig. 89: Primary burial consisting of a family of five interred close to each other with their arms intertwined.

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Fig. 90: Flint implements from Site BHS 18.

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Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 22.31035”, E 55° 47’ 39.65152”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 20 is located 15m to the east of BHS 19 in a north-east/south-west direction. The tomb is sur-rounded by a separate outer stone wall; the surround-ing wall has no entrance and must be scaled to gain access to the tomb. This is the only example at Jebel al Buhais where a wall surrounds the opening of a tomb.The square shaped entrance measuring 0.5m x 0.6m is placed in the tomb’s north east side and has been set into the stone wall of the burial chamber. The en-trance sill is placed over two stone courses and pro-trudes approximately 0.40m. The burial chamber is 2.2m long and 1.1m wide with walls comprised of seven stone courses that occupy a maximum depth of 1.4m and narrow progressively to a depth of 0.50m thus enabling the placement of roofing slabs, some of which are found fallen inside the burial chamber (Figs. 93-94).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A few fragmentary skeletal remains were found as were fragments of both Wadi Suq and Iron Age pot-tery bowls and soft stone vessels. Metal artefacts were represented by copper/bronze arrow heads (Fig. 95: 3-4, 6-7); No.6 recalls one from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1986, Fig. 37: 7). Of particular interest are two of


socketed trilobite arrow heads (Fig. 95: 1-2) which are the only examples to have been found at the Jebel al-Buhais Necropolis. Similar examples were found at Rumeilah from a Period 2 deposit (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 62, 9 -11). It is worth mention-ing that trilobite arrow heads are known as “Scythian Points” and were dated from 7th to the 4th century BCE (McMurray 2002). A number of tanged iron tri-lobite arrow-heads were discovered at a Post Hellen-istic Tomb at Dibba al-Hisn which is located along the eastern coast in the Emirate of Sharjah (Jasim 2006) and the contemporary site of ed-Dur (Delure 2007). Other items include a short pointed tool (Fig.95: 5) and some carnelian beads.

The presence of Iron Age material can be attributed to the re-use of the tomb during the next era, a phenom-enon that has been observed and documented at other Wadi Suq tombs at Jebel al-Buhais.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 29.27610”, E 55° 47’ 41.11944”

Plan and Architecture:This rock shelter tomb is situated approximately 15

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m to the south-west side of BHS 14. It makes use of a natural outcrop by enclosing it with a randomly built stone wall to form a 5m x 3m burial chamber (Fig. 96).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Only a few skeletal remains in a rather fragmentary condition were found inside the burial chamber. The associated material consisted of a handful of pottery sherds, fragments of steatite vessels and lids, three bronze arrow heads, a bronze awl, a shell with traces of green ochre (presumably for cosmetic purposes), a triangular shaped flat stone and stone beads (Fig. 97).

BHS 22 TombType: Rock Shelter TombDate: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 27.88060”, E 55° 47’ 42.03896”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 22 is rock shelter burial where the natural out-crops are surrounded by a semi-circular stone wall. The burial area measures about 5m x 3.5m (Figs. 98-99).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:There were very few skeletal remains mixed with a handful of pottery sherds, fragments from soft stone vessels and a single arrow head bearing incised deco-ration (Fig. 102: 3).

BHS 23Type: Rock Shelter

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 21.65743”, E 55° 47’ 41.18634”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is comprised of a chain of burial chambers spanning a distance of some 12m along the slope of the Jebel at a high altitude overlooking the adjacent Wadi (Figs. 100-101).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The burial chamber yielded fragmented skeletal re-mains together with a variety of material. Pottery sherds and a complete, open mouthed bowl (Fig. 102: 1), reminiscent of examples from Rumeilah Period 2

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Fig, 95: Bronze trilobite arrow heads (1-2) and plain arrow heads (3-7).

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Fig. 97: Miscellaneous objects from Tomb BHS 21. A bronze awl (1), arrow heads (2-4), a triangular shaped flat stone (5), stone beads (6), and a shell (7).

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were also found (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, pl. 57: 2).

There were a number of soft stone vessels bearing in-cised decoration consisting of rectilinear forms, her-ring bone patterns, saw tooth and triangular shapes; these include thick walled, truncated conically shaped vessels with a slightly convex base (Fig. 103: 3, 5). Parallels to these vessels can be found at al-Qusais (Taha 2009, 30), Qarn Bint Saud (Lombard 1982, Fig.3; 8-12), Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1986, Fig. 30: 26), Asimah (Vogt 1988, Fig. 42: 7), Mleiha (Boucharlat and Mouton 1991, Fig. 3) and ed-Dur (Zutterman 2003, Fig. 1). Also present are vessels of the same type but with flat distinct bases marked with deep grooves and bearing decoration consisting of long armed tri-angles filled with parallel diagonal lines and separated by a horizontal saw tooth design (Fig. 103: 2, 4).

Of interest is a jewellery box found together with its lid (Fig. 103: 1). This object is decorated with six uneven horizontal lines below the rim and triple saw tooth bands in a zigzag pattern on both its long faces; the side faces have two vertical saw tooth lines - one above the other - and two parallel horizontal lines

Fig. 98: General view of rock shelter Tomb BHS 22.


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above the base. A pair of gold nose rings/earrings was found inside the box.

Metal artefacts are represented by two heavy bronze bangles/anklets decorated with deep incisions around their open ends (Fig. 102; 6-7). Similar artefacts were reported from other tombs at Jebel al-Buhais (BHS 27, BHS 30, BHS 61, BHS 71) and from the sites of Qidfa (Potts 1991, Fig. 43: n), Rumeilah, Period 1 (Boucharlat & Lombard 1985, Pl. 63; 2-3) and Jebel Emalah (Benton and Potts 1994, Fig. 28). A consid-erable number of bangles have been retrieved from sites in the Oman Peninsula such as al- Sib, Bilad al-Khadra and ‘Ibri/Selme (Yule and Weisgerber 2001, Figs. 13-14; 24; Pls. 4-11). These bangles are heavy, their weight ranging between 300-1000g, which has led to some debate regarding their utility, with opin-ion divided between whether they were used as form of currency or rather worn as personal adornments (Potts 1991, 385).

Other metal artefacts include three bronze arrow heads (Fig. 102: 2-4); one of them is decorated with incised marks on the lower flare mid rib in the form of a double X below parallel lines (Fig. 102: 2). The sec-ond bears a single X above a diagonal line (Fig.102: 3). A socketed bronze Wadi Suq spear head in a dete-riorated condition was also found.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 31.35733”, E 55° 47’ 38.83251”

Plan and Architecture:This rock shelter tomb is situated at the very top of the mountain overlooking the adjacent Wadi. It consists of a very large natural outcrop encircled with a stone wall (Fig. 104).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A small quantity of fragmented bones were found among a small number of sherds, including an almost complete plain beaker, the form of which is remi-niscent of Wadi Suq beakers and is thus certainly an intrusive find (Fig. 105: 5). A number of soft stone vessles and fragments were also found, These include thick walled soft stone beaker is conical in shape and bears incised decoration consisting of a series of tri-angles filled with diagonal lines in between double horizontal lines at the top of the vessel with a sin-gle line just over the rounded base (Fig. 105: 6). This vessel recalls examples from both Wadi Qwar in Ras al-Khaimah and ‘Ibri/Selme in Oman (Phillips 1987, Fig. 24: 7; Yule and Weisgerber 2001, Pl. 46: 523).


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Fig. 102: Iron Age materials from Tomb BHS 23: Pottery bowl (1), bronze arrow heads (2-4) and bronze bangles (5-6).

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Fig. 103: Soft stone jewellery box (1) and vessels (2-5).

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Lids decorated with an incised flower shaped motif were also present (Fig. 105: 3-4). A bronze arrow head, carnelian beads and a large white stone discoid bead were also found (Fig. 105: 1-2).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 30.16283”, E 55° 47’ 39.17011”Plan and Architecture:Another rock shelter located immediately behind BHS 24 and situated approximately 50m above the Wadi. It is surrounded by rows of stones thus defining an area of 6m x 4m (Fig. 106).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Only a few human bones remains were found mixed with a small quantity of pot sherds and soft stone frag-ments all bearing Iron Age patterns seen on finds from other tomb at Jebel al-Buhais.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 24.97797”, E 55° 47’ 38.63907”

Plan and Architecture:This rock shelter, located about 15m to the west of BHS 24, also lies at approximately 50m above the Wadi. A stone wall was installed in front of the out-crop thus enclosing an area measuring some 1-1.5m x 2m. The wall is followed by another stone construc-tion encircling a natural depression (Figs. 107-108).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmented human bones were found mingled with animal bones and associated with a variety of mate-rial – as follows:

• A pyramidal shaped stamp seal made of greenish-black soft stone and pierced horizontally from the top for suspension. The face is engraved with the image of a bird - possibly an ostrich. (Figs. 109: 1; 110), (Jasim 2008).


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Fig. 105: Various objects from Tomb BHS 24.

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• Five bronze arrow heads (Fig. 109: 4-8), two of which bear incised marks on the lower mid rib (Nos. 5-6). • A socketed bronze Wadi Suq spear head (Fig. 109: 2) and a bronze/copper blade broken into pieces. • Jewellery represented by carnelian beads and a round perforated shell disc and (Figs. 109: 10). • A large quantity of pottery sherds and soft stone fragments. • A 28 cm long bronze dagger with incised marks on the lower mid rib of both faces (Figs. 109: 3; 111) that are reminiscent of those seen on the two bronze arrowheads described immediately above. With the exception of al-Qusais (Taha 2009, PL. 49: D) this type of weaponry has not been attested at any Iron Age sites in UAE, however it was recorded from the Selme hoard near Ibri in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber 200, Pl. 1: 7; Cleuziou & Tosi 2007, 291). A simi-lar bronze dagger with different incision patterns was outlined by Peter Magee (1998a, Fig. 7); this was originally purchased in Iran and is now in a private collection in Belgium however it is believed to be of a southeast Arabian origin (Magee, ibid. 9).


Date: Iron AgeCo-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 24.69836”, E 55° 47’ 37.97166”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 27 lies opposite BHS 26 on the other side of the Wadi but at a higher location. It is comprised of irregular stone arrangements that are piled up in close proximity to each other to form graves (Fig. 112).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The tomb yielded human skeletal remains in rather fragmented condition. These were mixed with a large variety of materials including soft stone bowls, pot-tery sherds, bronze arrow heads, and a short sword (Fig. 113).

There was an abundance of plain pottery sherds, as well as some complete and almost complete vessels (Fig. 114: 1-4) including both long spouted (Fig. 114: 1) and short spouted vessels (Fig. 114: 2): the former is similar to an example from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 20: F), while the latter recalls one from Hili 2 (Ur-Rahman 1978/79, Fig. 4: 4). Fig. 114: 3 shows a deep sided inwardly ridged bowl which, with its very sim-ple pinched spout, is reminiscent of examples from Rumeilah 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 45: 1) and Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 8: 17).

Soft stone vessels, lids and fragments are both nu-merous and diverse in form and decoration (Fig. 115: 1-4). Of particular interest is a beautifully decorated small carinated vessel (Fig. 115: 1) bearing incised decoration consisting of a band of dotted circles alter-nating with vertical jagged lines running between


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Fig. 109: Stamp seal (1), socketed bronze spear head (2), decorated dagger (3), bronze arrow heads (4-8), beads (9) and perforated shell disc (10).

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Fig. 110: Stone stamp seal.

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two parallel lines on its shoulder. A panel filled with a herring bone design encircles the vessels around its carination while the lower half is decorated with gadroons that meet a saw tooth line just above the flat base. This vessel was found associated with its lid which is decorated with a rosette pattern with dotted circles on each petal. This vessel has no parallel so far from any of the Iron Age sites in the Oman Peninsula however it can be matched to a similar example from BHS 30 (Figs. 125: 5; 126). The other small carinated vessel found at BHS 27 (Fig. 115: 2) is also unique. The beaker seen in Fig. 115: 3 - with its slightly con-cave walls and incised decor arranged within two pan-els that are bordered by triple lines - is reminiscent in form to an example from ‘Ibri/Selme in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber, 2001. Pl. 47: 528) and also recalls an incomplete vessel from the “honey comb” cemetery at Bawshar in Oman (Yule 1999, Fig. 9: B25). The truncated, conical shaped vessel (No. 4) is decorated with a corrugated zigzag lying between two separated panels and recalls one from ‘Ibri/Selme (Yule and Weisgerber 2001, Pl.47: 527). Plain pottery vessels including spouted bowls were also found.

Metal weaponry is represented by a number of bronze arrow heads (Fig. 116: 1-11), and a particu-larly interesting double edged short sword or dagger

Fig. 111: Long bronze dagger and bronze arrow heads in situ, Tomb BHS 26.

with a flanged hilt and crescent shaped pommel (Fig.117: 1). The dagger is almost identical to one found at Ru-meilah (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 63:4) and also resembles examples from Cairn 20 at Jebel Hafit, Qidfa (Potts 1998, 193), al-Qusais (Taha 2009, 119), Saruq al-Hadeed (Al-Khreisha and Al-Nashif 2007, Fig. 17) and the ‘Ibri/Selme hoard (Yule and Weisger-ber 2001, Pl. 2: 20-22). It also recalls daggers from a warrior grave at Nizwa (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, Fig. 327). Double edged short swords or daggers were cast with both blade and hilt as a single piece and are believed to have been used for close combat (Potts 1998, 193). An identical dagger was also found at BHS 30 (Fig. 127: 5). A badly deteriorated iron tool (knife/dagger) with rivets presumably for affixing the blade to the handle was also found.

The tomb also yielded personal adornments such as a silver earring (Fig. 117: 5), and a round convex shell with three holes in the middle which suggest that it might have been used as a button (Fig 117: 4) as does its resemblance to one shell button from Wadi Qwar (Phillips, 1987, Fig. 39: 1) and another one recently discovered at Tell Abraq in Sharjah2. Another small perforated shell disc might have also been used as a button (Fig. 117: 6). The presence of blue ochre

2 Access to the shell button at Tell Abraq was kindly provided by prof. Peter Magee to whom I’m indebted.

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Fig. 112: Plan and Section of rock shelter Tomb BHS 27.

Fig. 113: Soft stone vessels and fragmented skeletal remains inside Tomb BHS 27.

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Fig. 114: Pottery vessels from Tomb BHS 27.

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Fig. 115: Soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 27.

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Fig. 116: Bronze arrow heads from Tomb BHS 27.

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Fig. 117: Bronze dagger (1), bronze bangles (2-3), perforated shell (4), ear/nose ring (5), perforated shell disc (6).

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Fig. 118: Spouted open pottery bowls from Tomb BHS 27.

Fig. 119: Two heavy bronze bangles.

Fig. 120: Plan and section of rock shelter Tomb BHS 28. Fig. 121: Necklace consisting of twelve rectangular-shaped shell pieces and three round stone beads (1), long bronze arrowhead (2), flat bronze razor (3), small bone ring (4) and spouted soft stone bowl (5).

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pigment on other shell pieces indicates their use as cosmetic (probably eye shadow) implements. Of in-terest is the presence of a couple of heavy bronze anklets with incised decoration around the open ends (Figs. 117: 2-3; 119). Similar items were found at BHS 23 Rumeilah and Qidfa (Potts 1991, 383) and a significant number were yielded from the ‘Ibri/Selme hoard (Yule and Weisgerber 2001).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 23.61038”, E 55° 47’ 38.26948”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 28 lies about 4m above the adjacent Wadi. It is situated to the west of BHS 27 and opposite BHS 26, both of which are located on the other side of the Wadi. It consists of a simple stone formation erected in front of the natural outcrops (Fig. 120).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Very few fragmented human bone remains were found associated with a necklace consisting of twelve small, flat and thin pieces of rectangular stone beads (Fig. 121: 1). Soft stone vessels are also present including a spouted one decorated with a chevron pattern on the upper part around the spout and vertical lines encir-cling the lower body (Fig. 121: 5). This vessel resem-bles examples from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Figs. 23: 3; 25: 9; 28: 17) and one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 57: E).

Metal artefacts include two bronze arrow heads, one of them measuring 10.5cm (Fig. 121: 2), and an al-most square, flat copper/bronze blade or razor that ex-pands along its cutting edge (Fig. 121: 3). The latter is reminiscent of one found at Shimal Tomb 6 (De Cardi 1988, Fig.14:7-9) and recalls pieces from tombs BHS 2, BHS 3, BHS 6, BHS 16, BHS 28, BHS 30, BHS 37, BHS 66 and BHS 79).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 25.84668”, E 55° 47’ 38.63740”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is situated 10m above BHS 26 and lies op-posite BHS 27 in the same side of the Wadi. It con-sists of a natural outcrop surrounded by few courses of stones (Fig. 122).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The tomb yielded a small quantity of skeletal remains which were found in very bad condition in association with a few pot sherds and some soft stone fragments. A small bone ring was also found (Fig. 121: 4).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 25.37157”, E 55° 47’ 38.13791”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 30 was found in close proximity to BHS 26 on the slope of the Jebel overlooking the adjacent Wadi. It consists of irregular formations of stones that make up a large burial chamber measuring about 1.5m in length and 1.5m-2m in width (Fig. 123).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The skeletal remains that were found scattered inside the chamber were in a fragmentary condition (Fig. 124). A large number of various other finds were also present.

Steatite vessels of various sizes and shapes bearing beautiful incised decoration were found. These include open mouthed, flat based, spouted bowls (Fig. 125: 1-2). Fig. 125: 1 shows one bearing incised decoration consisting of three rectilinear lines just below the upper rim and a band of gadroons inter-rupted by a vertical row of cross-hatches around the body. The example shown in Fig, 125: 2 is decorated with a cross-hatched band below the rim and a band of gadroons around the body. These vessels are simi-lar to ones from BHS 28 (Fig. 121: 5) and are closely comparable with examples from other tombs at Jebel al-Buhais, as well as other Iron Age Sites in UAE and Oman. Other vessels include an open-mouthed high sided bowl (Fig. 125: 3) bearing horizontal cross-hatches

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below the rim, triangle shapes that are filled with three horizontal saw tooth lines and two horizontal lines above the base. A vessel with a carinated body and upper half decorated with a band of almond shapes while its middle is encircled with a herring bone pat-tern and its lower half with a band of multiple elon-gated rectangles is of particular interest (No. 5). This vessel can be closely matched with one from BHS 27 (Fig. 115: 1). It is interesting to note that the two vessels shown in Fig. 126 were found in association with their lids both of which are identically decorated although different in size; the knobs on both these vessels bear a double flower shaped pattern. A cop-per/bronze bowl with a flat base and thick, out flared rim was uncovered along with another small bowl in a rather poor condition (Fig. 127: 1).

Other metal artefacts include a bronze Dagger (Fig. 127: 5) which is identical to one from BHS 27 (Fig.117:1) and recalls examples from other related sites like Jebel Hafit, Rumeilah, Gidf’ and al-Qusais in UAE and other sites in Oman. Also two bronze ban-gles weighing 937g and 925g respectively and deco-rated with deep incisions around the open ends (Fig. 127: 6-7); these are similar to bangles/anklets found at BHS 23 (Fig.102: 5-6) and BHS 27 (Fig.117: 2-3) and further recall examples from other related Iron

Fig. 124: Various finds in situ, Tomb BHS 30.

Age sites in the UAE and Oman Peninsula. A pair of gold earrings that were found (Fig. 127: 3-4) is simi-lar to gold examples from BHS 27 (Fig. 117: 5) and silver ones from BHS 8 and BHS 9.

A rectangular bronze blade or ‘razor’ that expands toward its cutting edge (Fig. 127: 2) that was found recalls similar pieces found at BHS 2 (Fig. 18), BHS 3 (Fig. 36: 7), BHS 16 (Fig. 84: 2), BHS 28 (Fig.121: 2) and also recalls examples from tomb BHS 37 (Fig. 149: 17), BHS 66 (Fig. 210: 13) and BHS 79 (Fig. 269: 8). Also uncovered were twenty bronze arrow heads which – with the exception of one decorated with incised row of Xs on the flat mid rib (Fig. 128: 1 -20) - have close parallels at al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pls. 42-45), Rumeilah, Periods 1 & 2 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 62), Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 37) and other sites in the Oman Peninsula.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 25.55145”, E 55° 47’ 37.34705”

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Fig. 125: Variety of soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 30.

Fig. 126: Two soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 30 (left) and Tomb BHS 27 (right).

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Fig. 127: A variety of metal objects from Tomb BHS 30: Bronze bowl (1), bronze/copper razor (2), ear/nose rings (3-4), dagger (5) and bronze bangles (6-7).

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Fig. 128: A variety of bronze arrow heads from Tomb BHS 30.

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Fig. 131: Soft stone vessel (Fig. 130: 1) in situ, Tomb BHS 31.

Fig. 130: Soft stone vessel decorated with bird and fish motifs (Recon-structed) (1), barrel-shaped soft stone beaker with four perforated lugs for suspension (2), decorated lid (3) and pottery bowls (4-5) from Tomb BHS 31.

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Plan and Architecture:This tomb was found opposite BHS 30, at a distance of about 30m and at a lower position on the slope of the Jebel. It is a large space formed by the arrange-ment of large stones in front of a natural outcrop (Fig. 129).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmented human bone remains were found scat-tered inside the burial chamber. These were associat-ed with a variety of finds such as bronze arrow heads, bronze rings, pottery bowls, and soft stone vessels.

Two pottery bowls were present (Fig. 130: 4-5): No. 4 is a coarse hand-made ware simply decorated with an impressed row of short, vertical strokes running around the outer rim and similar strokes arranged in five rows on the body to create an alternating pattern. No parallel can be sited for this vessel. Bowl No.5 is a plain, wheel-made pottery bowl which is almost identical to one from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 8: 17).

Of special interest is a large, cylindrical, soft stone beaker bearing incised decoration arranged within two panels: the upper panel is decorated with a bird

motif - probably depicting a fan-tailed peacock - while the lower one bears depictions of fish (Figs. 130: 1; 131). A decorative fish also adorns the knob of a soft stone lid that is otherwise decorated with two rows of incised dotted circles (Fig. 130: 3). Another nota-ble item is a barrel shaped steatite beaker (Figs. 130: 2; 132) with a ring base that has two round holes in alignment with two of the four pierced round lugs just below the upper rim thereby enabling a suspension string to be fully supported at both sides of the ves-sel. The entire body bears incised decoration: a zigzag pattern encircles the area between the lugs; the middle of the vessel is decorated with large triangles filled with zigzags and the lower part of the body bears double dotted smooth lined circles surrounded by a jagged lined circle and is bordered by four horizontal lines from above and below. No parallels are currently available for these two vessels however the second beaker is somehow reminiscent to one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 30: B i).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 27.85693”, E 55° 47’ 46.17183”

Plan and Architecture:Located next to BHS 31 on a low position of the slope, BHS 32 is a large natural outcrop surrounded by sizeable stone blocks that form what looks like a wall (Fig. 133).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Large quantities of fragmented skeletal remains were uncovered from all over the floor of the burial cham-ber. Large quantities of funerary items were also present. Of particular interest is a collection of soft stone bowls and lids in a variety of shapes and beauti-fully decorated with incised geometric motifs (Figs. 134: 1-12; 135: 1-8; 136: 1-7). Of interest are vessels which are characterized by a sharply carinated body. Fig. 134: 5 shows one with a flat, wide and broad rim that has bands of triple parallel diagonal lines zigzag-ging across it and three parallel diagonal lines just be-low it; a band of triple diagonal lines zigzags around the shoulder and a narrow band of four horizontal lines encircle the carinated middle while a row of ver-tical lines adorns the lower part of the body. Another distinctive carinated vessel with extremely sharp

Fig. 132: Soft stone vessel, Tomb BHS 31.

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carination at the middle and flat raised base is decorat-ed with parallel vertical lines covering the entire body and a single horizontal line encircling the base (Fig. 134: 7).This shape of this vessel is closely compara-ble to one from BHS 84 (Fig. 283: 2) and one from Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Lombard 1982: Fig. 4: 15) however the decor varies. Soft stone vessels with sharply cari-nated bodies were also reported from Rumeilah Pe-riod 2 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 60: 6-7).

Two examples of truncated conical shaped vessels were found alongside several fragments. Of interest is a small vessel bearing three deeply incised horizontal parallel lines just below the rim; the body is deco-rated with a band of pedant triangles comprised of a series of tiny incisions which alternate with a band of standing triangles formed by succession of rectan-gular shapes (Fig. 134: 11). The decoration of this vessel is unique and has no parallel at other Iron Age sites so far. The second truncated cone shaped vessel is decorated with two horizontal lines below the rim followed by a band containing a herring bone pattern; the lower body contains a wide panel filled with mul-tiple diagonal lines alternating with vertical saw tooth lines (Fig. 134: 12). This recalls examples from Tomb H at Hili (Ur-Rahman 1978/79, Fig. 8: 3), Fashgha 1 (Phillips 2009, Fig. 30: 26), Qarn Bint Sa’ud, al-Qusais (Lombard 1982, Fig. 3: 10-12; Taha 2009, Pl. 32: C) and Asimah (Vogt 1994, Fig. 42: 7).

Other vessels found include open mouthed examples - with either slightly pointed bases and restively broad flat rims bearing a herring bone design and a band of gadroons around the body (Fig. 134: 4), or with flat bases and simple rims adorned with a variety of rectilinear lines, herring bones, gadroons and vertical parallel lines (Fig. 134: 2, 3, 8, 10). Of special inter-est is a small deep sided bowl with simple decoration consisting of two horizontal lines just below the rim and cross shaped designs on the body (Fig. 134: 1). A spouted vessel was also found (Fig. 134: 9).

Decorated lids are numerous, all bear incised deco-ration consisting of parallel diagonal lines radiating from the base of the handle to the edge of the rim; the tops of the knobs are similarly decorated (Figs. 135-136). These lids resemble examples from other Iron Age sites in the region. Other finds include various carnelian beads, three bronze arrow heads (Fig. 137: 4-6) and interestingly a silver nose/earring found in close proximity to a skull thus indicating its use as a personal adornment (Fig. 137: 1-3).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 29.07190”, E 55° 47’ 46.56309”

Plan and Architecture:This shelter lies just behind BHS 9 and across the Wadi from BHS 10. It is comprised of a fairly long wall formed with medium sized random stones that are erected along a distance of some 9m x 4.5m against the natural slope (Fig. 138).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The tomb yielded a few skeletal remains in a frag-ile condition. These are associated with pottery ves-sels including a hemispherical bowl decorated with a painted cross-hatched pattern on the upper part of the body (Fig. 139: 2). This bowl is reminiscent of one from Rumeilah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lom-bard 1985, Pl. 49: 17), and another from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 18: 11). It is also similar in form to one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 18: E). A plain high sided bowl that was found (Fig. 139, 3) recalls one from Shimal 1 (Vogt 1987, Fig. 3: 3).

Soft stone vessels include a lid decorated with dotted circles on the upper face and provided with a high cylindrical nub bearing incised chevrons (Fig. 139: 4). This lid is probably from an earlier date and re-calls examples from Shimal Tomb 6 (de Cardi 1988, Fig.13), Kalba (Phillips 1996, Fig. 14: 4) and Bidya 5 (Al-Tikriti 1989, PLS. 68: E; 89: A, B). Also found was a spouted steatite bowl (Fig. 139: 5) which is sim-ilar in both shape and decoration to examples from other Iron Age sites such (Taha 2009, Pls. 29 D, 31 D, 57 E), Tomb H at Hili (Ur-Rahman 1978/79, Fig. 8: 4) and Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1989, Pl. 35 A). A small bronze arrow head was also found (Fig. 139: 1).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 28.96640”, E 55° 47’ 45.85523”

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Fig. 135: Variety of soft stone lids from BHS 32.

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Fig. 136: Variety of soft stone lids from BHS 32.

Fig. 137: Variety of beads (1-2), ear/nose ring (3) and bronze arrow heads (4-6).

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Fig. 139: Bronze arrow head (1), painted pottery bowl (2), plain pottery bowl (3), soft stone lid (4) and soft stone vessel (5) from Tomb BHS 33.

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Plan and Architecture:BHS 34 is a rock shelter tomb created by a stone wall construction placed in front of a natural outcrop on the slope behind BHS 33 (Fig. 140).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsThis rock shelter appears to have been subjected to heavy destruction and looting indicated by the few fragmented human bone remains that were found to-gether with the small number of pot sherds and frag-ments of soft stone vessels. A single, large, white stone, oval shaped bead was also found.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 28.18372”, E 55° 47’ 39.84421”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 35 lies at a higher altitude above BHS 34 and consists of a natural outcrops surrounded by a stone wall (Fig. 141).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:This tomb appears to have been subjected to a great deal of destruction and content deprivation and there-fore yielded only a few fragmentary bone remains mixed with a handful of pot sherds and soft stone fragments.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 13.67156”, E 55° 47’ 29.40844”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 36 is a small rock shelter with a depth of 1m. It is blocked by large stones (Figs. 142-143).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The skeletal remains of an individual laid in flexed position were found inside the chamber however no associated material was uncovered.


Date: Bronze Age / Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 12.28915”, E 55° 47’ 31.41542”

Plan and Architecture:This is a U-shaped subterranean tomb measuring 3.7m in length and 5.3m in width. It is comprised of six to seven stone courses extending to a depth of 1.1m be-low ground level (Figs. 144-145).

Located at the south-eastern side, access to the tomb is via a small protruding corridor (0.56m wide and 0.8m long) which is provided with an interior stone sill. This entrance was blocked from the outside by a large, heavy stone (Fig. 146).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Found on the gravel covered floor of the burial cham-ber were human remains associated with numerous classic Wadi Suq materials. Wadi Suq pottery includes painted beakers (Fig. 147: 1-4) that resemble examples from other Wadi Suq sites in the area such as Shimal, Kalba and Bidya. Fig. 147: 2 is comparable to exam-ples from Site 1 at Shimal (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 3: 13), Shimal SH 99 (Schutkowski and Herrmann 1987, Fig. 32: 1), SH 103 (Vogt and Velde 1987, Fig. 23: 8) and Bidya 1 (Al-Tikriti, Pl. 64: a). Fig. 147: 4 recalls a beaker from Kalba 3 (Phillips 1996, Fig. 8: 5) and Site 2 at Shimal (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 4: 19). It is also reminiscent of a beaker from Tomb BHS 8 (Fig. 54: 10).

Among other items uncovered were pottery jars, bowls, steatite containers, bronze tools, carnelian beads and two gold beads. The wide mouthed Iron Age pottery bowl with a projected ring base bears incised deco-ration consisting of concentric circles encircling the body just below the rim and vertical strokes around the lower part of the vessel (Fig. 147: 5). There is no known parallel example to this bowl.

Among the items uncovered were soft stone vessels, bronze tools, carnelian beads and two gold beads. Also present was an Iron Age wide-mouthed soft grey pottery bowl with a projected ring base (Fig. 147: 5). This bowl was decorated with incised concentric cir-cles arranged in horizontal row just below the outer rim and a fluted petal pattern across the entire external

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surface. No parallel example has been reported from any site so far, however the incised decoration recalls painted decor on a fine red ware from Rumeilah Pe-riod 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 50: 7-8). A small globular jar with a short narrow neck and out flared rim (Fig. 147: 6) is reminiscent of one from Sa-mad assemblage (Vogt 1984, Fig. 1: 3), though differ-ing in the shape of the base.

The presence of Wadi Suq materials on the original burial floor strongly indicates that the tomb belongs to this period thus shedding further light on a struc-turally comparable tomb found at Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 5); it had been assumed that the Fashgha 1 tomb was of Iron Age date (Phillips 1987; Potts 1990, Fig. 38: a) however the evidence from Tomb BHS 37 suggests that it may be more appropriately dated to the Wadi Suq period.

The soft stone vessels and lids which were found are all decorated with dotted circles and multiple rectilinear



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and diagonal lines similar to other vessels from early Wadi Suq sites (Fig. 148: 1-4). Fig. 148: 3 is a trun-cated vessel a with conical shaped body and four ver-tically pierced small lugs; it is decorated with a row of dotted circles between two horizontal lines on the upper half and with incised diagonal lines on lower half of the body. This vessel has a close parallel in one from Shimal (De Carde 1971, Fig. 51) and is compa-rable to examples from Wadi Suq (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 24 b), al-Qusais (Taha 2009: Pl. 29 A), Shimal SH 103 (Vogt and Velde 1987, Fig. 25: 5, 6) and SH 99 (Kast-ner and Vogt 1987, Fig. 33: 4-5). It also resembles vessels from Shimal Tomb 6 (De Cardi 1988, Fig. 12: 9), Kalba K3 (Phillips 1996, Fig. 13: 7) and Khor Fak-kan (Jasim 2000, Fig. 39: 2, 4). Although this type of soft stone vessel is generally regarded as peculiar to the United Arab Emirates examples have also been re-ported from Khudra and Wadi Suq in Oman and even Failaka and in west Iran (Haser 1990, 46). A thick walled rounded vessel bearing bands of dotted circles alternating with parallel horizontal lines on the up-per body and diagonal parallel lines across the lower half (Fig. 148: 4). This vessel recalls an example from Khor Fakkan (Jasim 2000, Fig. 39: 7).

Metal artefacts are represented by copper rings (Fig. 149: 1-9, 19-20), a nail (Fig. 18) and a thin, Celt-like razor blade (Fig. 17). The latter piece resembles a

copper razor from Bidya 5 (Al-Tikriti 1989: Pl. 89: E) and a copper alloy blade from Tomb 6 at Shimal (de Cardi 1988, Figs. 4: 6; 14: 8). This type of tool was also attested at BHS 2, BHS 3, BHS 6, BHS 16, BHS 28, BHS 30, BHS 37, BHS 66 and BHS 79.

Items of personal adornment such as carnelian, stone beads, and shell rings were also found (Fig. 149: 1, 10-12, 14-15) together with cowry shells (Figs. 13; 16).


Date: Bronze Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 14.05094”, E 55° 47’ 30.96257”

Plan and Architecture:This is an oval shaped subterranean burial chamber built from seven stone courses occupying a depth of 0.9m. It measures 2.5m x 10.10m and is roofed with large stone slabs as indicated by one measuring 1m x 0.5m x 0.2m that was found fallen inside the burial chamber. No entrance to the chamber was detected (Figs. 150-151).


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Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A small quantity of fragmentary skeletal remains was found scattered on the floor of the burial chamber. The remains were associated with a variety of mate-rial including pottery sherds, soft stone bowls and a pair of conjoined, socketed bronze spear heads (Figs. 152, 153: 4) which may be interpreted as representing ritualistic activity (Jasim, 2011). Personal adornments such as stone beads, carnelian beads and a small, twisted gold coil were also present (Fig. 153: 1-3).

Subsidiary Tombs:A small secondary burial was found attached to the western side of the main burial chamber. This takes a form of an irregular pit that is covered with pieces of stone. Some bone remains and a scarce amount of material such as pottery sherds and fragments of soft stone vessels were found inside the pit. All associated material is of an Iron Age date.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 14.31541”, E 55° 47’ 31.42221”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 39 consists of a series of three defined areas, each of which is enclosed by a stone wall thus creating a series of burial places alongside a natural outcrop of the Jebel (Fig. 154).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:In common with the other rock shelter tombs this one was found to have been badly disturbed; very few fragmented skeletal remains were found inside the three burial chambers and grave goods were totally absent with the exception of some pottery sherds and soft stone fragments. A single, small, barrel shaped carnelian bead was also present (Fig. 157: 5).

A fire place full of heavily brunt ashes was found nearby. Fire installations associated with rock shelter tombs may be interpreted as ritualistic behaviour.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 14.57084”, E 55° 47’ 32.06904”

Fig. 146: Entrance to the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 37.

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Fig. 147: Wadi Suq pottery beakers (1-4), incised pottery bowl (5) and small rounded Jar (6).

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Fig. 148: Wadi Suq soft stone vessels and a lid from Tomb BHS 37.

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Fig. 151: The burial chamber inside Tomb BHS 38 after excavation.

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Fig.

152

: A p

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f bro

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insi

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Fig. 153: Variety of stone beads (1-3) and two bronze spearheads (Fig. 152).

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Plan and Architecture:This tomb – which lies just above BHS 32 at a higher altitude – is characterized by the presence of a size-able outcrop which forms an ideal burial place (Figs. 155-156).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary offerings:Fragmented skeletal remains were found associated with various artefacts including steatite bowls and lids. Noteworthy is the truncated, hole-mouthed coni-cal vessel with four small projected lugs distributed equally at its middle and decorated with two rows of dotted circles that are separated by multiple horizon-tal lines, a panel of diagonal lines between the lugs and another set of straight horizontal lines above the base (Fig. 157: 1). This is clearly a Wadi Suq ves-sel and resembles one from the type site of Wadi Suq (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 24: 24b) as well as examples from Shimal Tomb 6 (De Cardi 1988, Fig. 12: 4, 5, 9) and one from BHS 37 (Fig. 148: 3). Another truncated, conical bowl bearing seven parallel diagonals on its body (Fig.157: 2) is reminiscent of examples from al-Qusais, Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Lombard 1982, Fig.3: 8-12) and Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987: Figs. 24: 7; 30: 36) as well as examples from BHS 23 (Fig. 103: 2-5) and BHS 27 (Fig. 115: 4).

Soft stone lids were also found, one bearing radial in-cisions and edged with a circular saw tooth line; this example has a similarly decorated mushroom shaped knob on a high cylindrical handle (Fig. 157: 3). An-other soft stone lid of smaller size, bearing same sort of decor, was also present (Fig. 157: 4).

Metal artefacts include copper rings (Fig. 157: 5-6) and two arrow heads (Fig. 157: 9-10) that are simi-lar to ones from Rumeilah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 62: 5, 7). A copper alloy/bronze bracelet/anklet (Fig. 157: 11) found is almost identi-cal to a pair found in situ on the wrist of a female skeleton at the Wadi Suq of Tomb BHS 66 (Figs. 211: 3-4; 213). Similar anklets/bracelets were also found among the hoard of ‘Ibri/Selme in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber 2001, Pl. 2: 124).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 14.85597”, E 55° 47’ 32.16995”

Fig. 156: The burial chamber of rock shelter Tomb BHS 40.

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Fig. 157: Soft stone vessels (1-2), lids (3-4), bronze rings (5-6), bead (7), oval-shaped shell with two perforations (8), bronze arrow heads (9-10) and bronze/copper bracelet (11).

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Plan and Architecture:BHS 41 was found in close proximity to the east of BHS 39 and sits at the mid-distance between the lower slope and the peak of the Jebel. It consists of an almost rectangular shaped shallow pit that is surrounded by rows of small stones (Fig. 158). This simple tomb is reminiscent of BHS 5, BHS 7 and BHS 14.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmentary skeletal remains were found mingled with pottery sherds and fragments belonging to ste-atite bowls. Also found was a flat, almost oval shaped piece of stone and a slightly concave face with two small holes at its centre, probably for attaching to clothing (Fig. 157: 8).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 16.81507”, E 55° 47’ 35.41654”

Plan and Architecture:This is a prominent outcrop high on the Jebel that is

surrounded by large, east-facing stone blocks. It is situated next to BHS 40 (Figs. 159-160).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsVery few human bones remains were uncovered. These were mixed with a large quantity of pottery sherds and soft stone fragments. A single bead was also found (Fig. 162: 9). The majority of the tomb’s contents were probably plundered in antiquity.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.49927”, E 55° 47’ 34.85345”

Plan and Architecture:This is a large rock shelter measuring approximately 3m x 4m and surrounded by a well built stone wall (Fig. 161).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Skeletal remains in a fragile condition were found in association with a number of pottery sherds and soft


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Fig. 162: Stone stamp seal (1), four bronze arrow heads (2-5), bronze awl (6), stone beads (7-9), bronze spouted bowl (10) and soft stone vessel (11).

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Fig. 163: Stamp seal engraved with a bull motif from Tomb BHS 43.


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stone bowls. Of note is a nicely decorated soft stone vessel bearing an apparently floral motif executed in rocker stamping lines on its body and four sets of dou-ble horizontal lines just above the base (Fig. 162: 11).

Other finds include three bronze arrow heads (Fig. 162: 2-4); Fig. 4 recalls one from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1989, Pl. 24). Other bronze/copper objects include a copper awl (Fig. 162: 6), a small open mouthed spout-ed copper bowl (Fig. 162: 10) and various stone beads (Fig. 162: 7- 8). Of special interest is a stamp seal engraved with a bull motif (Figs. 162:1; 163; Jasim 2008).

BHS 44Type: Megalithic

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.65568”, E 55° 47’ 35.82858”Plan and Architecture:This tomb lies right in the middle of the Wadi bed opposite BHS 43. It is characterized by the presence of a huge free standing rock measuring1.8m in height

and 2m in width which is balanced naturally and en-circled by stone rows from its western, southern and eastern sides. The space between the stone rows and the standing rock serves as burial chamber (Figs. 164, 164a). The style and design of this burial place is as yet unprecedented within the region (Jasim 2009, 80) but is somehow reminiscent of Tomb BHS 13 at Jebel al-Buhais (Fig. 78).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Found inside the burial chamber were skeletal remains in fragmentary condition together with pot sherds, fragments of steatite bowls and a single bronze arrow head (Fig. 162: 5).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 26.84665”, E 55° 47’ 35.78568”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 45 consists of a series of stone walls which have

Fig. 164a: Close up view of Tomb BHS 44.

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Fig. 165: Plan of rock shelter Tomb BHS 45.

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Fig. 166: Glass vessels from Tomb BHS 45.

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been built around a large area of the foothill (Fig. 165).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A limited number of skeletal remains were found to-gether with a single soft stone lid. Three complete or almost complete glass vessels are of particular interest (Fig. 166: 1-3); these were seemingly been placed in the rock shelter during a period of reuse in a later date - probably the late Parthian/early Sasanian period.

BHS 46Type: Semi-Subterranean Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 35.47753”, E 55° 47’ 50.29274”

Plan and Architecture:A semi-circular burial chamber comprised of four stone courses occupying a depth of 1.4m and with no

corbelling to enable the placement of the roof. Roof-ing stones were probably positioned after the burial chamber had been filled with soil; some were found where they had fallen inside the burial chamber (Figs. 167 - 168).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A limited amount of skeletal remains were found in association with pottery sherds and a collection of various beads. Of particular interest is the discovery of an iron dagger however this was in a very poor condition. This dagger represents the second discov-ery of iron materials after Tomb BHS 27.

BHS 47Type: Above-Ground Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 35.28022”, E 55° 47’ 49.36131”


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Plan and Architecture:This tomb takes the shape of simple, shallow burial cist with a depth of 0.4m and is reminiscent of tombs BHS 5, BHS 7, BHS 14 in its simplicity. The burial area is surrounded by a single row of stones (Fig. 169).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A handful of pottery sherds and soft stone vessel frag-ments were found in association with bone splinters.

BHS 48Type: Rock-Shelter Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 37.53162”, E 55° 47’ 49.13407”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 48 is located at the very top of the Jebel and con-sists of high natural outcrops surrounded by a semi

circular stone wall, apparently arranged to create a space for use as a burial chamber (Fig. 170)

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The skeletal remains found inside the tomb consisted of minute fragments. As far as associated materials are concerned, a small number of pottery sherds were present.Soft stone vessels were found in considerable number including some interesting pieces (Fig. 170) such as the open, out flared, high-walled bowl decorated with a band of squares containing diagonal lines encircling the vessel below the rim, and long vertical panels made up of parallel lines around the body (Fig. 171: 1). Soft stone bowls of this type were found at other tombs in Jebel al-Buhais, such as BHS 8 (Fig. 58: 2), BHS 10 (Fig. 64: 3, 8), BHS 12 (Fig. 73: 4), BHS 32 (Fig. 134: 3, 8, 10) and others. Open-spouted vessels were also present (Fig. 171: 2-3), one bearing slightly crooked parallel lines on the upper body and vertical diagonal lines around the centre that emerge from a horizontal line. The front part below the spout has been decorated with a typical Iron

Fig. 170: Rock shelter Tomb BHS 48.

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Age herringbone design that recalls examples from BHS 8 (Fig. 58: 3), BHS 9 (Fig. 62: 4-5), BHS 10 (Fig. 64: 1-2), BHS 28 (Fig. 121: 5), BHS 30 (Fig. 125: 1-2), BHS 32 (Fig.134: 9), BHS 33 (Fig. 139: 5) and others from tombs not yet outlined.

The second vessel (Fig. 171: 3) has slightly incurved sides and a relatively long spout with no front outlet. The middle is decorated with a panel bordered by dou-ble horizontal lines and filled with cross shapes while parallel diagonal lines encircle the lower body. This type of soft stone vessels is also known from several Iron Age sites in the region.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 37.32241”, E 55° 47’ 46.10249”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 49 is comprised of a single course of rough stones surrounding a semi-circular shallow cist that measures approximately 2m in diameter. A subsidiary grave was found on its northern side (Fig. 172).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A few pottery shards, fragments from soft stones vessels and stone beads were uncovered however no skeletal remains were found inside the tomb.

BHS 50Type: Above-Ground

Date: Bronze Age (Hafit period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 18.25563”, E 55° 47’ 31.85622”

Plan and ArchitectureBHS 50 is a Hafit type cairn burial chamber that is situated on the southern peak of the Jebel. The cir-cular shaped burial chamber is 1.4m in diameter, oc-cupies a depth of 0.5m and is surrounded by multiple rows of stones arranged in several courses above each other across a width of 1.6m. No entrance to the burial chamber can be detected (Figs. 173-174).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsFragmented skeletal remains associated with a few Wadi Suq pottery sherds, were found inside the burial chamber.


Date: Bronze Age (Umm an-Nar)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 18.41606”, E 55° 47’ 31.89325”

Plan and Architecture:This circular, above ground tomb measures some 4.5m in diameter and is situated at the top of the southern end of the Jebel, approximately 1.5m to the north of the last tomb.

The original plan of the tomb is similar to tombs BHS 67, BHS 69, BHS 71 and BHS 73 - all of which be-long to the Umm an-Nar period and are situated at the northern sector of the Jebel - however re-use is evidenced by the presence of Wadi Suq pottery sherds

144


145

Fig. 173: Hafit type Tomb BHS 50.

and more than one Iron Age burial. There is also evi-dence of heavy looting and sustained destruction at its north- eastern side, where the entrance might have lo-cated. The floor of the burial chamber was originally laid with stone paving, some of which is still present (Figs. 175-176).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:No skeletal remains were found in the original Umm an-Nar burial chamber, however fragmentary remains were found associated with a number of classic Wadi Suq pottery sherds possibly including a hemispheri-cal, fine red bowl painted in black triangles or a cross hatched hour glass pattern alternating with multiple vertical bands (Fig. 185:4). It has been suggested that this type of decor is only seen among the Sunaysil sherds however the cross hatched hour glass decora-tion was also seen on a globular jar from Tomb BHS 8 (Fig. 53: 9) (Frifelt 1975a, 380). Soft stone fragments, all decorated with the dotted circle motif typical of the Wadi Suq Period, were also found. Of special interest is the shallow, almost circular Iron Age burial pit found just below the original floor at the eastern end of the tomb (Figs. I76-177). The pit,

which is approximately 1.2m in diameter, housed a number of skeletal remains; one individual was laid in a flexed position facing south, and accompanied by thirty one bronze arrow heads (Figs. 178-179). A flat, rectangular shaped, dark stone slab which might have been used for grating or polishing, or possibly as a whetstone, was also present as was a single bronze nail (Fig. 188: 7). An iron tool was found immediately in front of the individual’s face in this burial; this is the third important discovery involving iron material, after BHS 27 and BHS 46.

Subsidiary Graves A secondary burial was found at the northern end of the main burial chamber within a long chamber meas-uring 2.2m x 0.8m. No skeletal remains were found however some Iron Age sherds were present.

BHS 52 – 55Type: Above Ground Tombs

Date: Bronze Age/Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 18.62352”, N 55° 47’ 31.84899”

146


147


148

Fig. 177: Iron Age burial with bronze arrow heads in situ, inside Tomb BHS 51.


149

Fig. 178: Variety of bronze arrow heads from Tomb BHS 51.

Fig. 179: Bronze arrow heads from BHS 51, discovered in association with an Iron Age burial.

150

Fig. 180: General view showing Tombs BHS 52-55 on the southern peak of Jebel al-Buhais.

151

Fig. 181: Plan and section of Tombs BHS 52-55

Fig. 182: Plan and section of Tombs BHS 56-58.

152

Plan and Architecture:This is a cluster of four connected tombs built directly on the peak of the Jebel at its southern end. No obvi-ous entrance could be detected (Figs. 180-181).

This series of tombs were probably constructed dur-ing the Hafit Period and continued to be used during subsequent periods. Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsVery few skeletal remains in fragmentary condition were found together with a limited amount of Wadi Suq sherds within the tombs. BHS 54 yielded only Iron Age items.

BHS 56 – 58Type: Above Ground Tombs


Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.11379”, E 55° 47’ 31.88443”

Plan and ArchitectureThis large complex of three tombs is located on the southern peak of Jebel al-Buhais at approximately 225m above sea level (Fig. 182). BHS 56 consists of an irregularly shaped, shallow burial chamber while that of BHS 58, which lies immediately to its north, is oval shaped.

It is evident that this complex was constructed dur-ing the Iron Age on and around tomb BHS 57 which lies to the west of BHS 56 and 58 and has a common separation wall. BHS 57 is the largest in the complex and was modified at later date to form a cross-shaped burial chamber measuring 4.1m x 0.9m with a depth of 0.6m.

The three tombs are embedded within an overall stone complex and are surrounded by original multiple rows of stones, reminiscent of Hafit type constructions at Jebel al-Buhais (BHS 50, BHS 51, BHS 52-55, BHS 64 and BHS 89).

Subsidiary Grave BHS 56aThis is situated to the southern end of the complex and yielded fragmentary bone remains mixed with some Iron Age sherds (Fig. 182).

The details of both BHS 57 and BHS 58 are out-lined in greater detail below.


Date: Bronze Age (Umm an-Nar Period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.31940”, E 55° 47’ 31.90514”

Plan and Architecture:Although intial excavation revealed a cross shaped plan, upon further investigation a circular Umm an-Nar type form became apparent. The dimensions of the circular tomb is approximately 6.5m in diameter (Figs. 183-184). The ring wall is comprised of three rows of irregularly shaped stones occupying some 1.2m in width. The survival height of the walls is 80cm above the original floor of the burial chamber which seems to have lost its original pavement.

The entrance, situated at the centre of the eastern side and measuring approximately 0.6m, leads through to a 1.2m long passage and then to the internal cham-ber where two almost facing stone partitions protrude from both the northern and southern sides. The south-ern partition is about 1m long and 0.5m wide, while the northern one is 2m long and 0.5m wide. The plan of this tomb is somehow reminiscent of tomb BHS 88 located at the northern sector of the Jebel.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsSome human bones in a fragmentary condition were found on the floor of the burial chamber. These were associated with a bronze knife/dagger with four holes on its lower part, presumably provided for affixing the blade to a wooden shaft by the rivets which were found still in situ (Figs. 187-188: 4). This knife is a typical Umm an-Nar artefact and is similar to exam-ples from BHS 88 (Fig. 309: 5), BHS 69 (Fig. 216: 1) and BHS 71 (Figs. 232-233) as well as others from other Umm an-Nar sites in the region.

Also found in the burial chamber was a small orange-brown pottery jar with a shapely carinated shoulder, bevelled rim and flat round base The external surface was exfoliated, thus no traces of painted decoration remained (Figs.185:1; 186). This type of Jamdat Nasr pottery is reminiscent of examples uncovered at other contemporaneous tombs in the UAE, Oman Peninsula (Frifelt 1975a and 1975b), Ras al-Jinz and Ras al-Hadd (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, 114). Vessels

153

Fig. 183: Um

m an-N

ar tomb B

HS 57.

154


155

Fig. 185: Jamdat Nasr type vessel (1), Umm an-Nar pottery bowls (2-3), Wadi Suq pottery Bowl (4) and a variety of beads and shells (5-9).

156

Fig 186: Pottery jar of Jamdat Nasr type in situ inside the burial chamber of BHS 57.

Fig. 187: Blade of an Umm an-Nar type dagger in situ, Tomb BHS 57.

157

Fig. 188: Variety of bronze artefacts.

of Jamdat Nasr type were also found in tombs at the Ilam cemetery in Pusht-i-Kun in Persia (Haenrick and Overlaet 2010, 282). An example was also found at Jebel al-Emalah not far away from Jebel al-Buhais however this has a rounded base with less carination at the shoulder (Benton and Potts 1995, Figs. 53-54).

Other finds from BHS 57 are an open mouthed pottery vessel with a globular body and concave shoulder, bearing zigzag lines on the upper half of the body; this may be classified as Umm an-Nar domestic ware (Fig. 185:3), however the painted bands of zigzags running between horizontal lines is often seen on examples from Wadi Suq sites like Shimal (Velde 2003, Fig. 2: 4), Hili (Cleuzio 1981, Fig. 4: 6) and Wadi Sunaysil (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 27e). A small pottery bowl (Fig. 185: 2) decorated with wide incised double zigzags between double horizontal lines was also found inside the burial chamber; this vessel is so far unmatchable in terms of form and decoration.

Metal artefacts are represented by a variety of items. Of interest is a bronze nail that is bent at the tip (Fig. 188: 7) and thus closely comparable to one from Jebel Hafit which has a similarly bent tip (Cleuziou 1967/77, 18). Two small bronze arrow heads were also found; one of which, at just over 2cm, is prob-ably the smallest Iron Age bronze arrow head found at Jebel al Buhais to date (Fig. 188: 1). Also present is a bronze blade with long T-shaped handle (Fig.188: 5).



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.30346”, E 55° 47’ 31.82821”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb was embedded next to BHS 57 within the complex (Fig.182). It has yielded a variety of Iron Age artefacts such as pottery, soft stone and bronze objects.

Finds include a short, triangular shaped dagger blade with two rivet holes at the end for the handle and a raised midrib (Figs.188: 6; 189) which resembles ex-amples found at Qattarah and Qarn Bint Sa’ud thus conferring an Iron Age date (Cleuziou 1981, Fig. 12, 288). Similar artefacts were also found in tombs at

al-Wasit and Wadi Bahlah in Oman (al-Shanfari and Weisgerber 1989, Pl.5: 2; Cleuziou & Tosi 2007, Figs. 283-284) and at tomb SH 600 in Shimal (Vogt 1998, 279). A comparable dagger was also yielded from BHS 66 (Fig. 217: 2).

A small leaf-shaped bronze arrow head was also found (Fig. 188: 2) as were a collection of various stone and shell beads, including examples made of golden foil (Fig. 185: 5-9).


Date: Probably Hafit (Reused)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.60432”, E 55° 47’ 31.71568”

Plan and Architecture:This cairn type tomb is surrounded by multiple rows of stones and is situated to the immediate north of the previous complex. The oval shaped burial chamber measures 1.5m x 1.1m and occupies a depth of 0.75m (Figs. 190-191).This tomb is reminiscent of BHS 50 and BHS 64 (Figs. 173; 200).

158

Fig. 189: Skeletal remains and a triangular-shaped dagger in situ.

159


160

Fig.

191

: Gen

eral

vie

w o

f Tom

b B

HS

59.

161

Fig. 192: General view

of rock shelter Tomb B

HS 60.

162

Fig. 193: Soft stone lids (1-2), bronze arrow heads (3-4), square shaped perforated shell (5), bronze/copper rings (6-7), socketed bronze spear head (8) and painted pottery jar (9).

163



164

Skeletal Remains and funerary OfferingsFragmentary skeletal remains - including a single tooth - and a handful of pottery sherds and soft stone fragments were found. Other items include a single bronze arrow head (Fig. 188: 3) and three bronze/cop-per sheets, folded over at one end and perforated with little hole at the other end, apparently for attaching to another objects (Fig. 188: 9-11).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 19.30346”, E 55° 47’ 31.82821”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is at high altitude on the western slope of the southern end of the Jebel, overlooking the west-ern plain. It lies slightly below Tombs BHS 50-59 and consists of stone arrangements set around natural outcrops which make it look like a small cave (Fig. 192).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmented bone remains, a decorated bronze arrow head and an open ended bronze ring were found (Fig. 193: 3, 6). Other finds include a square shaped piece of shell with a round hole in the middle; this was prob-ably used as a pendant or a bead (Fig. 193: 5).

BHS 61 Type: Subterranean Tomb

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq) Co-ordinates: N25° 00’ 54.12599”, E 55° 48’ 02.93289”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is located at the southern side of Jebel al-Buhais on a low mound overlooking the nearby valley to the east. Subterranean and semi-circular in shape, it is constructed with seven stone courses which reach a depth of 1.2m below ground. The entrance to the tomb is located on the eastern side. Access to the buri-als chamber is gained by stepping down through an opening that is flanked on either side by two vertical slabs placed on a large sill. A 1m wide buttress inside the burial chamber divides the space into almost equal corridors/sections (Figs. 194-195).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Two layers were encountered, the first of which con-stitutes the original floor of the burial chamber. In the southern section of this floor, nine skulls were uncov-ered (Fig. 196) in association with an abundance of Wadi Suq material, such as painted pottery, soft stone vessels and metal artefacts.

Finds include a large globular jar with painted bands of triple sinuous lines diagonally arranged to create triangular shapes on its upper half, a single horizontal line just below the rim and three lines on the body (Fig. 197: 4). This jar is reminiscent of other globular vessels from Site 1 at Shimal (Donaldson 1984, Figs. 7: 55; 8: 57) and SH 102 at Shimal (Vogt and Velde 1987, Fig. 13: 6-7, 9). The beaker shown in Fig. 197: 3, with its slightly rounded base and tapered flaring rim, is comparable to examples from Site 1 at Shi-mal (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 3: 4), Hili 8 (Cleuziou 78/1979, Pl. 34; 30), Tomb 6 at Shimal (De Cardi 1988, Figs. 5- 6) and Kalba 3 (Phillips 1996, Fig. 8: 6 – 1). Some carnelian beads were also present. The badly disturbed and possibly looted northern section of the burial chamber yielded no finds.

Soft stone artefacts are represented by vessel frag-ments and two complete lids; one with a long cy-lindrical handle decorated with short diagonal lines and bearing dotted circles arranged in two rows on the surface of the lid. One row surrounds the base of the handle and the other encircles the edge which also bears short diagonal strokes. More dotted circles are scattered in the space between the two rows. The top of the knob is decorated with a cross shape that divides the circle into four segments each of which contains a dotted circle (Fig. 197: 1). The other lid has a shorter handle which is encircled with two rows of dotted circles on the surface and the top of the knob bears radial incisions (Fig. 197: 2).

The second layer was uncovered at approximately 0.5m above the original floor. It yielded scattered skeletal remains with associated Iron Age materials including pottery sherds and a complete plain open mouthed bowl (Fig. 197: 7) which resembles exam-ples from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 78/1979, Pl. 39: 10), Ru-meilah Period 2 (Boucharlat & Lombard 1989, Pl. 53 :2) and Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1978, Fig. 12).

Metal artefacts are represented by two heavy bronze bangles that are decorated with a series of deep inci-sions around the ends (Fig. 197: 5-6). Similar bangles were also reported from BHS 23 (Fig. 102 : 5-6), BHS 27 (Fig. 117: 2-3), and BHS 30 (Fig. 127: 6-7).

165

Fig. 196: Skeletal remains in the southern burial chamber of Tomb BHS 61.

166

Fig. 197: A variety of Wadi Suq objects from Tomb BHS 61.

167

Fig. 198: Plan and section of Hafit type tomb BHS 62.

168

Fig. 199: Plan and section of Umm an-Nar Tomb BHS 63

169

BHS 62 Type: Above Ground Tomb

Date: Bronze Age (Hafit Type)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 54.89353”, E 55° 47’ 59.63108”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb lies at the top of the Jebel overlooking BHS 61 and consists of an irregularly shaped burial cist surrounded by multiple stone rows. It is reminiscent of the tombs in the complex BHS 56-58 and of BHS 64 and may therefore be a reused Hafit type tomb (Fig. 198).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Finds were limited to only a few skeletal remains found scattered inside the burial chamber.



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 58.33191”, E 55° 48’ 05.29957”

Plan and Architecture:Close together, on top of a low hill that integrates within the eastern slope of the northern part of Jebel al-Buhais, are two cairns which represent Tombs BHS 63 and BHS 64. BHS 63 is circular in shape with a diameter of approximately 2m. It has been heavily de-stroyed, however the lower parts of it have survived (Fig .199). There is clear evidence that the old tomb was re-used as indicated by the presence of the Iron Age materials.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Other than fragmentary bone remains, there was no trace of older material associated with the origi-nal burial. Other items include a bronze arrow head which was found driven into the lowest stone course on the western side of the burial chamber (Fig. 193: 4); the tip of the arrow head was oriented to the east, probably for ritualistic purposes. Decorated soft stone fragments of an Iron Age date were also found.



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 59.40374”, E 55° 48’ 05.39187”

Fig. 200: View of Hafit type Tomb BHS 64 before excavation.

170


Plan and Architecture:This circular cairn type tomb, which demonstrates Hafit type features, is located at the top of a low hill and in close proximity to Tomb BHS 63. It was con-structed with coarse stones arranged into a circular form measuring approximately 7m in diameter and rising to a height of 2m above ground. No definite access can be determined (Fig. 200).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The cairn is comprised of two irregularly shaped burial chambers (Fig. 201). A few skeletal remains, without any associated materials, were found inside the central chamber. The second chamber which was a later addition was located to the west and was com-pletely empty.

Found just outside the central chamber was the skel-eton of an adult male in a flexed position and facing west, with the skull orientated north wards (Fig. 202) (Uerpmann, et.al. 2006, 83). The location of this in-terment indicates that it post-dates the original con-struction of the circular tomb as does the presence of twelve Iron Age bronze arrow-heads (Fig. 203: 1-12)

and two bronze rings (Fig. 203: 13-14).

A trapezoid shaped, polished, steatite whetstone was also found (Fig. 194: 15). Whetstones were also yielded from various sites within the region such as BHS 88 (Fig. 320: 3), Grave 2 in Umm an-Nar (Frifelt 1991, Fig. 226), Tell Abraq and Jebel Emalah (Benton and Potts 1995, 58; Fig. 89). Two stone objects with side-perforation from Rumeilah that were interpreted as grinders are more probably also whetstones (Bou-charlat and Lombard 1985, 61; Pl. 64: 2-3).

BHS 65 Type: Above Ground Tomb

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 49.35092”, E 55° 48’ 04.97911”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is situated about 500m to the south of

171

Fig. 202: An articulated Iron Age burial at Tomb BHS 64.


172

Fig. 203: Iron Age bronze arrow heads (1-12), copper rings (13-14) and whetstone (15).

173


Fig. 206: Stamp seal from Tomb BHS 65.

174

sides with stylized animal and floral motifs (Fig. 206) (Jasim 2008, Fig. 10).

Metal objects were represented by a bronze ring (Fig 193: 7) and a socketed bronze spear head (Fig. 193: 8). A collection of carnelian beads were also present.



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 48.39157”, E 55° 48’ 04.44775”

Plan and Architecture: BHS 66 is located on the east of the northern area of Jebel a-Buhais. It had been totally concealed below ground and was consequently in a good state of preser-vation in terms of architecture and contents (Fig. 207).

BHS 61. It is a simple, rectangular burial chamber oc-cupying a depth of 0.5m, measuring 3m x 1.5m and comprising of stone courses, only three of which have survived. (Figs. 204-205). After the more sophisti-cated Tomb BHS 1, this is only the second Wadi Suq tomb to have been built above ground level.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings The tomb seems to have been subjected to looting and destruction on its northern side. Only a few bone frag-ments were present, however some interesting items were still present including pot sherds and an almost complete small jar with a globular body, short neck and out flared rim. This vessel was decorated with five wavy black bands around the shoulder. (Fig. 193: 9). Similar jars were found at BHS 6, BHS 12, BHS 65 and BHS 70 and other Wadi Suq sites in the region.

Also found were some soft stone fragments and two lids bearing a dotted circle decoration (Fig. 193: 1- 2). Most interesting is a stamp seal engraved on both

Fig. 207: Tomb BHS 66 before excavation.

175

Fig. 208: Tomb BHS 66 after excavation (view from West).

Fig. 209: Tomb BHS 66 (view from East).

176


177

Fig. 211: Tomb BHS 66 during the course of excavation, showing skeletal remains in the upper level.

Fig. 212: Skeletal remains of a female with a bronze/copper bracelet still in position on the wrist.

178

Fig. 214: Wadi Suq pottery from Tomb BHS 66.

Fig. 213: Skeletal remains and other finds inside the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 66.

179

Fig. 215: Wadi Suq soft stone vessels and lids from Tomb BHS 66.

180

This is a clover shaped tomb that is comprised of four almost circular, interconnected subterranean burial chambers (Fig. 208). The entrance, set in the eastern side, leads to a central passage through which access to the four chambers is provided (Figs. 209-210). The internal walls are made up of seven stone courses oc-cupying a depth of 1.3m below ground.

Chamber A is located at the south-west of the tomb and consists of two burial levels both dating to the Wadi Suq period. The upper level, which occupies a depth of 1m, contained two adult skeletons which had been placed in flexed positions on their left sides. The lower level is situated about 10cm beneath the upper level and yielded at least another two skeletons in a disturbed condition.

Chamber B is located in the north-west corner of the tomb. Again two burial levels were uncovered; the upper level is of an Iron Age date while the lower level belongs to the Wadi Suq period. The upper layer contained an adult female in a flexed position on her left side and accompanied by a child burial (Fig. 211). Another adult skeleton was uncovered in the lower layer.

Chamber C is located to the north east and again con-

sists of two levels. The upper level contained limbs from disturbed burials and a cranium which is thought to be female. Another skeleton found in this chamber had two bronze bracelets still in position on the wrists (Fig. 203). The upper level can be dated to the Iron Age while the lower level, which contained at least twelve individuals, belongs to the Wadi Suq period.

Chamber D, located at the south-east of the tomb, consists of three burial layers the uppermost of which belongs to the Iron Age and contained at least five adult burials. The second and third levels yielded a large number of adult male skeletons from the Wadi Suq period (Uerpmann, et.al. 2006, p. 84).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings The tomb was richly furnished with funerary offer-ings. The earliest level yielded a variety of items including numerous examples of Wadi Suq pottery (Fig. 214: 1-4). A deep, wide mouthed beaker with an everted rim and painted black decor consisting of parallel wavy bands on its upper half (Fig. 214: 3) is reminiscent of one at Hili 8 (Period 3) (Cleuzio 1989, Pl. 31: 2). It also resembles beakers from Site 1 at Shimal (Donaldson 1984, Figs. 3: 8; 5: 32), Shimal SH103 (Vogt and Velde 1987, Figs. 23: 17; 32: 2-5)

Fig. 216: Skeletal remains associated with pottery and metal objects inside the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 66.

181

Fig. 217: Bronze artefacts from Tomb BHS 66: Bowl (1), dagger blade (2) and spearheads (3-4).

182

Fig. 218: Bronze arrow heads bearing incised marks - Tomb BHS 66.

183

and an example from Bidya 1 (al-Tikriti 1989, Pl. 63: C).

Also found was a plain undecorated beaker (Fig. 214: 1), identical in form to the last example and closely comparable to one from Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig.12: 12). Comparable plain beak-ers were also yielded from Site 1 at Ras Al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 5), and Shimal Tomb 6 (De Cardi 1989, Fig. 6: 33, 38). Another find was a small plain jar with a discoid body, flat base and out flared rounded rim (Fig. 214: 2); this resembles one from Kalba although the latter has a slightly wider neck and a plain flat base (Phillips 1996, Fig. 6: B3). This type of vessel “can be found in contexts from both the first and the second Millennium BCE” (Phillips 1996: 9). Another plain, open mouthed bowl was also present (Fig. 214: 4). This also recalls examples from other Wadi Suq sites such as Shimal (Vogt and Kastner 1987: Fig. 32: 8) and Wadi Sunaysil (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 27f).

Soft stone vessels items are represented by a number of vessels and lids, all bearing the characteristic dot and circle motif of the Wadi Suq period (Fig. 215: 1-7). Of interest is the hemispherical, open mouthed, spouted bowl that is encircled by two parallel hori-zontals bands just below the rim beneath which runs a band of double dotted circles. The convex base is decorated with a star shaped pattern consisting of multiple diagonal incisions (Fig. 215: 1). This bowl is reminiscent of one from Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 14: 2), SH 103 (Vogt and Velde 1987, 25: 3, 4) however the Shimal examples bear no decoration on their external bases.

Another soft stone vessel of interest is one with a globular body and four vertically pierced small lugs; two rows of dotted circles run between double hori-zontal lines on the upper half of the vessel just above the lugs while multiple diagonal lines are incised on the lower half of the body (Fig. 215: 7). This vessel is very similar to one found at BHS 68 (Fig. 229: 1) and other related Wadi Suq sites such as Shimal (Velde 2003, Fig. 5: 1-2). The soft stone lids that were found are very similar to examples from other tombs at al-Buhais and other Wadi Suq sites such as Shimal, Bi-dya 1, Kalba and other sites (Fig. 215: 2-6).Metal artefacts were abundant; these include bronze/copper utensils such as the Fez-shaped bowl (Figs. 210, 217: 1); this is closely comparable to one from

Bidya 1 (al-Tikriti 1989, Pl. 72: D).

Weaponry such as socketed spear heads was also available (Fig. 217: 3-4); these recall specimens from BHS 2 (Fig. 16), BHS 3 (Fig. 39), BHS 38 (Fig. 153). As previously outlined, this type of weaponry seems to have been common throughout the Wadi Suq pe-riod. Other types of metal weaponry are represented by a collection of arrow heads, some of which bear incised marks on the lower mid rib (Fig. 218: 1- 6) and others which are undecorated (Fig. 219: 1-11). A triangular shaped dagger blade with rivet holes and rivets still attached to it was also found (Fig. 217: 2). This is reminiscent of one from BHS 58 (Fig. 188: 6) and resembles blades from other sites in the region.

Other finds include a tweezers (Fig. 219: 14) that is reminiscent of one from Qarn Bint Saud (Cleuziou 1976/77). Flat blades or razors were also present (Fig. 219: 12-13); one example is shaped like a double-axe which with its flat base and rounded cutting edge re-calls one found at BHS 16 (Fig. 84: 2), while another is Celt-like and closely comparable to one from BHS 30 (Fig. 127: 2). An array of similar razors was yield-ed from the tombs at Jebel al-Buhais, such as BHS 2 (Fig. 18), BHS 3 (Fig. 36: 7), BHS 16 (Fig. 84: 2), BHS 28 (Fig. 121: 2), BHS 30 (Fig. 127: 2) and BHS 37 (Fig. 149: 17). These objects are also common to other Wadi Suq and Iron Age sites within the region.

Personal adornments including carnelian beads and three golden beads were also found (Fig. 220: 5-7). Of special interest is a distinctive shell brooch decorated with double circles and inlaid with green carnelian (Figs. 220: 14; 221) which might have been used as a button and recalls similar objects from Shimal (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 18: 3-4). Also present is a round, polished shell object with three perforated holes in the middle probably for fixing to clothes or some other material (Fig. 220: 15); the last item is closely comparable to one from Fashgha 1 (Philips 1987, Fig. 39).

Other personal adornments include copper/bronze bracelets which were still in situ around the wrists (Figs. 220: 3-4; 222); these are comparable to one found at BHS 40 (Fig. 157: 11) and another at Shimal SH 102 (Vogt and Kastner 1987, Fig. 18: 9). Copper/bronze rings (Fig. 220: 8 - 13) and necklaces consist-ing of a variety of beads were also present (Fig. 220: 1-2).

184

Fig. 219: Variant bronze arrow heads (1-11), copper razors (12-13) and tweezers (14).

185


186

Fig. 221: Bone/ivory brooch decorated with incised double circles inlaid with coloured stones, Tomb BHS 66.

Fig. 222: Two bronze/copper bracelets from Tomb BHS 66.

187



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 47.42751”, E 55° 48’ 05.55366”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 67 is located at the northern part of Jebel al-Buhais, a short distance from BHS 66. It is circular in plan and measures approximately 9.3m in diam-eter (Figs. 223-224). There is evidence of severe de-struction to the central burial chamber however some original features - such as the partially in situ stone slab floor - have survived. No entrance was detected. Both the plan of the tomb and its contents denote an Umm an-Nar date.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsThe tomb was devoid of skeletal remains, pottery and soft stone. Other materials were however present in-

cluding bronze needles/ awls (Fig. 225: 3-4) and two large bronze tools (Fig. 225: 2-5) which are trapezoi-dal in shape with straight sides and sharply curved edges. Bronze tools, described as “blade axes” or “bar celts”, have been uncovered at sites in the Indus Val-ley and Anatolia; these can be dated to the 3rd Millen-nium BCE, and first half of the 2nd Millennium BCE. Examples have been found at the al-Moyassar site in the Omani Peninsula (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, Fig. 271), at the settlement of Umm an-Nar (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 46), inside a 3rd Millennium BCE tomb at Tell Abraq (Potts 2000: 75) and at Al and A2 in Asimah (Vogt 1994, Fig. 54: 5). The Omani examples are ex-clusively from Umm an-Nar assemblages and can be dated to the second half of the 3rd Millennium BCE (Vogt 1988, Pl. 125).

Subsidiary Graves:The presence of three or four burials embedded within the stone walls to the eastern side of the tomb suggests that this tomb was intensively reused during the Iron Age period. Another burial was found at northern side

Fig. 223: G eneral view of Umm an-Nar Tomb BHS 67.

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189

Fig. 225: Metal objects from Tomb BHS 67.

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and what might be yet more graves were detected at the western and southern sides. The reuse of the tomb appears to have inflicted heavy damage to the origi-nal Umm an-Nar tomb while the subsidiary Iron Age graves themselves appear to have been subjected to looting and destruction through the ages. Only a few fragmented bones, together with some pottery sherds and soft stone fragments, were found.



Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 47.84732”, E 55° 48’ 05.00687”

Plan and Architecture:Located at the northern area of the Jebel in close prox-imity to BHS 67, this tomb consists of a subterranean burial chamber constructed with seven stone courses that occupy a depth of 1.4m. The entrance, which measures 0.7m x 0.6m, is placed at the northern end of the chamber and provides access via a sill which rises to about 0.25m above the floor (Figs. 226-227).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Skeletal remains are limited and in a fragmentary con-dition. These were associated with a number of finds including a complete, flat based, globular jar which is hole-mouthed, spouted and made of red paste and slipped with a grit temper. The diagonally upraised spout is higher than the level of the mouth and the vessel is decorated very simply with double horizon-tal bands (Fig. 228). Six parallel horizontal lines that encircle the middle of the body may be the result of wheel rotation during manufacture. Spouted jars are known from some of the tombs at al-Buhais such as BHS 8 (Fig. 53: 4-5) and BHS 12 (Figs.71; 72: 1), and from other Wadi Suq sites such as Hili 8, Shimal and Kalba, however the spout of this jar is not common. A similar example was found at Shimal (Velde 2003, Fig. 2: 12) and another one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, 113).

Soft stone vessels are represented by a considerable number of fragments, complete lids and one complete vessel (Fig. 229: 1). The vessel is truncated in shape with a rounded base, incurved rim and concave base and has four small, vertically pierced lugs distributed in equal spaces around the middle of the body. It is decorated with two rows of dotted circles separated by triple horizontal lines and diagonal lines (Fig.

220: 1) and is reminiscent of examples from Shimal Tomb 6 (De Cardi 1988, Fig. 12: 9), Shimal SH 103 (Vogt and Velde 1987, Fig. 27: 5; Velde 2003, Fig. 5: 1, 2) and Qarn al-Harf 67 at Ras Al-Khaimah (Hilal 2003, Fig.7: 6).

Soft stone vessels are represented by a considerable number of fragments and lids. One complete vessel was also found (Fig. 229: 1); this well finished, hole-mouthed globular shaped vessel with a fully rounded base has four small, diagonally pierced symmetrical lugs distributed in equal spaces around the middle of the body. The incised decor consists of two rows of dotted circles separated by a band of triple horizontal lines on the upper part of the vessel and a zigzag motif encircling the middle of the body. This vessel closely resembles one from Tomb BHS 66 (Fig. 215: 7), and is reminiscent of examples from Shimal (Velde 2003: Fig. 5: 1, 2). Interestingly, this vessel is reminiscent in both shape and quality of craftsmanship to one from BHS 2 (Fig. 24: 1).

Lids are represented by three examples, all of them with flat rebated bases and short nubs (Fig. 229: 2-4). Of special interest is the one with seven lines encir-cling the knob handle; the knob top itself is decorated with four small dotted circles distributed within a cross shape. The surface of the lid is decorated with two rows of relatively wide dotted circles separated by tree shaped motifs on either side of the handle and short diagonal incisions around its edge (Fig. 229: 2). Another lid is decorated with short diagonal strokes around its edge and two rows of small dotted circles around the handle; the knob top bears a tree motif (Fig. 229: 4). A simple Iron Age lid, void of any deco-ration, was also present (Fig. 229: 3).

Metal artefacts are represented by a copper tool shaped like a laurel leaf – the presence of a tang with a small rivet hole for fixing to a shaft indicates that this may be a knife (Fig. 230: 1). This tool is similar to ones from BHS 2 and is closely comparable to the one shown in Fig. 22: 2. It is also reminiscent of a blade from Hili North (Al-Ain Museum Guide, P. 47), and a copper tool from the 3rd Millennium BCE that was found in a rectangular tomb at Muwaihat in Ajman (Haenrick 1991, Fig. 8; 30).

Other finds include personal adornments consisting of stone and carnelian beads (Fig. 230: 2). Of particular interest is a stamp seal made of a greenish soft stone and drilled horizontally in the middle for suspension (Fig. 230: 3) (Jasim 2008, 62).

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Fig. 227: Plan and section of Tomb Bhs 68.

Fig. 228: Wadi Suq spouted vessel from Tomb BHS 68.

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Fig. 229: Soft stone vessel (1) and lids (2-4) from Tomb BHS 68.

Fig. 230: Dagger blade (1), stamp seal (2) and various beads (3) from Tomb BHS 68.

The presence of Iron Age materials such as pottery sherds and soft stone fragments attests to the reuse of this tomb.



Co-ordinates: N 25° 48’ 05.00687”, E 55° 48’ 07.09644”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb lies on the eastern slope of the northern part of the Jebel, not far away from BHS 68. It is circular in plan, measuring approximately 9.06m in diameter, and is surrounded by a 2m wide stone wall. The only surviving structural details of the burial chamber are the first stone course and some in situ stone slabs which were part of the original floor in the western half of the tomb (Figs. 231-232).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Only a few skeletal remains were found associated with some pottery sherds and metal artefacts. Of par-ticular interest is pottery rim belonging to an Early Dynastic Period Mesopotamian jar (Fig. 233: 2); this is a reddish-brown ware which is usually seen on a pear-shaped jar with a pointed base, long neck and a folded over rim. Similar jars were found at the type site of Umm an-Nar (Frifelt 1971, Fig. 6; Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 12a; Frifelt 1991, Figs. 86-87). Jars dat-ing to the Early Dynastic Period in Mesopotamia were originally discovered in southern Mesopotamia at the cemetery of al-Ubaid (Hall and Woolley 1927, Pl. LIII and LVII) and the Royal Cemetery at Ur (Wool-ley 1934, Pl. 254)

Red ware with a buff slip was also represented by a rim sherd (Fig. 233:1); this recalls another piece from the settlement on Umm an-Nar Island (Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 13d), and is reminiscent of a 3rd Millennium BCE rim from Hili 8. (Cleuziou 1989, Fig. 22:3). Meso-potamian ceramic vessels were also recovered at Tell Abraq in the Emirate of Sharjah (Potts 2000, 51).

A bronze dagger/knife blade was found lying on the paved floor inside the burial chamber (Figs. 234; 225:1). This blade measures 25cm in length and 3.7cm in width and displays three rivet holes on each

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Fig. 231: Plan and section of Umm an-Nar Tomb BHS 69.


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Fig. 233: Mesopotamian ware (1-2) and flint implements (3-7) from Tomb BHS 69

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side. This is a typical Umm an-Nar artefact and re-calls an example from the type site currently on dis-play at the Al-Ain Museum (Cleuziou 1978/79, 43; Frifelt 1975a, Fig. 12d-e), as well as others from Jebel al-Emalah (Benton and Potts 1994: Fig. 21) and the Umm an-Nar tomb at Mleiha (Jasim 2003, Fig. 15). Closely comparable blades were also found at BHS 71 (Fig. 242). Other finds from this tomb include a collection of cy-lindrical carnelian beads, as well as a large collection of grey-brown/pinkish steatite talcose beads that are tubular in shape and measure around 1.1cm in length and 2m-2.2mm in diameter. These beads were made by molding talc paste around stalks of plant matter; the stalks disintegrated when the beads were baked. The longitudinal shape of the beads suggests that they were formed as long pieces which were then cut into small sections (Benton and Potts 1995: 53). It has been suggested that this type of bead occurs only in Umm an-Nar period contexts, though not all Umm an-Nar graves (Frifelt 1991, 114; Jasim 2003, Fig. 11).

A collection of flint tools were also present (Fig. 224: 3-7).

BHS 69 aType: Above Ground Tomb


Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 46.79048”, E 055° 48’ 07.09644”

Plan and Architecture:Though it has been badly destroyed, the circular plan of this tomb is still evident. It lies within a cluster of other Umm an-Nar tombs (BHS 69, BHS 71). No internal details are observable, however some of the original stone floor of the burial chamber is still present at the north eastern side (Fig. 235). The plan of the tomb is reminiscent of general Umm an-Nar tomb plans.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:No material was found inside the burial chamber.



Co-ordinates: N25° 00’ 47.70672”, E 55° 48’ 06.24389”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 70 is a rectangular subterranean tomb measuring 3m x 1m. The burial chamber is built of nine graduated

Fig. 234: Dagger blade in situ, Tomb BHS 69.

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Fig. 235: Plan and section of Umm an-Nar Tomb BHS 69a.

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stone courses occupying a depth of up to 1m, and has been provided with an overhead opening measuring 0.8m to accommodate roofing slabs. The entrance is located to the north side of the tomb (Fig. 236).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmented human bones were found in associa-tion with Wadi Suq pottery including a small conical shaped beaker with a flat base and out flaring sides and internal ridges consistent with a wheel made tech-nique. This vessel is decorated somewhat clumsily with a black painted band on its outer rim (Fig. 237: 1). Also present is a large jar decorated with three painted wavy bands at the neck; this vessel is almost identical to ones from BHS 6, BHS 12, and BHS 65

Fig. 237: Wadi Suq pottery (1-2), soft stone lid (3), shells and beads (4) and stone implements (5-6).

(Figs. 44:1; 72: 2; 193: 9). Flint tools, cowry shells and a soft stone lid decorated with dotted circles were also found (Fig. 237: 3-5).


Date: Bronze Age (Umm an-Nar Period)

Co-ordinates: N25° 00’ 46.07005”, E55° 48’ 09.23028”

Plan and Architecture:This is a circular over-ground tomb measuring 8.04m

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Fig. 238: Plan and section of Umm an-Nar Tomb BHS 71.

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of Tomb B

HS 71.

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Fig. 240: Painted pottery jar from Tomb BHS 71.

Fig. 241: Umm an-Nar painted pottery jar from Tomb BHS 71.

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Fig. 242: Umm an-Nar bronze dagger blades (1-2) and awl (3).

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in diameter. Re-use during the Iron Age has caused a considerable amount of damage, however the original plan is basically similar to Tomb 67 with the addi-tion of a partition wall running from north to south that divides that space equally into two chambers. The floor was originally paved with stone slabs, some of which remain in situ. No obvious entrance was no-ticed (Figs. 238-239).

Skeletal Remains and funerary Offerings:Of particular interest was a vessel found in the west chamber. Made of well levigated clay, wheel thrown, thin-walled and reddish/orange in colour, this flat based vessel has a squat, rounded body that narrows to a cylindrical neck and then flares out to a bevelled rim (Figs. 240-241). The upper half of the vessel bears painted decoration consisting of eight alternating mo-tifs portraying four humped oxen or bulls (zebu) and four double-winged eagles. The motifs are encircled from above and below by two sets of unbroken, par-allel lines. The encircling lines superior to the mo-tifs are connected by a pattern of wavy, vertical lines. With the exception of two globular jars from Grave V at Umm an-Nar that bear similar motifs (Frifelt 1991, Figs. 173-174) and a vessel from Tomb 1 - also from the Umm an-Nar settlement - that is decorated with ibexes between registers of horizontal lines (Frifelt

Fig. 244: Necklaces consisting of hundreds of red stone beads.

Fig. 243: Umm an-Nar dagger blades from Tomb BHS 71.

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1991, Fig. 76) animal representations are generally rare on Umm an-Nar pottery (Benton and Potts 1994, Figs. 60-61).

Among the items yielded from this tomb are two bronze daggers/knives (Figs. 242: 1-2; 243), one of which is 27cm long by 3cm wide and has three rivet holes on each side. The other dagger is 26cm long and 3.7cm wide and has two rivet holes on each side. These daggers are identical to examples from BHS 57 (Fig. 188: 4), BHS 69 (Figs. 225: 1; 233) and BHS 88 (Fig. 319: 5) which are themselves comparable to ones found on Umm an-Nar Island (Frifelt 1991, Fig. 211), Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1978/79: 43), Tomb IV at Jebel al-Emalah (Benton and Potts 1994: Fig. 21) and Mleiha (Jasim 2003, Fig. 15) A bronze needle/awl was also found (Fig. 242: 3).

A collection of reddish/brown stone, small discoid beads were present (Fig. 244). This type of bead is a familiar find at Umm an-Nar tombs.

Subsidiary GravesSmall subsidiary burials were found at the eastern side of tomb; an oval-shaped grave found just outside the

original chamber, and a second grave inside it. Both contained a handful of pottery sherds and some soft stone fragments of an Iron Age date.


Date: Bronze Age (Umm an-Nar Period) to Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 46.78991”, E 55° 48’ 03.90821”

Plan and Architecture: This tomb had been seriously disturbed however its circular layout - similar to the Umm an-Nar group mentioned just above - was still clearly identifiable (Fig. 245).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:A small carinated vessel measuring 9cm in height and comprised of a brownish buff fabric with a light cream slip was found associated with dispersed and frag-mentary skeletal remains. This vessel has a rounded base, highly accentuated carination at the shoulder and a very short neck which extends to a simple rim

Fig. 246: Mesopotamian pottery jar in situ and skeletal remains inside Tomb BHS 72.

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Fig. 247: Mesopotamian pottery jar from Tomb BHS 72.

Fig. 248: Mesopotamian pottery jars (1, 4), Iron Age pottery (2-3, 5-6), shell disc (7) and bead (8).

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(Figs. 246; 248: 1). This vessel recalls one from Zu-kayt and examples from sites all over Oman (Cleuzi-ou and Tosi 2007, Fig. 102). A vessel found at Kalba displays exactly the same body shape but differs in the shape of its neck and rim, (Eddinsford & Phillips 2009, Fig. 4).

Closely comparable pottery vessels dating to the Ear-ly Dynastic II and III periods can be found in Khafaja and Tell Asmar in the Diyala region of central Iraq (Delougaz 1952, Pls. 74m; 102: d, e, f) and Abu Sal-abikh in southern Mesopotamia (Postgate 1977, Fig. 5: 2, 6). A similar date (c. 2750 – c. 2370) may there-fore be assigned to this vessel. Mesopotamian ware was also represented by a rim sherd (Fig. 248: 4).

Iron Age pottery was also present (Fig. 248: 2-3, 4-5). The open bowl with ridged walls recalls examples from tombs BHS 77 and BHS 84 and finds close par-allels at Rumeilah Periods 1 and 2 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 49: 1-5; 57: 2-11) and al-Qusa-is (Taha 2009, Pl. 18: A-E). Fig. 248: 5 is an open

mouthed vessel with sides that taper to a narrow, flat base and is closely comparable to examples from Hili 8 Phase E and Fashgha 1 (Cleuziou 1978/1979, Fig.27: 6; Phillips 1987: Fig. 18:1) while Figs. 3 and 6 also have parallels at Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Figs. 7: 1 ; 8: 12-13; 9: 18; 13; 27).

Other finds include personal adornments such as a plano-convex shell disc and two small stone beads (Fig. 248: 7-8).


Date: Hafit/Umm an-Nar Period

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 47.13022”, E 55° 48’ 03.61262”

Plan and Architecture: Located approximately seven meters to the west of BHS 72, this is a circular tomb measuring 4.7m in


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Fig. 250: General view of Site BHS 74.

Fig. 251: Plan and section of Site BHS 74.

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Fig. 252: Finds from Site BHS 74.

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diameter. There is evidence of serious destruction and structural loss as well as comprehensive looting. The flooring was originally paved with stone slabs, some of which was found still in situ. Subsidiary graves in-dicate reuse during the Iron Age period.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Although this tomb yielded only one black steatite bead, its layout and proximity to other Umm an-Nar tombs suggest an Umm an-Nar date (Fig. 249). Frag-mentary human remains were located in the northern end of the chamber.

BHS 74Type: Above Ground Construction

Date: Possibly Iron AgeCo-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 40.92116”, E 55° 48’ 03.89007”

Plan and Architecture: This tomb lies in the valley bed, approximately 10m to the south of BHS 73. It is a D-shaped construction that is 10m in diameter and approximately 0.5-0.6m high. Both the interior and exterior are built entirely with regularly faced stones. The entrance is located within the centre of the southern perimeter wall. Trac-es of heavy burning were evident on the floor (Figs. 250-251).

Only a few items were recorded from inside the struc-ture: a single Iron Age sherd, a large piece of flint that had been retouched on one side, three flint tools and a long spiral shell (Fig. 252). A charcoal sample which was identified as Acacia was dated as 110-120 years old by radiocarbon dating.*

The function of this structure is unclear as no com-parable tombs have been uncovered within the study area, or elsewhere in Oman Peninsula. Therefore, despite its location within the necropolis, BHS 74 is


* I’m indebted to prof. Hans-Peter Uerpmann for facilitating this analysis.

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Fig. 254: Tomb BHS 76 after excavation, with a marble mace head in situ.


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unlikely to represent an example of funerary architec-ture however it may well have served some ritualistic purpose.


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 41.78680”, E 55° 48’ 04.91042”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb lies approximately 75m to the north of BHS 74. It is an oval shaped, shallow burial chamber that is surrounded by stone rows (Fig. 253).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Finds were limited to a scarce amount of human bone fragments and pot sherds.


Date: Hafit/Umm an-Nar Period

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 35.60090”, E 55° 47’ 46.75411”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 76 is a Hafit type cairn consisting of a semi-circular shaped burial chamber that is surrounded by massive stone courses that are placed directly on the ground. No entrance could be detected (Figs. 254-255).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:This tomb yielded a few human bone remains, along with two Mesopotamian type pottery sherds from the rim and upper part of a vessel (Fig. 257: 1-2) and a number of Iron Age soft stone vessel fragments. These artefacts indicate reuse of this Hafit cairn during sub-sequent periods (Umm an-Nar – Iron Age).

Of special interest is a white marble mace head (Figs. 256-257: 3) comprised of a heavy pear-shaped or “py-riform” stone which would have been attached to a wooden club. This type of weaponry was in use in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt approximately five thousand years ago and bitumen mace heads are still used as weaponry in contemporary Iraq. The mace

Fig. 256: Marble mace head from Tomb BHS 76.

Fig. 257: Mesopotamian ware (1-2), marble mace head (3), stone tool (4) and beads (5-6).

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head represents a unique and unprecedented discov-ery which as yet has no parallel at any sites within the UAE and Oman Peninsula. Its presence at this par-ticular tomb may be interpreted as indicative of the significance and high status of the deceased interred within (Jasim 2009, 82), however no firm conclusions can be reached until this object can be dated.

Other items include a cylindrical shaped bead, a shell bead and a flint tool (Fig. 257: 4-6).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 37.22686”, E 55° 47’ 45.78393”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is comprised of a series of rock coves

extending along a distance of some 32m at a high altitude on the Jebel. A series of stone walls were constructed in front of the whole area thus forming a series of burial places (Fig. 258).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Skeletal remains are plenty, but in rather poor condi-tion. Funerary offerings associated with these remains are however abundant and varied.

Pottery bowls were represented by a variety of shapes (Fig. 259: 1-10). Open mouthed bowls with flat bases and slightly ridged or undulating sides on the upper half of the body are common (Fig. 259: 1- 5, 10). These are similar to ones from Tomb BHS 84 (Fig. 290: 1-5), Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Figs. 7-12) and Rumeilah Period 1 (Boucharlat & Lombard 1985, Pl.45: 5, 6, 8). The Rumeilah example is closely com-parable in form to the vessel shown in Fig. 1. Close parallels are also to be found also in al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 18: A-E) and Sharm (Barker 2002, Fig. 22). An inward high sided, flat based vessel shown in Fig.

Fig. 259: Iron Age pottery vessels from Tomb BHS 77.

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Fig. 261: Soft stone vessels and lid from Tomb BHS 77.

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Fig 262: Bronze arrow heads (1-8), beads (9-10) and bronze bangles (11-12) from Tomb BHS 77.

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259: 9 is reminiscent of examples from Tomb BHS 31 (Fig. 130: 5), Rumeilah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 45: 1) and another from Sharm (Barker 2002, Fig. 24: 4).

Of interest are two high necked jars (Figs. 259: 7-8); the former has a squat, carinated body while the lat-ter is decorated with double V-shaped incisions on its shoulder: it is reminiscent of an example with an elon-gated neck from Sharm which was dated to Iron Age I on the basis of comparison with a jug from Hasanlu V in Iran (Barker 2002, 23; Fig. 19: 4). High necked jars of Iron II date were also reported from Sharm (ibid. Fig. 28).

Most interesting are the collection of soft stone ves-sels representing a wide range of shapes and beauti-fully decorated with a variety of incised motifs. Of these, deep, open mouthed and almost flat based ves-sels with slightly incurved sides are the most com-mon (Fig. 260: 1-6); these were generally decorated with bands of vertical parallel lines occupying almost two thirds of the lower body and topped by bands of horizontal lines, sometimes filled with cross hatching, herring bones, saw tooth and corrugated lines. These bowls are similar, in both form and decor, to examples from other Iron Age sites in the region like Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987) and Qarn Bint Sa’ud, al-Qusais (Lom-bard 1982, Fig. 3) and are comparable to ones from BHS 8 (Fig. 58: 2), BHS 10 (Fig. 64: 3, 8), BHS 12 (Fig. 73: 4), BHS 32 (Fig. 134: 3, 8, 10), BHS 48 (Fig. 170: 1) and BHS 78 (Fig. 267: 1-3, 7). Parallels can also be found at Bawshar in Oman (Yule 1999,

Fig. 9: B11, B33).

Of particular interest is a vessel with a flat base, slightly incurved sides and a broad everted rim bear-ing a band of a circular saw tooth design; the vessel is decorated with four bands of triple diagonal lines that zigzag across the body forming lozenge shaped patterns (Fig. 261: 2). No comparable vessel has been reported from other Iron Age sites however its form is reminiscent of one from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1989, Pl. 35: 4), while the decoration also somehow recalls that seen on an example from Hili 8 (ibid. Pl. 35: 2) as well as other examples from BHS 78 and BHS 84 (Figs. 267: 4, 6; 294: 3).

A large number of fragments belonging to truncated cone shaped bowls were found together with two complete specimens. Of interest is the thick-walled large vessel decorated with a series of triangular shaped patterns; this was found in association with its lid which was decorated with a circular saw tooth band around the rim and multiple diagonal lines on the knob top (Fig. 261: 3). A similarly shaped, small-er vessel is decorated with a band of herring bones below the rim and a similar triangular design on the body (Fig. 261: 4). Both these vessels are reminiscent of examples from Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Lombard ibid. Fig.3), Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987: Figs. 26; 27; 30: 26), Asimah (Vogt 1988, Fig. 42: 7), Hili Tomb H (al-Rahman 78/79, Fig. 8: 3) and closely resemble exam-ples from BHS 23 (Fig. 103: 2-3), BHS 27 (Fig. 115: 4), BHS 32 (Fig. 134: 11-12), BHS 40 (Fig. 157: 2) and BHS 78 (Figs. 268-269). A lid that is decorated

Fig. 263: Two bronze bangles from Tomb BHS 77.

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Fig. 264: Archaeological finds in situ, Tomb BHS 78.

with incised dotted circles on its upper face (Fig. 261: 1) obviously belongs to an earlier date and is reminis-cent of examples from Tomb BHS 61 (Fig. 188: 1-2) and other Wadi Suq sites.

Metal artefacts are represented by a number of arrow heads (Fig. 262: 1-8); one of which is long, with a prominent mid rib bearing incised decoration consist-ing of a double X separated by short horizontal lines (Fig. 262: 8).

Other metal finds include two heavy bronze anklets/bangles (Figs. 262: 11-12; 263) that resemble exam-ples from BHS 23 (Fig. 102: 5-6), BHS 27 (Fig. 117: 2-3) BHS 30 (Fig. 127: 6-7) and BHS 61 (Fig. 197: 5-6). Similar bangles were reported from Qidfa (Potts 1990, Fig. 43: n) and Rumeilah (Boucharlat & Lom-bard 1985, Pl. 63: 2-3) in the UAE. Further examples were reported from Oman at the sites of Khudra and Seeb (Weisgerber 1988, 289) and ‘Ibri/Selme (Weis-gerber 2001).

Personal adornments found include necklaces made of various types of stone, shells and carnelian beads were also present (Fig. 262: 9-10).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 36.56061”, E 55° 47’ 44.45731”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 78 lies high on the Jebel and is comprised of a series of rock shelters that are encircled by stone walls to form multiple burial chambers (Fig. 264).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Skeletal remains were found inside all of these cham-bers albeit in a rather poor condition. The remains were associated with a large number of funerary commodi-ties (Uerpmann, et.al. 2006: 86), mainly soft stone material and metal artefacts. Interestingly, the abun-dance of soft stone material is confronted by a lack of pottery; the single pottery vessel that was found is a wide-mouthed bowl with a flat base, slightly incurved walls and a wide, prominent rib just below the spouted rim (Fig. 265: 6). This pottery bowl is reminiscent of one from Tomb BHS 27 (Fig. 114: 3) and an example from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 78/79, Fig. 39: 2).

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Fig. 265: Soft stone spouted vessels (1-5) and spouted pottery bowl (6).

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Fig. 266: Soft stone spouted bowls from Tomb BHS 78.

Fig. 267: Various soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 78.

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Fig. 268: Truncated conical soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 78.

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Fig. 269: Truncated conical soft stone vessel from Tomb BHS 78.

Fig. 270: Soft stone vessels in situ, Tomb BHS 78.

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Fig. 271: Soft stone decorated lids from Tomb BHS 78.

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Fig. 273: Long spouted bronze/copper bowl from Tomb BHS 78.

Fig. 272: Variety of bronze/copper bowls from Tomb BHS 78.

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Fig. 275: Bronze arrow heads from Tomb BHS 78.

Fig. 274: Collection of bronze arrow heads from Tomb BHS 78.

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Fig. 277: Personal adornments from Tomb BHS 78.

Fig. 276: Lead stamp seal (1), stone arrowhead (2) and personal adornments (3-8).

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A considerable collection of soft stone vessels are present in a variety of shapes and bearing distinct incised decoration (Figs. 265-269). Wide, open mouthed, spouted bowls were numerous (Figs. 265: 1-5; 266); close parallels to these vessels can be found at sites such as Fashgha 1, Qarn Bint Sa’ud, al-Qusais and Hili 8 and other tombs at Jebel al-Buhais as al-ready outlined.

Wide mouthed, un-spouted, flat based soft stone ex-amples are also present (Figs. 267). These include a small, high-sided vessel with a simple rim that is dec-orated on its upper part with a band of herring bones running between two horizontal lines (Fig. 267: 1). Also found was a bowl with slightly incurved walls and a bevelled rim under which is a saw tooth line followed by double horizontal lines, and with vertical lines encircling the body and a single line above the base (Fig. 267: 2). Fig. 267: 3 shows a wide-mouthed bowl with slightly incurved sides that is decorated with two interrupted lines below the rim, a band of vertical parallel lines around the body and a single line above the base (Fig. 267: 3). The incised decora-tion on this bowl is similar to that seen on a bowl from the same tomb (Fig. 267: 7) which itself is similar in form to Fig. 267: 2. Another soft stone vessel with slightly incurved walls and flat high base is beauti-fully decorated with triple horizontal lines just below the rim, two bands of triple diagonal lines that zigzag around the body forming lozenge shapes and a band of herring bones encircling the base and lower part of body (Fig. 267: 4).

The bowl with a broad, out flared rim bearing saw tooth decoration shown in Fig. 267: 5 is of special interest because of the presence inside the base of a small cone projecting upwards from the centre. This is reminiscent of another bowl from BHS 84 (Fig. 294: 3) and one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 31: C). The purpose of this cone is uncertain, but it might have been used to support or hold an associated inte-rior vessel. The incised decoration covers the entire surface and consists of bands of saw tooth lines and horizontal lines just below the rim, a band of parallel vertical around the body lines and another saw tooth line around the base.

Another interesting vessel is shown in Fig. 267: 6; this has two vertically pierced lugs projecting directly from its broad distinctive rim, presumably for suspen-sion and is decorated with a saw tooth and horizontal lines on the outer rim and interrupted diagonal lines that form lozenge shapes on the body. The decor recalls

another vessel found in this tomb (Fig. 267: 4) as well one from BHS 77 (Fig. 261: 2), while its form and lugs are reminiscent of an example from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 37:C).

An interesting collection of truncated, cone shaped, thick walled vessels with either relatively flat or con-vexo bases were present (Figs. 268: 1-6; 269; 270). These all bear incised decoration consisting of rec-tilinear/diagonal/ saw tooth lines, triangle shapes, zigzags and herring bone patterns. Parallels to these examples can be found at most of the Iron Age sites in UAE and Oman including al-Buhais.

A large number of soft stone lids of varying shapes and sizes and with a range of different handles were also found (Fig. 271: 1-8), all of which bear surface incised decor consisting of a band of parallel lines ra-diating from base of the handle towards the edge. The knob tops are similarly decorated. Noteworthy is the lid shown on Fig. 271: 8, the knob of which resembles the “rook” chess piece and is decorated with a small circle at its centre and a series of small incised lines around its edge. All the lids found are comparable in both shape and decoration to ones from other Iron Age sites in the region.

Metal artefacts in the form of both utensils and weap-onry are present. The first category is represented by a number of bronze vessels including open, globular bowls with flat bases, long open spouts and carinated at the shoulder with two grooves just below the rim (Figs. 272: 1- 2; 273); these are closely comparable with examples from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1989, Pl. 34), al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl.48: A) and Saruq al-Hadeed in Dubai (Al-Khreisha and Al-Nashif 2007, Fig. 25). Also yielded were assorted bronze vessels, such as wide mouthed, high sided bowls with a flat raised base and beautifully decorated with incised scorpion shaped motifs just below the everted rim (Fig. 272: 3). Two almost straight sided bronze vessels with pronounced carination and projected flat bases bear-ing bands of horizontal lines incised around the up-per outer rim, are also of interest (Fig. 272: 4-5) and are closely comparable to an example from Saruq al-Hadeed (ibid, Fig. 23).

Other metal artefacts include a large number of bronze arrow heads which were present throughout (Figs. 274: 1-43; 275) and a single stone arrow head (Fig. 276: 2). Of particular interest is the presence of a 12cm long pin-shaped iron object. This is the forth discovery involving iron material at Jebel al-Buhais

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after BHS 27, BHS 46 and BHS 51.

Personal adornments like a necklace consisting of various stone beads and shells were found (Figs. 276: 3-6, 8; 277) as was a bronze ring (Fig. 266: 7). Of spe-cial interest is the discovery of a stamp seal made of lead (Fig. 276: 1); this seal is almost identical to one from Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Stevenson 1992, Fig. 1: 1-2; Jasim 2008, Fig. 11a).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 30.72973”, E 55° 47’ 47.95547”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is situated immediately above BHS 78. It consists of natural outcrops surrounded by a stone wall that forms a small burial chamber.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Scarce skeletal remains in a fragmented condition were found inside the burial chamber. Also found were a bronze arrow head, a white stone arrow head, decorated steatite fragments and a collection of car-nelian beads, including one with a bi-conical body (Fig. 279: 1).

BHS 80 Type: Rock Shelter Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 38.03443”, E 55° 47’ 44.60614”Plan and Architecture:BHS 80 is situated to the west of BHS 79 but at lower altitude. It consists of two stone formations; one is tri-angular in shape while the other is irregular in shape (Fig. 278).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmented skeletal remains were found inside the burial chamber. These were mingled with fragments of decorated soft stone vessels, lids, retouched brown flint tools (Fig. 279: 10), and a flat copper blade/razor (Fig. 279: 8). Personal adornments are represented by a reel shaped

silver bead and a long carnelian bead (Fig. 279: 9, 11).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 39.07161”, E 55° 47’ 48.03677”

Fig. 279: Variety of beads (1-7), bronze/copper razor (8), reel shaped bead (9), flint implements (10-11) and soft stone lid (12).

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Plan and Architecture:BHS 81 lies opposite BHS 78 and consists of a stone cove blocked by a stone wall.

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsFinds were limited to fragmentary bone remains in association with soft stone vessel fragments and a steatite lid decorated with dotted circles and diagonal incisions around the handle (Fig. 279: 12).


Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 40.89793”, E 55° 47’ 46.76640”

Plan and ArchitectureThe circular burial chamber of this tomb descends to a depth of 0.7m and is comprised of four stone courses that are surrounded by multiple stone rows (Fig. 280).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsBHS 82 yielded only fragmentary bones together with a small collection of soft stone fragments and stone beads (Fig. 279: 2-7).

Tomb BHS 83Type: Rock Shelter

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 41.31300”, E 55° 47’ 44.15989”

Plan and Architecture:The structure of this tomb consists of natural outcrops extending along a distance of more than 9m and well fortified by a stone wall (Figs. 281-282).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsPoorly preserved skeletal remains were found scat-tered throughout the long burial chamber. A variety of materials were also available including pottery sherds, some of which bear painted decoration as shown in Fig. 283: 1. These two examples are reminiscent in body shape of pottery bowls from Rumeilah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 49) and Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 17).

Fragments of decorated soft stone vessels and lids were also present. Also found was a complete lid with a tall cylindrical handle and decorated with radiating


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Fig. 283: Iron Age pottery bowls (1-2), soft stone lid (3) and circular shell piece (4).

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Fig. 284: Stone beads (1-2), complete necklace (3) and bronze bracelet with feline head (4).

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parallel lines surrounded by a saw tooth line. The knob is top also ornamented with radiating lines (Fig. 283: 3). Personal adornments yielded include beads of various shapes and materials (Fig. 284: 1-2). Of special inter-est is a complete necklace consisting of flat, triangular shaped agate pieces that are separated from each other by small round beads (Figs. 284: 3; 285). This neck-lace was found in association with a bronze bracelet with open ends that are formed in the shape of a ani-mal, possibly a leopard - leopards are known to have existed in Oman Peninsula until the last century (Figs. 284: 4; 286-287). This bracelet is of extraordinary in-terest as it is the first of its kind to have been found in the Oman Peninsula. A similar golden bracelet that has been dated to the late Assyrian period was how-ever found at Nimrud in northern Mesopotamia - this

suggests that the bronze bracelet from Jebel al-Buhais might have been imported. Other items include num-mular shaped polished stone which was probably used for triturating (Fig. 283: 4).

Tomb BHS 84Type: Rock Shelter Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 25.87961”, E 25° 00’ 25.87961”

Plan and Architecture:BHS 84 was the first site to be excavated on the west-ern side of Jebel al-Buhais and is also the first tomb on the western side to be described here: all of the fore mentioned sites are located along the eastern side of the Jebel.

Fig. 285: Complete necklace made of agate and carnelian beads.

Fig. 286: Necklace and bronze bracelet in situ, Tomb BHS 83.

Fig. 287: Bronze bracelet from Tomb BHS 83.

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of rock shelter Tomb B

HS 84.

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Fig. 290: Iron Age pottery vessels from Tomb BHS 84.

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Fig 293: Soft Stone jewellery boxes (1,3), carinated vessel (2), small rounded bowl (4) and truncated conical shaped vessels (5-6) from Tomb BHS 84.

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Fig. 294: Variety of Iron Age soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 84.

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This huge rock shelter ascends to a height of approxi-mately 10m above the floor of the surrounding Wadi and consists of a complex of adjacent burial chambers of varying sizes and encircled by stone walls (Figs. 288-289).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary OfferingsFragmentary skeletal remains were found in abun-dance throughout the tomb as were a wide variety of funerary offerings including a large quantity of pot-tery sherds as well as a number of complete vessels representing plain, painted and incised wares (Fig. 290: 1-11).

The painted bowl shown in Fig. 290: 1 is reminiscent of examples from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig.17), Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Cleuziou 78/79, Pl. 10: 11) and Ru-meilah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 49). A deep, high sided vessel with slight carination just below the bevelled rim (Fig. 290: 2) is of a unique shape among the Iron Age assemblage. Fig. 290: 3 is reminiscent in shape to an example from Rumei-lah Period 1 (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pls.49) while Fig. 290: 4 and 8 also recall other examples from Rumeilah.

Wide-mouthed slipped vessels with flat bases and var-ying degrees of ridging at the shoulder (Fig. 290: 5-6, 9-11), are of typical Iron Age shape and thus reminis-cent of numerous examples from sites like Rumeilah Period 1, Fashgha 1, al-Qusais and others.

Of particular interest is an open simple spouted bowl bearing incised decor consisting of X’s and diago-nal strokes on its flat upper rim. A large cross shaped mark is incised inside the bowl just below the spout (Fig. 290: 7). Similar but undecorated pottery vessels with simple spouts were found at BHS 27 (Figs. 114: 2-3; 118) and BHS 78 (Fig. 265: 6). Another spout-ed vessel is shown in Fig. 291: 1; this example is of particular interest as it is the only soft stone vessel that does not have any incised decoration on the body apart from five grooves around its open spout. Its body shape however closely resembles spouted, decorated soft stone vessels from other tombs at al-Buhais and in particular BHS 78 (Fig. 265: 1-4).

The vessel shown in Fig. 290: 9 bears incised deco-ration consisting of a three parallel wavy lines just below the rim. Pottery vessels bearing incised decora-tion were common at Rumeilah Period 1. Soft stone vessels and fragments were abundant; these are represented by a wide range of shapes and a rich variety of incised decor (Figs. 291- 295).

Figs. 291: 7-8; 294: 2, 4-5, 8 and 295: 5 show soft stone vessels all with open mouths, slightly incurved walls, simple rims, flat bases and decorated with rec-tilinear, vertical and diagonal lines, herring bone pat-terns and saw tooth designs.

Vessels with vertically pierced round lugs are present; these are decorated with rectilinear and diagonal lines, herring bone patterns and cross hatches (Fig. 292: 1-3). Truncated, conical shaped vessels bearing a similar incised decoration were also found (Figs. 292: 5-10), as were thick walled specimens decorated with parallel diagonal lines and reserved triangles containing saw tooth designs (Fig. 293: 5-6). Of par-ticular interest is a thick walled hole-mouthed vessel with a sharply carinated body and slightly raised flat base (Fig. 293: 2). This vessel is elaborately decorated with two incised friezes occupying the upper and the lower halves: the upper frieze contains sets of triple horizontal lines followed by gadroons, while the low-er frieze is filled with zigzags formed by sets of four diagonal lines that are interrupted by single vertical lines. The friezes are separated by a herring bone/saw tooth line band encircling the body of the vessel at its middle. This vessel is almost identical in form to one from BHS 32 (Fig. 134: 7) and one from Qarn Bint Sa’ud albeit differing in decoration (Lombard 1982, Fig. 4: 15).

Deep sided, slightly incurved bowls with simple or everted rims and flat bases were numerous, varied in shape and decorated with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, herring bone patterns and gadroons (Figs. 291: 2-6; 294: 4-5, 9) or saw tooth designs (Fig. 295: 1-4, 6-8). Of interest is the complete beaker with high, slightly incurved walls and a simple un-even base that is decorated with double horizontal lines just below the rim followed by parallel diagonal lines forming lozenge shapes across the body (Fig. 294: 7). This type of decor recalls examples from tombs BHS 77 (Fig. 261: 2) and BHS 78 (Fig. 276: 4, 6).

A noteworthy find is the small, hemispherical, hole-mouthed bowl with a raised flat base and bearing a kind of relief decoration consisting of banana shaped grooves across the entire body (Fig. 293: 4); this ex-ample is as yet unparalleled. Another hemispherical bowl found has (Fig. 294: 3) incurved walls and a wide, flat, out flared rim decorated with sets of three short diagonal lines forming a zigzag pattern. Just below the rim are neatly executed sets of triple hori-zontal lines followed by a band of parallel vertical lines encircling the entire body. This vessel contains

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Fig. 296: Various bronze objects (1-6) and bronze arrow heads (7-30) from Tomb BHS 84.

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a small cone at the centre of its internal base reminis-cent of a vessel found at BHS 78 (Fig. 267: 5) and an-other example from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 48: D). A piece belongs to another interesting hemispherical bowl with a wide, out flared rim decorated on both its upper and lower surfaces; the upper side is decorated with short diagonal strokes running in zigzag pat-tern, while the lower side bears a saw tooth design (Fig. 294: 1).

Metal artefacts include a large number of weaponry represented by a variety of bronze arrow heads (Fig. 296: 7-30), one of them is decorated with incised marks and curved into a loop at the tip (Fig. 296: 14). A variety of tools such as an awl (Fig. 296: 1), needle

(Fig. 296: 2) and a tiny chisel were present (Fig. 296: 6).

Personal adornments are represented by various beads, rings (Fig. 296: 3-4), silver ear-rings (Fig. 296: 5) and a round shell with a central perforation that is surrounded by three circular depressions, probably for fixing to clothes (Fig. 297: 2). The perforated shell is reminiscent of one from Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig. 39). A large bead (Fig. 297: 3) and necklace con-sisting of 59 beads of assorted shapes and varying ma-terials were also found (Fig. 297: 1).

Jewellery boxes were also present; one of them bear-ing a dotted circle decoration (Fig. 293: 1) and obvi-ously belonging to an earlier date which is reminis-cent of an Umm an-Nar vessel found at Tomb A at Hili North (Vogt 1985, Pl. 27: 14, 16), and another example from BHS 89 (Fig. 328: 9). A fragment of another jewellery box decorated with cross hatched and rectilinear patterns and bearing a small perfora-tion in the upper corner was also found (Fig. 293: 3). Jewellery containers were also yielded from BHS 10 (Fig. 65: 4), BHS 32 (Fig. 103: 1) and BHS 85 (Fig. 304: 1-2, 4-5).

Tomb BHS 85Type: Rock Shelter Tomb

Date: Iron Age

Co-ordinates: N 25° 00’ 27.56163”, E 55° 47’ 21.68533”

Plan and Architecture:Located on the south-western slopes of Jebel al-Bu-hais among an outcrop of calcareous rocks, this shel-ter was utilized as a burial place during the Iron Age. The site consists of a series of six adjacent shallow graves constructed with three courses of locally avail-able stone (Figs. 298-299). The surviving height of the stones blocks is approximately 50cm.

Excavation of this tomb commenced in February 2001 and continued systematically until April 2005. During the last two seasons of the campaign members of the joint al-Buhais project participated in the excavation of skeletal remains inside the burial chambers of this tomb (Uerpmann et al. 2006).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Fragmentary skeletal remains are abundant however

Fig. 297: Necklace consisting of a variety of stone beads (1), a perforated circular shell (2) and a large stone bead (3).

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Fig. 299: Plan of Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig.

300

: Hum

an sk

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on in

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ed p

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on in

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Tom

b B

HS

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Fig. 301: Iron Age painted jars from Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig. 302: Iron Age incised jars (1, 5), painted pottery (2, 4) and plain pottery (3) from Tomb BHS 85.

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Grave 1 contained a fully articulated skeleton was found lying in a flexed position on its right side with the skull oriented southwest and associated with some stone beads (Fig. 300). Grave 2, which was situated at a lower altitude to the south of Grave 1, has yielded the remains of a total of four skeletons (Uerpmann et.al. 2006: 86). These were associated with a large quantity of Iron Age material comprised of pottery vessels, steatite bowls, metal artefacts and a nice col-lection of beads.

A large quantity of Iron Age pottery was found in-cluding a considerable number of painted examples (Figs. 301; 302: 2, 4). Bowls, both plain and painted are also present: Fig. 302: 3 shows a rim from a plain bowl similar to one from Rumeilah Period 2 (Bou-charlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 57: 9) while Fig. 302: 4, which bears painted decoration on its upper body, recalls examples from Rumeilah Period 1(Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Fig. 49: 16-17). Painted jars were represented by a variety of forms; of special interest is the large globular jar with an internal ledged rim and strainer spout (Fig. 301: 3). This vessel is beautifully decorated with red pigment on the upper half of the body with a series of sixteen filled v- shaped patterns forming what looks like a sun-burst bordered by a sin-gle band from above and below. Short vertical strokes on the internal ledged rim and six diagonal lines on the outside of the spout are also to be seen. Similar decor was seen on a vessel from Lisq in Oman (Potts 1990: Fig. 41: n). Un-spouted globular shaped jars bearing painted decoration were also found (Fig.302: 1-2). Of interest is the globular shaped example with four vertically pierced lugs projecting at a 450 angle from the shoulder and bearing painted decoration run-ning horizontally around the shoulder (Fig. 302: 2). No parallels can be cited for this vessel.

Jars with incised decoration are represented by two sherds (Fig. 302: 1, 5). The sherd shown in Fig. 302: 5 is of particular interest with its incised decoration consisting of pendant triangles containing vertical and diagonal lines. Incised pottery jars with similar decoration are known from Sharm where they were attributed to Iron Age II (Barker 2002, Figs. 28: 13; 34-37). Incised pottery was also attested in the site of Rumeilah Period 1 and other related sites in the UAE and Oman.

Soft stone vessels were numerous and varied (Figs. 303- 307), all bearing incised decoration typical of the Iron Age. Of interest is the jewellery box, fully decorated with three friezes, the upper two containing

parallel diagonal lines and the bottom one filled with vertical lines. Each frieze is separated by double hori-zontal lines. This vessel was found together with its lid which is decorated with deeply incised vertical lines intersected by a single horizontal line on each of its long sides; the rectangular shaped knob top is ornamented with parallel horizontal lines on its long axis (Figs. 303: 4, 5; 304). Two fragments from other jewellery boxes (Fig. 303: 1-2) and a very small round container were also found (Fig. 303: 3).

Truncated cone-shaped vessels of different sizes and bearing elaborate decor represent further finds (Fig. 305: 1-6, 8-9). Noteworthy, is the vessel decorated with a herring bone band contained within two sets of double horizontal lines just below the rim, and a wide panel containing large triangles comprised of parallel diagonal lines and six horizontal saw tooth bands en-circling the body (Fig. 305: 2). Also of interest in this category is a vessel decorated just below the rim with parallel bands of saw tooth and horizontal lines, fol-lowed by a panel containing a band of herring bones, a further panel of shallow multiple diagonal parallel lines zigzaging across the body and a final band of similarly executed but tall triangles, each of which is separated by a single vertical saw tooth line (Fig. 305: 3). Another noteworthy vessel to be included here is a slightly taller example decorated with three hori-zontal lines just below the rim followed by a panel containing saw tooth lines forming a zigzag across the shoulder and then another panel with two sets of interloping saw tooth lines creating lozenge shapes. The lower body of the vessel bears a wide panel filled with triangles comprised of parallel saw tooth lines (Fig. 305: 4).

Wide mouthed bowls with flat bases and out flared walls and with slightly incurved rims were also found (Fig. 306: 2, 5-7, 11). Some of these vessels have wide, flat, everted rims bearing bands of three short diagonal lines (Fig. 306:1) or a single zigzag line (Fig. 306: 4). Also yielded was a flat based vessel with an everted wide rim decorated with a zigzag pattern com-prised of sets of triple diagonal lines. The main body of the vessel is ornamented with five horizontal lines below the rim and a band of parallel vertical lines en-circling the body (Fig. 305: 7). This vessel recalls an example from Tomb BHS 77 but bears different deco-ration (Fig. 261: 2).

Deep sided vessels are represented by variety of forms (Fig. 306: 3, 12, 13): Fig. 306: 13 shows a vessel with a flat ring base similar to that of the example shown

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Fig. 303: Soft stone jewellery box fragments (1-2), miniature vessel (3) and a complete jewellery box with lid (4-5) from Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig. 304: Soft stone jewellery box from Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig. 306: Collection of soft stone vessels from Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig. 307: Collection of soft stone lids from Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig. 308: Stone implements and arrow heads (1-15) and bronze arrow heads (16-35) from Tomb BHS 85.

Fig. 309: Collection of bronze arrow heads from Tomb BHS 85.

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Fig. 310: Iron spear head (1) and shaft of an iron spear head (2).

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in Fig. 306: 9, the latter being a deep sided bowel with incurved walls and a simple everted rim that is decorated just beneath with four horizontal parallel lines followed by a band of gadroons encircling the main body. This example is reminiscent of one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 33: A). Of special interest among the deep sided vessels is the long, flat based beaker with a high cylindrical body and simple rim: this example is beautifully decorated beneath the rim with single saw tooth line and triple horizontal lines, underneath which is a panel containing lozenge shapes and then a wide panel filled with herring bone patterns (Fig. 306: 8). No parallel can be cited for this.Lids are numerous and were represented by variety of shapes (Fig. 307), all with rebated bases and cylin-drical upright handles capped with different shaped knobs. Surfaces and knobs were generally decorated with sun burst patterns, with the exception of a single lid which is decorated with two overlapping triangles forming a six-pointed star shape (Fig. 307: 1). This particular design is reminiscent of one seen on a soft stone lid from Sharm in Fujairah (Ziolkowski 2001, Fig. 69). A soft stone lid decorated with a star shaped motif of a different design was reported from Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Lombard 1982, Fig. 4: 17).

Metal artefacts consisted mainly of a large number of bronze arrow heads (Figs. 308: 16-35; 309). Of par-ticular importance was the discovery of an Iron Age spear head/lance (Fig. 310: 1). Two broken shafts be-longing to another Iron spear head were also present (Fig. 310: 2); this was the fifth discovery of iron ma-terial from Jebel al-Buhais after finds from BHS 27, BHS 46, BHS 51 and BHS 78. Other metal items found at BHS 85 include a small bronze/copper alloy bell (Fig. 311: 1), a bronze ornament (Fig. 311: 2) and small buckle (Fig. 311: 3).

Stone implements were represented by a foliate shaped tool, points and arrow heads (Fig. 308: 1- 15).

Personal adornments (Fig. 311), include a nice col-lection of carnelian beads (Fig. 311: 5, 12-18), three golden beads (Fig. 311: 6-8), one silver bead (Fig. 311: 7) and one tubular bone (Fig. 311: 4).

Tombs BHS 86 & BHS 87Date: Iron Age

Both these tombs are located on a valley that lies be-tween BHS 84 and BHS 85 about thirty meters to the

north of BHS 85. They are both simple, shallow, oval shaped cists surrounded by several rows of stones. Heavily plundered and destroyed, finds were lim-ited to a few skeletal remains associated with a small number of Iron Age pottery sherds, soft stone vessel fragments and a few scattered stone beads.

Tomb BHS 88Type: Over Ground Cairn Grave

Date: Bronze Age (Umm an Nar Period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 01’ 25.33319”, E 55° 47’ 15.25050”

The tombs covered thus far are comprised of those situated along the eastern, southern and western sides of Jebel al-Buhais. BHS 88 is the first to be located on a plain at the very north western end of the Jebel.

Plan and Architecture:This is a circular shaped cairn rising to a height of approximately 0.9m.above the ground. The exterior of the tomb is constructed with multiple stone rows extending to a width of 2.50m. The external diameter of the burial chamber measures 5.5m and the internal diameter is 1.4m. (Fig. 312).

Prior to excavation the structure appeared to be Hafit type. As excavations inside the burial chamber pro-gressed however, it became obvious that this was an entirely different style of architecture combining characteristic features of both Hafit and Umm an-Nar (Fig. 313).

The interior of the tomb has a simple floor which is sunk slightly below the ground and the area itself is divided into four small burial chambers by two north-south butts (Fig. 314). The entrance is located in the western side and is comprised of a well designed rec-tangular shaped opening measuring 0.7m in width and flanked, on the exterior of the tomb, by what look like partially worked stone slabs (Fig. 315). The floor of the burial chamber was apparently covered with stone pieces, the remains of which are still in situ and are particularly well preserved in the northern chambers where they stand to a height of about 1m (Fig. 316); those in the southern chambers were disturbed by a later interment. The external ring wall, as well as the internal dividing walls, pitches into the chamber thus reducing the area to be roofed.

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Fig. 312: General view of Tomb BHS 88 before excavation.

The striking resemblance between this tomb and Tomb 1 from nearby Jebel al-Emalah (Benton and Potts 1994, Figs. 35-36) must be highlighted. From a sequential, typological viewpoint, the Jebel al-Emalah example has been described as “transitional in form between the single chambered Hafit type cairn tombs and the Umm an-Nar type tombs with their sugar lump ma-sonry and internal dividing walls” (Benton and Potts, ibid. 30; Benton 2005, 404; Potts, in press).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:The upper layer was located about 0.7m from the top of the cairn and yielded what seems to be an intrusive burial. A fully articulated skeleton lying in a flexed position was found occupying the entire burial area. The deceased, a young male aged 20-25 years, was interred facing the north side with his head directed to the east. An iron sword was found in-situ under the knees and lower legs (Figs. 317-318). (See Appendix 1). Three small perforated shells were found in the fill associated with the skeleton and were probably out of context (Fig. 319: 7-9).

Removal of the skeleton revealed a rectangular copper alloy fixture at the end of the sword which may have been the base of a scabbard (Fig. 319: 6). The sword itself was in poor condition with a significant amount of unstable corrosion: the loss of surface material on a central area revealed the hollow core beneath.

The total length of the sword is approximately 0.81m and its presence should be viewed in the context of the important changes that occurred during the Iron Age when iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice for both swords and arrowheads (Potts 1988, 195). Long iron swords were attested at ed-Dur and dated to the third/fourth centuries AD based on the associat-ed finds of Sasanian (Mesopotamian) glass (Lecomte 1993, 202). A similar discovery was made at Tomb 1 at Jebel al-Emalah where a male skeleton that was re-covered from the base of a pit had been interred with an approximately 70cm long iron sword dating to the pre-Islamic period (Benton and Potts 1994, 31; Potts 1998, 195).

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Fig. 315: Tomb BHS 88 showing the entrance from a northerly direction.

Fig. 316: Skeletal remains in situ inside the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 88.

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Fig. 317: Human skeleton in flexed position in situ with an iron sword in front of it at the upper layer of Tomb BHS 88.

Fig. 318: Sketch of the skeleton and iron sword.

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Fig. 319: Personal adornments (1-2), bronze tools (3-4), bronze dagger blade (5), iron sword (6), perforated shell discs (7-9), rubbing stone (10) and flat whetstone (11).

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Fig. 321: Skeletal remains with attached dagger blade inside Tomb BHS 88.

Fig. 320: Skeletal remains inside the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 88.

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Fig. 322: A collection of white and red stone beads in situ and a whetstone in Tomb BHS 88.

Having removed the skeleton and the sword we reached the original floor. Nothing was found in the south-eastern and south-western burial chambers however the better preserved northern section con-tained both skeletal remains and funerary goods. The north-western chamber yielded skeletal remains in a disturbed condition including an incomplete skull and more than one jaw scattered through the chamber (Fig. 320). An Umm an-Nar type pottery jar made of red paste was also found (Fig. 327: 1).

Two skeletons were found lying in flexed positions and placed in a north-south direction on the floor of the north-eastern chamber. The heads of both were oriented to the south, with one facing to the east and the other to the west. A long bronze/copper alloy knife or dagger with four holes and rivets was stuck to the tibia of one of them (Figs. 319: 5; 321). This type of tool is a typical Umm an-Nar artefact and recalls iden-tical pieces from BHS 57 (Fig. 188: 4), BHS 67 (Fig. 225: 1) and BHS 71 (Figs. 241-242).

Umm an-Nar type pottery is represented by a flat-based jar made of red paste with a globular, conical

shaped body, short neck and out flared bevelled rim (Fig. 327: 5). In terms of body shape this vessel is reminiscent to Umm an-Nar type ware (Frifelt 1991, Fig. 203) and is also similar a vessel from Umm an-Nar tomb at Mleiha (Jasim 2003, Fig. 32: 5). How-ever exfoliation of the incredibly friable surface has resulted in total loss of the original decorative paint-work.

Other finds include a whetstone (Figs. 319: 11; 322), a bronze awl (Fig. 319: 3-4) and hundreds of micro-beads found arranged in multiple rows and possibly part of a beautiful bead-embroidered textile or neck-lace that was found on the floor of the eastern end of the corridor opposite the entrance (Fig. 322). The beads were either dusky red soft stone examples; that varied in shape from circular to square and ranged in size between 2mm-3mm in diameter with a thickness of 1mm-1.5 mm; or made of white faience and short and cylindrical in shape. Similar micro-beads were reported from Umm an-Nar Island (Frifelt 1991, Figs. 237, 238d) and Jebel al-Emalah (Benton 2006, 269-270).

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Fig. 323: Cairn BHS 89 situated in a passage between two mountains, before excavation.

Tomb BHS 89Type: Over Ground Cairn (Hafit Type)

Date: Bronze Age (Hafit/Umm an-Nar Period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 01’ 35.91016”, E 55° 47’ 22.26951”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is situated on the northernmost side of Jebel al-Buhais where it occupies a gap, right on top of a rocky passage that runs between two mountain ridges. It is a circular cairn measuring 5m in diameter and rising to a height of about 1.2m above the ground. (Fig. 323).

The entrance, at the southern side of the tomb, is com-prised of a vestibule or passage measuring some 1.5m in length and 0.4m in width and leads into the inter-nal burial chamber. This is 2.1m in diameter and sur-rounded by a concentric wall consisting of three rows of unworked heavy stones that are approximately 1.5m wide. The western side of the tomb was constructed with only two rows of smaller stones (approximately

0.8m wide) that were laid against the natural rocky ridge (Figs. 324-325).

On the northern interior wall opposite the entrance, a short wall protrudes into the middle of the burial chamber thus dividing the chamber into two sections. The floor of the chamber is laid with small flat stones, parts of which are still in place in the south western side and entrance way. The general layout of this tomb is reminiscent of a Hafit cairn burial at Ras al-Jinz in Oman (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, Fig. 104).

Skeletal Remains and Funerary Offerings:Two burial levels were encountered inside the chamber with no hiatus between them. Human skeletal remains in the upper level were disarticulated and fragmen-tary, however a total of twenty four individuals were identified; one of them belonging to an infant who had been placed in a flexed situation, with a small, cop-per alloy bangle tapering at the ends to a blunt edge, still in position on the wrist (Figs. 326; 329: 14). (See Appendix 2). A rectangular soft stone jewellery box was also found associated with this skeleton: the box is decorated with double dotted circles, a motif well known from the Umm an-Nar period (Figs. 326; 329: 9) and recalls examples form BHS 84 (Fig. 293:1),

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Fig. 326: Infant skeletal remains with bronze bracelet still in original position and a soft stone jewellery box in situ.

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Fig. 327: Umm an-Nar pottery vessels (1-2, 4-5), Mesopotamian ware (3).

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Fig. 328: Mesopotamian rim sherd from the lower level at Tomb BHS 89.

Fig. 330: Necklaces consisting of a variety of stone beads with carnelian pendants from Tomb BHS 89.

Hili North (Vogt 1985, Pl. 27: 14, 16) and the Umm an-Nar Tomb at Mleiha (Jasim 2003, Fig. 35).

The upper level also yielded a number of Umm an-Nar pottery jars, all of which have experienced sur-face deterioration to the extent that either none or just very faint traces of the painted decoration on them has survived. Among these is a small globular jar, remi-niscent of one from Umm an-Nar (Frifelt 1991, 167), with a flat base and short neck which would probably have turned into an out flared rim and decorated with brownish zigzags on its upper shoulder and a horizon-tal line round the neck (Fig. 327: 1). Also found was a fine, red, globular jar with a flat ring base bearing two horizontal bands on the upper shoulder (Fig. 327: 2), the shape of which also recalls one from Umm an-Nar (Frifelt 1991, 150).

Of special interest is the upper half of a red brown Mesopotamian type jar (Figs. 327: 3; 328) which recalls examples yielded from Hafit and Bat graves (Frifelt 1975b, Figs. 7, 10, 12). A rim sherd belonging to a very fine, red vessel but with extensive exfoliation of its surface was also found (Fig. 327: 4). The rim of this vessel recalls a carinated jar from BHS 72 (Fig. 248: 1) which itself is closely comparable to Meso-potamian Early Dynastic I & II ware. Mesopotamian pottery wares “deposited as offerings in the Hafit type burials were possibly related to the importance given to foreign exchange by the local society” (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, 131) and may therefore suggest status or prestige. The lower level of the burial chamber yielded highly disturbed and fragmentary human bones associated with a collection of beads comprised of a range of coloured stones, some shells and two carnelian pen-dants (Fig. 330).

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Fig. 329: Wadi Suq/Umm an–Nar objects from the upper level at Tomb BHS 89: Soft stone lids (1-5, 7-8), small round bowl (6), Umm an-Nar jewel-lery box (9), concave shell (10), copper ring (11), bronze/copper bracelet (14) and various stone beads (15-19), and arrow heads from Tome BHS 91 ( 12-13).

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Fig. 331: Tomb BHS 90 before excavation (View from the south).

Fig. 332: Tomb BHS 90 after excavation (View from the east).

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Fig. 334: Entrance to the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 90.

Fig. 335: Tomb BHS 90 after excavation (view from the east).

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entrance, which is situated to the south eastern corner and measures 0.6m x 0.6m x 0.6m, is lined with stone slabs from all sides and is provided with a lintel, a sill (Fig. 334) and steps that lead immediately to the floor of the burial chamber. As with all subterranean Wadi Suq tombs at the Jebel al-Buhais cemetery, the entrance was blocked from outside by a large stone slab.

Skeletal remains and Funerary Offerings:A high concentration of poorly preserved and degrad-ed skeletal remains were found scattered all through-out the burial chambers (Fig. 336). A preliminary study of the bone remains indicates the presence of twenty seven individuals which is far less than the original number believed to have been interred here (See Appendix 3).

The skeletal remains were found in association with a variety of grave goods (Figs. 337-338) including clas-sic Wadi Suq pottery in both plain and painted form. Beakers are represented in a variety of shapes and bearing painted decoration; one small beaker carries a zigzag and rectilinear decoration (Fig. 337: 3) remi-niscent of a beaker found at BHS 8 (Fig. 54: 9) and also resembles other examples from Wadi Suq sites in the UAE such Shimal in Ras al-Khaimah (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 4: 13, 17). Of interest is a larger beaker

Fig. 336: Concentration of skeletal remains inside the burial chamber of Tomb BHS 90.

Tomb BHS 90Type: Subterranean Burial Chamber

Date: Bronze Age (Wadi Suq Period)

Co-ordinates: N 25° 01’ 06.34900”, E 55° 47’ 44.86695”

Plan and Architecture:This tomb is located at the north-eastern corner of Jebel al-Buhais (Fig. 331). It is a large, subterranean tomb that occupies an area of 10.5m x 6.5m (Figs. 332-333) and is comprised of four burial chambers that are laid out next to each other so that the overall shape of the tomb may be said to resembles either a four pronged fork, or perhaps most interestingly the word ( ) for God in Arabic.

The internal dividing walls between the burial cham-bers all emerge from the northern side of the tomb and are constructed to an average thickness of 1.3m. The entire burial chamber was roofed with flat slabs placed over corbelling stones; some roofing slabs were found inside the burial chambers where they had fallen while others may have been removed during subsequent looting of the grave. The square shaped

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with a slightly rounded base and tapered out flared rim (Fig. 337: 1) the shape of which recalls exam-ples from Shimal (Donaldson 1984, Fig. 3), while the painted decoration on the upper half of the body - consisting of a panel bordered by horizontal lines and containing wavy bands separated by seven verti-cal lines - is reminiscent of that seen on a deep bowl from Shimal (ibid. Fig. 6: 45), and on two globular jars from Tomb BHS 8 (Fig. 53: 2, 4). It also recalls a cup from Tomb K4 at Kalba (Carter 1997, Fig. 20: K4.251).

Further vessels found include a small, deep sided cup with a flat projected base and slightly incurved walls (Fig. 337: 2) that is decorated with a set of three hori-zontal bands just below the rim followed by another three bands on the middle of the body. This vessel re-calls one from BHS 8 which only differs in the shape of its (flat) base (Fig. 54: 7), and another example from Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1979, Fig. 4: 1). Hemispheri-cal bowls are represented by two flat based vessels, a plain undecorated example with incurved walls and a tapered rim (Fig. 337: 4), and the other also with gently incurved walls but decorated with four sinuous bands just below the rim (Fig. 337: 5).

Also found were rim sherds from large globular jars, one of which bears a panel containing seemingly flo-ral patterns between horizontal lines (Fig. 338: 2). Another body sherd from a separate vessel is similarly decorated with wavy bands between the floral motifs (Fig. 338: 3). A rim sherd belonging to a long, open spouted jar was also present (Fig. 338: 1) but devoid of any surface decoration due to exfoliation. Soft stone vessels were limited to one small, flat based example with incurved sides and bearing in-cised decoration consisting of a single row of dotted circles followed by two horizontal lines (Fig. 329: 6). Unearthed items from the floor of the burial chamber included a number of lids decorated with either two rows of dotted circles (Fig. 329: 1, 7), or a single row of dotted circles (Fig. 329: 2-5, 8), mostly with deco-rated knob tops, bearing a tree motif (Fig. 329: 2-3, 4-5, 8), of particular interest is the lid with a concave

Fig. 337: Selection of Wadi Suq pottery from Tomb BHS 90.

Fig. 338: Wadi Suq pottery from Tomb BHS 90.

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rebate (Fig. 329: 7). Other items included personal adornments, such as a variety of beads and shell items (Fig. 329: 15-19). These findings presumably repre-sent only a small number of the artefacts which must have originally been present before this huge tomb was plundered throughout history.

Tomb BHS 91 Type: Subterranean Burial Chamber

Date: The Bronze Age (Wadi Suq Period)

Co-ordinates: N25° 01’ 08.62222”, E 55° 47’ 46.85671”

Plan and Architecture:This subterranean Wadi Suq tomb lies approximately 10m to the north of BHS 90 and consists of an oval shaped burial chamber measuring 2.45m in length and 1.3m in width (Fig. 339). The layout of this tomb is similar to Tomb BHS 68 which lies in the north-ern part of the cemetery of al-Buhais and dates to the same period (Fig. 212).

The internal walls are made up of six stone courses standing to a height of almost 1m and narrowing at the top to enable the placement of roofing slabs (Fig 340). The entrance, situated on the eastern side of the tomb, is a rectangular shaped opening measuring 0.5m x 0.45m x 0.6m that is topped with a flat stone lintel and paved with a flat sill that rises to approximately 0.15m above the floor of the burial chamber: again, the entrance was blocked with a large stone slab from outside (Fig. 341). The floor of the burial chamber was covered with a layer of gravel.

Skeletal remains and Funerary Offerings:The floor of the burial chamber yielded a limited amount of skeletal remains in association with a few sherds of Wadi Suq pottery and fragments of soft stone vessels. Two bronze arrow heads dating to the Iron Age were also found (Fig. 329: 12-13).


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Fig. 339: General view of Tomb BHS 90 and BHS 91.

Fig. 341: Close up view of Tomb BHS 91, showing the entrance.

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The cemetery of Jebel al-Buhais has yielded a wealth of cultural material and striking examples of funerary architecture with the Bronze Age (Wadi Suq Period) of the 2nd Millennium BCE and the Iron Age of the 1st Millennium BCE particularly well represented. The Neolithic Period is also documented by finds from the 5th Millennium BCE Tomb BHS 18, as is the Hafit/Umm an-Nar period which spans the period from the end of 4th Millennium BCE to the end of the 3rd Millennium BCE.

The distribution of tombs appears to be random, al-though the degree of their concentration varies ac-cording to geographical practicalities. The largest concentration of Iron Age tombs is located within the southern part of the necropolis which is in close proximity to the Iron Age settlement of al-Thuqaibah (Cordoba 2003, 2008; De Cerro 2008) (Fig. 3), and could have served the ancient local population there as a burial place. Distributed among the Iron Age tombs found here are Hafit/Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq buri-als, some of which contained later burials. Iron Age rock shelter tombs were also found set into the natural outcrops of the Jebel.

A different situation prevails at the central section of Jebel al-Buhais where both Wadi Suq and Iron Age tombs lie side by side with no evidence of any earlier Hafit/Umm an-Nar tombs. In the northern section of the Jebel, Hafit/Umm an-Nar tombs coexist alongside Wadi Suq and Iron Age burials (Fig. 342).

Hafit/Umm an-Nar Period

Early Bronze Age tombs at Jebel al-Buhais, in particu-lar those belonging to the Hafit Period, usually take the shape of un-dressed stone cairns, placed in close clus-ters and occupying salient locations across the crests of ridges. This appears to be consistent with previous discoveries of a Hafit horizon in the UAE and Oman. Hafit type tombs in highly visible locations have pre-viously been interpreted as land marks representing territorial boundaries (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, 116), however their prominence in isolated places far away from the disturbances of daily life may rather be seen as an expression of respect for the dead.

The presence, at the study area, of distinct, somewhat simple and rather incipient Umm an-Nar type tombs

alongside Hafit type constructions offered us an op-portunity to re-evaluate existing theories regarding the transition and evolution of funerary architecture within the UAE and Oman Peninsula; it has been sug-gested that the beehive-shaped tombs at Bat in Oman represent a transitional stage between Hafit and Umm an-Nar type tombs (Frifelt 1975 b, 67; Frifelt 1991, 127; Frifelt 2002, 187). While this is a plausible hy-pothesis, the scarcity of finds from the beehive tombs means that it cannot be substantiated and this inter-pretation may therefore be regarded as “ ... an asser-tion of a development sequence, not an explanation” (Potts, in press). Other theories regarding the devel-opment of Umm an-Nar funerary architecture are that it was an intrusive element that appeared in the late 3rd Millennium BCE within the UAE and Oman Pe-ninsula (Orchard 1994, 63, 72). Conversely however, typological continuity from Hafit to Umm an-Nar, throughout the 3rd Millennium BCE has also been as-serted (Benton 2006, 404).

In 1993/94 four tombs of Hafit/Umm an-Nar date were excavated on the plain that lies at the foot of nearby Jebel al-Emalah. Tomb 1, which was described as representing a transitional stage between Hafit and Umm an-Nar types (Benton and Potts 1994, 30; Ben-ton 2006, 404), is a circular tomb measuring 6.5m in diameter, with two internal walls that divide the inter-nal space into four chambers. Among the grave goods are two vessels with both Hafit style and Umm an-Nar characteristics however, “from a typological point of view, Tomb 1 appears to be transitional in form be-tween the single chambered Hafit type cairn tombs and the Umm an-Nar type tombs with their sugar-lump masonry and internal dividing walls” (Benton and Potts 1994, 30). The proximity of Tomb 1 to two very large graves of Hafit type (Tomb 3 and Tomb 4) has also been interpreted as reinforcing the assertion that the tomb represents the transition between Hafit and Umm an-Nar (Potts, in press).

The necropolis at Jebel al-Buhais has yielded four distinct types of tomb that may be said to represent the development and evolution of funerary architec-tural design from Hafit to Umm an-Nar.

The first stage is manifested by the appearance of cairns comprising of circular, simply constructed, sin-gle chambered graves such as BHS 50 and 59 (Fig. 343: 1 and 2) which are located on the southern part

Concluding Remarks

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Fig. 343: Types of transitional Hafit/Umm an-Nar tombs at the necropolis of Jebel al-Buhais.

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Fig. 344: Plans of Hafit/Umm an-Nar transitional tombs at Jebel al-Buhais (1) and Jebel Al-Emalah (2).

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of the Jebel, and others like BHS 62, BHS 63 and BHS 64 on its northern part.

The second stage is represented by Tomb BHS 89 which is a typical Hafit type grave at a high loca-tion on the anticline between two rocky slopes. This tomb was re-used during the beginning of the Umm an-Nar period as evidenced by the two burial levels that were encountered upon excavation; the lower layer dates to the Hafit period and the upper to Umm an-Nar according to associated diagnostic finds. The lower layer of Hafit horizon has seemingly witnessed the incorporation of a short wall protruding from the internal northern wall opposite the entrance thus di-viding the original single burial chamber into two sec-tions (Fig. 343: 3). The introduction of a new, albeit simple, architectural element into a traditional single chambered Hafit type tomb can also be seen at Tomb BHS 71 (Fig. 343: 4).

From this stage in the architectural evolution process emerged a new typology, as represented by Tomb BHS 57 which has two short walls embedded into opposite sides of the inner ring wall thus dividing the main burial chamber into two smaller burial chambers. A gap in the middle of the dividing walls enables access between the two sides. The entrance, which is located

in the middle of the eastern half of the tomb, leads via a passageway into the chambers (Fig. 343: 5).

Another manifestation within the architectural transi-tion from Hafit type to Umm an-Nar is represented by Tomb BHS 88, which differs from BHS 57 by the incorporation of a small rectangular shaped recession into the middle of the internal ring wall on the exact opposite side of the tomb to the entrance. Another in-novation to take place can be seen in the more or less regular corners of the internal chambers. These simple new additions seem to divide the burial chamber into four distinct sections (Fig. 343: 6). It is an extraordi-nary coincidence that Tomb 1 at Jebel al-Emalah (as described above) finds its identical twin in Tomb BHS 88 at Jebel al-Buhais, from its location on the plain at the foot of the Jebel to the striking resemblances in architectural style (Fig. 344). The finds from BHS 88 are largely comprised of pottery vessels, metal artefacts and beads, all of which are consistent with the range and variety of materials known from other Umm an-Nar tombs in the region. The architectural parallels between Tomb BHS 88 at Jebel al-Buhais and Tomb 1 at Jebel al-Emalah are absolute and may denote either common mortuary behaviour, or that the same architect was responsible for both constructions; a circa 2660 - 2400 BCE date has been proposed for the

Fig. 345: Umm an-Nar tomb at the area of Jebel Faya after excavation.

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Fig. 346: General view of Umm an-Nar tomb at Mleiha after excavation.

Fig. 347: Restored Umm an-Nar tomb at Mleiha.

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Jebel al-Emalah tomb (Benton and Potts 1994, 32).The final stage of architectural development can be seen in circular, simply constructed, single cham-bered tombs (BHS 69, BHS 71, BHS 72, BHS 76) that are located in the same area as BHS 88 (Fig. 343: 7-8) and which yielded Mesopotamian pottery as well as other materials of an Umm an-Nar date. These in-clude early bronze artefacts, notably daggers/knife blades, usually with four rivets on the base for fixing to the shaft (Figs. 188: 4; 225:1; 242; 319: 5). A simi-lar situation was revealed at Ras al-Had and Zukayt in Oman (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, Figs. 101 - 102), and at Jebel Hafit, Umm an-Nar (Frifelt 1971, 1975 a, 1975 b, 1991; Potts 1986) and Jebel al-Emalah in the UAE (Benton and Potts 1994).

It does not seem unreasonable to regard the above tombs as incipient forms or prototypes in an evolu-tionary path of funerary architecture spanning the first half of the 3rd Millennium BCE and eventually culminating in the appearance, at the second half of the millennium, of the highly sophisticated, multi-chambered Umm an-Nar type tombs prevalent across the UAE and Oman Peninsula. It should however be highlighted that the four architectural types defined here do not necessarily appear in chronological order; their very close proximity to one another, together with the common occurrence of certain early Umm an-Nar artefacts, would certainly suggest that their construction was at least partially contemporaneous.

The existence also of some Umm an-Nar type tombs (BHS 51, BHS 57) side by side with older Hafit type tombs directly on the crest of the ridges, is of par-ticular interest as they are usually found on plains and near settlements. Indeed this is the first incidence within the UAE and Oman of Umm an-Nar tombs atop rocky crests.

The tombs reviewed in this section may therefore be said to plausibly represent the transition between Hafit type and Umm an-Nar funerary design and layout; starting with small single-chambered Hafit graves (Fig. 343: 1-2), to single chambered with one short wall protruding from one side (Fig. 343: 3-4), and then double or quadripartite-chambered (Fig. 343: 5-6), before finally taking the shape of the large, simple, single chambered Umm an-Nar type tombs (Fig. 343: 7-8). As was the case with most tombs at this necropolis, the Hafit/Umm an-Nar tombs were re-used and hence contained material belonging to later periods like the Wadi Suq and Iron Age.

The presence of early Bronze Age tombs at both Jebel al-Buhais and nearby Jebel al-Emalah, the Umm an-Nar tomb close by at the Faya area (Fig. 345) as well as the large tomb at the site of Mleiha (Figs. 346-347) are certainly indicative of the existence of Umm an-Nar culture within this area of the northern Emirates. This greatly extends the horizon of this culture well beyond its previously recognized boundaries.

Finally, it must be emphasized that, despite the ab-sence of any traces of contemporaneous settlements, optimism remains high that one will eventually be en-countered somewhere on the plain within the middle sector of Sharjah.

Wadi Suq Period

As evidenced by the lavishly furnished residences that served not only to house their dead, but also to honour and safeguard them in the afterlife, death and life after death were evidently major preoccupations that gov-erned the minds and behaviour of the inhabitants of Jebel al-Buhais during the Wadi Suq period. The Wadi Suq tombs found vary in size, architectural design and contents, and have witnessed collective and multiple burials over a long time span, from the beginning of the 2nd Millennium BCE to the onset of the Iron Age (the last quartar of the 2nd Millennium BCE). With the exception of just two examples (BHS 1 and BHS 65) all of the Wadi Suq tombs were subterranean (Fig. 348). There is however an unequivocal differ-ence between BHS 1 and BHS 65; the former is large and sophisticated and the latter is - quite unusually for Wadi Suq funerary architecture - quite simple in design and layout. The extraordinary funerary architecture of some of the Wadi Suq tombs may also be associated with status and funerary ritual. BHS 66 in particular is a unique and unprecedented design which looks like a clover-shape (Fig. 208) or perhaps more appropriately a date palm considering the native geographical terrain of this area during the Wadi Suq period. Nonetheless, this tomb has - so far - no parallel throughout the en-tire Oman Peninsula. It is still uncertain whether the four separated burial chambers that make up this dis-tinctive shape are a reflection of the social or familial relationships of the interred they contain. Whether the shape itself implies any religious significance or is merely an expression of architectural design also remains unclear.

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Fig. 348: A subterranean Wadi Suq tomb at the Necropolis of Jebel al-Buhais.

Another unparalleled architectural example within this necropolis is Tomb BHS 90 (Figs. 332-333). This unique example is the largest of all Wadi Suq funerary constructions uncovered within the UAE and Oman Peninsula to date. The level of workmanship and ex-pense revealed by these extraordinary tombs reflects a highly organised society with a considerable degree of wealth.

That certain ritualistic practices were observed in some but not all Wadi Suq tombs may be a reflection of the prestige or status of the interred individuals. For example, in BHS12 the presence of a domesti-cated sheep in the second burial layer suggests that a ritualistic sacrifice had taken place. Animal sacri-fice may also have been a feature of BHS 8 which contained the long bones of several humans together with some animal bones at the bottom of the burial chamber. Finds from the mass grave site BHS 18 indi-cates that the presence of animal bones within human tombs has been a continuous practice since approxi-mately the 5th Millennium BCE.

All Wadi Suq tombs contained male and female skel-etons thus suggesting that males and females were not segregated upon burial. Children were also present in both Wadi Suq and Iron Age burials. There was no ev-idence of cremation at any point in the history of the cemetery. The degree of disturbance observed in the

Wadi Suq tombs had destroyed a significant amount of evidence such as body orientation, nevertheless in one well preserved example from BHS 3 the indi-vidual seems to have been buried in a flexed position facing North West with the skull oriented towards the north.

The Bronze Age of the Wadi Suq Period was rep-resented by a wealth of associated funerary goods including pottery ware, soft stone vessels, metal ar-tefacts, weaponry and jewellery in addition to other material. A wide range of Wadi Suq pottery types were present, the most distinctive being the large globular spouted jars, cups and beakers. Bowls and jars in a variety of shapes and sizes were also found. The ma-jority of Wadi Suq pottery yielded bears painted deco-ration comprising geometric, floral and animal shaped motifs however vessels devoid of any decor were also found. Most vessels were thrown, however a small number of handmade specimens were encountered. A string-cutting technique is clearly visible on some bases. The majority of vessels were made of a buff col-oured to reddish paste that generally contained very fine inclusions consisting of tiny particles. The fabric of the vessels is generally good and made of either levi-gated clay or a sandy textured paste however specks or patches visible on some vessels may reflect inconsist-

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encies in the firing temperature of the pottery kiln. A clear slip, or traces of a slip, can be seen on some ves-sels often in a yellowish, brownish or reddish colour. The absence of a slip on other examples is either be-cause it never existed or because it has not survived. The Wadi Suq pottery, in terms of shape, technique and decoration, can be classified as Classic and is closely comparable with examples known from other contemporaneous tombs and sites within the UAE and Oman such as Hili 8, Shimal, Bidyah, Kalba, Tell Abraq, Wadi Suq and Wadi Sunaysil among others.

Soft stone appears to have been a prominent feature of Wadi Suq industry. The raw material varies in colour from dark to light grey and greys with brownish hues some of which shimmer due to the reflective particles they contain. Variety is also observed in the array of soft stone vessel shapes and in the pleasing incised decor that adorns them; generally this consists of geo-metric patterns, with a dotted circle motif being the most common feature. Although seen on some vessels from the preceding Umm an-Nar period the dotted circle motif has been found on almost all soft stone Wadi Suq vessels and lids yielded from throughout the entire UAE and Omani Peninsula. The soft stone vessels recovered from the Wadi Suq tombs include globular examples that are fully deco-rated with bands of dotted circles, rectilinear designs or parallel diagonal lines zigzagging across the body, often with four symmetrical pierced or un-pierced lugs (Figs. 24: 2; 148: 4; 157: 1; 215: 7; 329: 1). Oth-er types of early Wadi Suq vessels include truncated conical shaped examples that are similarly decorat-ed with four small lugs (Fig. 148: 3), some spouted bowls (Fig. 215: 1) and a variety of lids bearing the distinguishing dotted circle motif on their upper sur-faces (Fig. 215: 2-5). Close parallels - in terms of technique, shapes and decoration – are known from other Wadi Suq sites in the UAE and Oman.

The tombs at Jebel al-Buhais reveal the extent of cop-per production during the Wadi Suq period. The re-cent discovery of an early Bronze Age copper smelt-ing workshop - the first to be uncovered within the UAE - at the prehistoric site at of Wadi al-Hilo in the northern Hajar mountains not far away from Jebel al-Buhais may provide a clue as to the source of this metal (Kutterer and Jasim 2009).A considerable quantity of the metal artefacts yielded from the Wadi Suq tombs were found in association with classic or early type pottery and soft stone vessels. These include a wide range of bronze/copper objects

such as utensils and weaponry as well as other mis-cellaneous objects. Copper vessels are varied and in-clude deep bowls and pedestal chalices/goblets (Figs. 24; 27; 30: 1; 32) that recall example from Asimah in the UAE and Hamala North in Bahrain (Vogt 1994, Fig. 55: 1, 2). Pedestal goblets have been interpreted as evidence of a Central Asian influence extending to the Gulf region (During Caspers 1994, 33). Other items include a bucket-like, large open bowl (Fig. 31) which recalls one from Bidyah (al-Tikriti 1989).

Of particular interest is a large collection of socketed bronze spear heads or lances; this type of weaponry first appeared in the archaeological record at the end of the Umm an-Nar period but is generally considered to be a peculiar feature of the early Wadi Suq. Forty eight of these were found in association with human remains and other artefacts within certain tombs at Jebel al-Buhais (Figs. 16-21; 29; 39; 109: 2; 153: 4; 193: 8; 217: 3-4). The placement of spear heads in pairs within some of the burial chambers (BHS 2, BHS 38) suggests a ritualistic significance.

Also in use were knives/daggers with a tang provided with a single perforation to accommodate a fixture (Figs. 18; 22; 23). There are no comparable examples from other Wadi Suq sites for these types of daggers, however they are similar to another from the rectan-gular Umm an-Nar tomb at Mowaihat in the Emir-ate of Ajman (Harrinck 1991, Fig. 8: 29-30). Since, at Jebel al-Buhais, they were found among a hoard of other items outside the Wadi Suq tomb of BHS 2 they may very well have been plundered from some of the earlier Umm an-Nar tombs within the area. Also of interest is a leaf-shaped knife/dagger from BHS 68 (Fig. 230: 1).

Personal adornments were often found in direct asso-ciation with the deceased and constituted silver brace-lets, gold beads, precious stones and finger rings. The presence of an electrum bead suggests a developed gold smelting technique. Of special interest is a beau-tiful brooch decorated with engraved circles, each of which is inlaid with coloured precious stones (Fig. 221). A bronze/copper alloy pendant or plaque in the form of animal (possibly a ram) was also found (Fig. 73: 1) is reminiscent of gold pendants from the Umm an-Nar tomb at Tell Abraq (Potts 2002, 24). Commonly encountered in the Wadi Suq tombs were thin, flat, sub-rectangular, trapezoid or bow tie shaped copper alloy blades which may have been used as razors (Figs. 18; 84: 2). These recall examples from

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Shimal, Bidyah 5 and have also been reported from Bronze Age sites in India. Other bronze/copper items include awls, needles and rings.

The material culture represented by the inventory of the tombs demonstrates such a degree of homogeneity as to indicate no more than a single period. The com-bined evidence of tomb architecture, pottery objects, soft stone industry and socketed spear heads refers to the classic or early Wadi Suq period which has been dated to between 2000 and 1450 BCE (Carter 1997, 236) or 2000-1600 BCE (Velde 2003, 104).

Particular objects in the form of plain and incised ar-row heads, triangular shaped blades with several rivet holes at the broad ends for affixing to the shaft and a dagger blade with a flanged hilt cast in one piece have previously been identified as Late Bronze Age finds (Carter 1997, 237; Velde 2003, 111). Examples of these objects were however exclusively found in early Iron Age contexts, immediately on top of the Wadi Suq layers, within the reused tombs at Jebel al-Buhais.

The Iron Age Period

Dramatic changes are evident in the transition from the Wadi Suq period to the Iron Age at Jebel al-Buhais and include the disappearance of certain characteristic fea-tures and the introduction of new cultural elements.

The mastery of funerary architecture demonstrated by the Wadi Suq constructions was seemingly never matched during the Iron Age. The waning enthusi-asm for building elaborate and sophisticated graves to house the dead may be attributed to the availability of already existing monuments for this purpose; reuse is clearly evidenced by the additional skeletal remains, found in association with typical Iron Age material, within the upper layers of earlier tombs.

In addition to using their predecessor’s tombs, the Iron Age community at Jebel al-Buhais constructed very simple graves in the form of cist burials which were found in various locations around the Jebel. Other Iron Age graves were incorporated into the natural outcrops at various altitudes along the slopes of the mountain.

Fig. 349: General view showing the excavation of rock shelters along the slopes of Jebel al-Buhais.

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Subsidiary Iron Age graves were frequently found just outside larger original tombs, or incorporated into the surrounding walls of existing tombs. At different altitudes along both the eastern and western flanks of Jebel al-Buhais a series of natural rock shelters (some-times with stone walls erected in front of them to form a defined area) were also used as burial places. Rock shelters graves form the largest number of the Iron Age tombs at Jebel al-Buhais; these were abundantly furnished and their vast range of contents represents the largest proportion of the Iron Age assemblage yielded from Jebel al-Buhais (Fig. 349).

In contrast to the achievements of the Wadi Suq, Iron Age funerary architecture at Jebel al-Buhais is characterised by the absence of remarkable design or innovation. While this may well reflect a lack of architectural skills during this era the abundance of and quality of funerary goods equally indicates a high degree of dexterity and workmanship.

As was the case with the preceding Wadi Suq period, both individual and collective interment was observed throughout the cemetery. Again, the fragmentary con-dition of the skeletal remains in Iron Age burials made body positioning difficult to decipher. There were a limited number of semi articulated skeletons in fairly good states of preservation however body orientation varied from one tomb to another. Placing the dead in a flexed position inside the burial chamber appears to have been a common practice. In certain cases, such as Tomb BHS 12, it was observed that males were usually buried on their right sides while females on their left side however no segregation on the basis of sex or age was noted.

The Iron Age skeletal remains were also found associ-ated with a wide range of funerary offerings, includ-ing pottery, soft stone vessels, personal adornments and metal artefacts - notably weaponry. A significant quantity of pottery vessels were yielded from Iron Age contexts in both the reused older graves and the rock shelters. The bulk of the al-Buhais ceramic industry is handmade, however a limited number of wheel made vessels were also present. The Iron Age pottery finds can be categorised as coarse, plain, slipped, painted and incised; these are made of buff coloured, pinkish or reddish paste with a fine or visible temper. Slips are sometimes applied to both external and internal faces and are generally creamy-white, red-brown and black.

Although a variety of forms are represented, plain pottery – with little typological variation - seems to have been dominant. Long necked jars are represent-ed by just two examples (Fig. 259: 7-8) which have no direct parallels but are generally known from Iron Age II contexts (Potts 1990, 377). A pear-shaped jar is also present (Fig. 114: 4).The most popular type of plain pottery vessel is a deep, round bowl with a flat base, slightly incurving sides with either a single cari-nation or variant degrees of ridging on the upper half and a plain, tapered or bevelled rim (Figs. 259: 1-5, 10; 290: 1-6, 9-11). Some bowls had been provided with a small, open, pinched or simple spout (Fig. 114; 2, 3), while others were adorned with painted decora-tion confined to the upper part around the rim (Figs. 139: 2; 248: 5; 290:1). Also found were round, open mouthed and flat based bowls with plain, curving or straight sides and bearing a wide array of rims (Figs. 102: 1; 130: 5; 139: 3; 197: 7; 248: 3, 6; 259: 9; 290: 8). A plain, long-spouted vessel (Fig. 114; 1) differs from the bridge-spouted examples known from Ru-meilah, Muweilah, and Qusais and which are compa-rable to distinctively decorated artefacts of the Iranian Iron Age II and later periods (Potts 1990, 378; Magee 1996, 246).

Pottery ware with incised decoration is represented by just six vessels; three jars (Figs. 259: 8; 302: 1, 5) and three bowls (Figs. 147: 5; 290: 7, 9). The large globu-lar jar shown in Fig. 302: 5 bears incised decoration in the form of pendant triangles while the bowl shown in Fig. 147: 5 is of special interest as it is the only one with beautifully incised decor covering the entire external surface which is also stained in patches from heavy burning.

Painted decoration on Iron Age pottery was not com-mon however the few examples that were found - such as the large, globular carinated spouted jar (Fig. 301: 3) - are distinctively decorated. Another jar with a globular body and four pierced lugs bears painted decoration on its upper half including across the lugs (Fig. 302: 2). The painted decoration on ridged bowls is usually confined to the upper third of the vessel just below the rim and generally consists of a wide frieze containing criss-cross or zigzag lines (Figs. 139: 2; 248: 5; 290:1; 302: 4).

The majority of the Iron Age pottery yielded from Jebel al-Buhais is closely comparable to finds from

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Iron Age sites like Rumeilah Periods 1 and 2, Qarn Bint Saud, Hili 2, Fashgha 1, and al-Qusais. Although examples from Iron Age I and III contexts were also found, the majority of the Jebel al-Buhais pottery vessels are closely comparable - in terms of technique, shape and decoration - to those from Rumeilah Period 1 & 2 and Tell Abraq Phase 2. The highpoint of the al-Buhais ceramic industry may therefore be assigned to the Iron Age II period (circa 1100-600 BCE) – this is further substantiated by the discovery of diagnos-tic items such as metal objects, weaponry and stamp seals among others.

The abundance of soft stone vessels within Iron Age burial layers indicates the equal prominence of the soft stone industry during this era. Two variants of grey soft stone were observed; light grey and dark grey. The majority of vessels were made from the lighter variety, some of which contained reflective particles. It has been suggested that light grey, soft stone “was preferred for its aesthetic value during the Iron Age” (Zutterman 2003, 81).

The soft stone vessels represent a wide range of shapes including variously shaped bowls and beakers, as well as single chambered containers that were used as jewellery boxes (Figs. 65: 4; 103: 1; 293: 1; 304). Previously un-encountered types of soft stone vessel include a variety of open spouted examples that are beautifully decorated with incised patterns (Figs.28: 5; 30: 1-2; 32: 9; 48: 2; 265: 1-5).

Some of the soft stone vessels were found together with their - usually knobbed - lids. All were decorated with incised patterns consisting mainly of rectiline-ar designs, diagonal lines, zigzag, triangles, herring bones, cross hatches, saw tooth designs, gadroons and stars motifs although naturalistic motifs depicting birds, fish and floral representations are also present. Of special interest is the large cylindrical vessel from Tomb BHS 31 that is decorated with bird and fish mo-tifs (Fig. 130: 1). A fish motif also adorns a lid knob, also found at Tomb BHS 31, but belonging to a Wadi Suq horizon (Fig. 130: 3). It is worth mentioning that the dot and circle motif commonly seen on vessels from the preceding era are not present on any Iron Age vessel.

Apart from the vessels which are peculiar to Jebel al-Buhais (including Figs. 130: 1, 2, 3 among others), the majority of the soft stone assemblage finds close parallels, in terms of form, technique and decoration, to finds from other Iron Age sites in the region such as

Rumeilah Period 2, Hili 8, Qarn Bint Sa’ud, al-Qusais, Asimah, Fashgha 1 and Shimal. A date of Iron Age II can therefore confidently be assigned to the soft stone inventory at Jebel al-Buhais.

Metal artefacts yielded from the tombs at Jebel al-Buhais reveal the occurrence of significant changes within the industry since the preceding Wadi Suq pe-riod. For example, Iron Age utensil vessels are more varied and abundant with previously unseen typolo-gies making an appearance for the first time. Of inter-est are the spouted vessels (Figs. 272: 1-2; 273) which find close parallels in examples from the Ibri/Selme hoard in Oman (Weisgerber 1991, PLS. 31: 301; 33: 306), Hili 8 and al-Qusais. An open-mouthed vessel bearing incised decoration in the form of tinsel-like shapes descending from the upper external rim rep-resents a particularly noteworthy find (Fig. 272: 3). Well made bowls that are carinated at the middle of the body and have flat bases and straight sided walls at their upper half were also found (Fig. 272: 4-5).

Much attention seems to have been paid to the pro-duction of metal weaponry which may reflect a soci-ety that was frequently engaged in combat and thus focussed on the development of associated tools for this purpose. The abundance also of metal weaponry such as arrow-heads and lances inside the tombs was remarkable and its presence suggests a ritualistic or status significance since these items would not have been easily spared or discarded.

The socketed spear heads which were a characteristic feature of the Wadi Suq disappear from the archaeo-logical record completely and are replaced by new types of weaponry. Notable finds to be mentioned here are a single piece cast dagger with a flanged hilt and crescent shaped pommel measuring some 41.5cm in length, 3cm in width and 1cm in thickness (Fig. 350). The crescent shaped decoration on the lower end of the hilt is similar to that seen on an example from Rumeilah Period 2 and ‘Ibri/Selme. Similar dag-gers were also found in Tombs BHS 27 and BHS 30. This type of tool is also known from Qidfa, Hafit and al-Qusais in the UAE and also from Nizwa in Oman (Weisgerber 1988, 288; Yule and Weisgerber 2001, PL. 2). Interestingly, this type of dagger also resem-bles specimens from Luristan (Weisgerber 1988: 288; Potts 1998, Fig. 8). The parallel examples cited here are all dated to the late Bronze Age (Velde 2003, 112), however the Jebel al-Buhais daggers from BHS 27 and BHS 30 were found in secure iron Age deposits that have been dated to the Iron Age II period.

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Another type of dagger found at Jebel al-Buhais is represented by two examples of triangular shaped blades with a raised mid rib. One blade bears two per-forations at its base (Fig. 188: 6), while the other has five holes on the base for affixing to the shaft (Fig. 217: 2). The former blade was found in a mixed layer of Wadi Suq and Iron Age material in Tomb BHS 58, while the latter was retrieved from a sealed Iron Age layer immediately above a Wadi Suq context in BHS 66. Accordingly, it seems reasonable to postulate an early Iron Age date for these types of weapons. Simi-lar daggers are known from other sites in the UAE and also from al-Wasit and Bisya in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber 2001, Fig. 11: Do6).

A short sword/spear head that was found in Tomb BHS 26 appears to represent the first incidence, dur-ing the early Iron Age, of a previously un-encountered typology. This parallel sided blade has a raised mid rib that tapers towards a pointed tip and bears incised decor on both faces of the lower mid rib, just over the tang (Fig. 109: 3). This is the only example of its kind to be found in the UAE, however it recalls one from al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 49: D) and others from the ‘Ibri/Selme hoard in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber 2001, Pl. 1: 7). As a further point of interest, it should be noted that the incised decoration seen on Fig. 109: 3 is reminiscent of that seen on many of the bronze arrow heads from Jebel al-Buhais.

Bronze arrow heads are themselves another charac-teristic feature of the Iron Age I/II at Jebel al-Buhais. These were abundant; a total of 242 were found throughout the Iron Age contexts at the necropolis (Figs. 116; 128; 178; 274; 296; 308: 16-35). Shapes varied enormously from simple tanged, leaf-shaped examples with a low mid rib, to pieces with accentu-ated shoulders and flattened midribs and from rhom-boid shaped to more elongated lanceolate blades that tapered to sharp tips. A limited number of arrowheads

were adorned usually with incised decoration on both faces in the form of X-shapes, triangles or herring bones or a combination of all three, inscribed on the lower mid rib. Blade size also varied ranging from approximately 2cm to 6.5cm in length

Most of the decorated examples (eleven out of sev-enteen) were comprised of the elongated lanceolate blades (Figs. 114: 3-4; 109: 5-6; 218: 1-6; 262: 8); these are further characterised by the quality of their manufacture which perhaps suggest that they were high status objects owned by appropriately high rank-ing individuals and not for common use. Whether the incised marks have some ritualistic significance or are merely decorative elements remains uncertain.

It should be highlighted that both plain and decorated bronze arrow heads were found side by side within the same burial levels; no conclusions regarding ty-pological evolution or chronology can therefore be established according to this criteria. It should also be stressed that, without exception, all of the bronze ar-rowheads were retrieved from either Iron Age tombs or from Iron Age deposits within older reused tombs and that none were attested at any earlier burial lev-el. This is consistent with the situation at Rumeilah (Potts 1990, 385), Fashgha 1 (Phillips 1987, Fig.38) and al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 46). This finding ap-pears to contradict earlier assertions that arrowheads were present during the 2nd Millennium BCE (Don-aldson 1984, Fig. 26; Weisgerber 1988, 290; Magee 1998, 1) and were “an innovation in the weaponry of the Late Bronze Age” (Velde 2003, 112). A plausible theory is that bronze arrowheads made their first ap-pearance towards the very end of the Bronze Age and became a commonplace object during the beginning of the Iron Age.

Two examples of socketed, triple-winged arrow heads were found in Tomb BHS 20 (Fig. 95: 1, 2). This type

Fig. 350: Two bronze daggers from Tombs BHS 27 and BHS 30.

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of arrow head – which may be classified as a trilobite or three-lobed arrowhead - is known from Rumei-lah Period 2 (Iron Age III) where it has been dated to between circa 600 to 400 BCE. (Boucharlat and Lombard 1985, Pl. 62: 9-11). Their - albeit limited - presence therefore has significant implications for our knowledge regarding the chronological sequence of the Iron Age at Jebel al-Buhais.

The absence of the typical bronze socketed axe-head found at sites such as Rumeilah Period 2, Hili 8 (Cleuziou 1978, 43), Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Bouchar-lat and Lombard 1855, Pl. 62: 16), Tell Abraq (Potts 1990, 387), al-Qusais (Taha 2009, Pl. 41) in the UAE and ‘Ibri/Selme in Oman (Yule and Weisgerber 1991: Fig. 9) is remarkable and should be highlighted. Also absent from Jebel al-Buhais is the burnished slipped maroon ware (BSMW) which was found at Rumeilah Period 2 and Tell Abraq Phase 3; this type of pottery is also known throughout Iran, western Afghanistan and Bahrain and is dated to Iron Age III, c.600 to 400/300 BCE (Magee 1996, 249).

Moving away from weaponry and onto personal adornments, a distinctive metal artefact in the reper-

Fig. 351: Two jewellery boxes from tombs BHS 10 with two silver ear/nose rings and BHS 23 with two gold ear/nose rings.

toire of the Iron Age in the UAE and Oman was a very heavy, open ended ring measuring around 9cm in diameter. These objects can be described as bangles or anklets and were usually decorated with a series of deep incisions around the open finials. Ten bangles were found in pairs at five of the Iron Age burials at Jebel al-Buhais (Figs. 23; 27; 30; 61: 5-6; 77: 11-12).

The weight of the bangles found at Jebel al-Buhais ranges from between 351gm to 937gm however ex-amples from other Iron Age sites have reached up to 1000gm in weight. The extraordinary heaviness of these items make their suitability as personal adorn-ments questionable as does the evidence from Tomb BHS 66 in which a female skeleton was found bur-ied with a light weight bronze ring/anklet still in situ around her ankle (Figs. 212; 222). The suggestion that these heavy bangles/anklets were used as form of cur-rency (Potts 1991), or that they may be regarded as as-sets in the form of ingots, therefore sounds plausible. Similar items were found in well stratified Iron Age deposits at the sites of Rumeilah Period 2, Qidfa’, Jebel al-Emalah and the ‘Ibri/Selme hoard thus al-lowing a Iron Age II date to be suggested for the Jebel al-Buhais examples.

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Fig. 352: A lead stamp seal from BHS 77 (1) and a lead stamp seal from Qarn Bint Sau’d (2) (After Stevens, K. 1992).

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Equally interesting personal adornments include some unique pieces of jewellery, made either of precious stones or metal and including silver and gold nose/earrings (Figs. 59: 1; 117: 5; 127: 3-4). A total of six of these nose/earrings - three in gold and three in sil-ver - were found, some of them still contained within a jewellery box (Fig. 351) and which are reminiscent of the leech-shaped earrings found at 4th Millennium BCE sites in Oman (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007, Fig. 53). An exquisite agate necklace (Fig. 285) and a bronze bracelet (Fig. 287) found at Tomb BHS 83 both re-flect refined taste and an equally high a standard of craftsmanship. The presence of these high value items within the same tomb may also suggest the social sta-tus and wealth of the deceased.

The unprecedented discovery of a white marble mace head in a re-used Hafit tomb (BHS 76) is particularly interesting, not merely because it is a high status ob-ject but also due to uncertainty regarding its date; this has been suggested as Iron Age according to associ-ated artefacts found during excavation (Jasim 2009, 82) however, its presence in a reused Hafit type tomb may indicate a much older date.

Yet more remarkable was the discovery of some iron items in situ (BHS 26, BHS 46, BHS 51, BHS 78 and BHS 85). These are among the first iron artefacts to have been found in the UAE and Oman peninsula within an Iron Age context. Their discovery appears to contradict the notion of an “Iron Age without iron” (Lombard 1989), as well as counter previous asser-tions that, for the Oman peninsula, the term “Iron Age” is itself a misnomer (Potts 1990, 383). A total of six iron objects were found: two spear heads, three daggers and one long pin-shaped object. An Iron Age iron dagger was also found at Muweilah in Sharjah (Magee 1998b). It should however be conceded that the currently available material evidence is too scant to present a real challenge against the prevailing no-tion of the Iron Age without iron. It has been suggest-ed that the few iron artefacts yielded from the UAE and Oman peninsula were almost certainly produced outside south-eastern Arabia and thus that the rarity of the material, together with its physical strength, lead to the use of iron objects as status symbols or reflec-tions of prestige (Magee 1998b).

Jebel al-Buhais and the outside world

The discovery of foreign items that are known from the beginning of the Bronze Age suggests that com-munications between Jebel al-Buhais and the outside

world existed during both the Bronze and Iron Ages. A connection with Mesopotamia is evidenced by the presence of Mesopotamian Jamdat Nasr – Early Dy-nastic II/III ware while other exotic items, such as the bronze bracelet with leopard head ends and the white marble mace head, might also indicate a link to Meso-potamia. Texts from ancient Mesopotamia unequivo-cally indicate that such long distance trade existed between Mesopotamia and Magan – the region which is now known as the UAE and Oman Peninsula - and involved the export of copper from Magan to Meso-potamia.

An Indian connection is represented by the presence of a stamp seal (Fig. 163) and carnelian beads. Soft stone jewellery boxes also point towards the Indus (Frifelt 1975a, 386). A Dilmun seal and Scythian ar-row heads may indicate trading contacts with Bahrain and South East Iran which enabled the wealthy elite to acquire by purchase or exchange precious items and ornaments.

Regional contacts were also revealed by the presence of pottery and stone vessels which have close paral-lels to examples from sites such as Shimal, Rumei-lah and Fashgha 1 among others. A lead stamp seal from BHS 78 (Fig. 276: 1) was closely comparable to an example from Qarn Bint Sa’ud (Fig. 350). Of particular interest were four stone stamp seals that are inscribed with different motifs and whose presence within certain tombs (BHS 26, BHS 43, BHS 65 and BHS 78) may signify the social status of the deceased (Jasim 2008).

The necropolis at Jebel al-Buhais

This spectacular site has yielded significant discover-ies that have contributed appreciably to our current understanding of the Iron Age within the region. It has also furthered our understanding of the evolution of funerary architecture from Hafit to Umm an-Nar, as well as yielding unprecedented and magnificent ex-amples of Wadi Suq funerary monuments that reveal much about prevailing attitudes towards death and the after-life.

Today the necropolis at Jebel al-Buhais represents an important archaeological landmark within the UAE and Oman peninsula; its continuous use as a place of burial for more than seven thousand years attests to its significance in the lives and deaths of the ancient inhabitants of the region.

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Appendices

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Appendix 1

Anthropological Notes on the Human Remains from Tomb BHS 88, Sharjah (UAE)

Adelina & Johannes Kutterer

The site BHS88 is located in the Jebel al-Buhais area in the Cental Region of the Sharjah Emirate (UAE). Be-sides finds excavated by the Directorate of Antiquities under the direction of Dr. Sabah A. Jasim, co-mingled human remains from the early Umm an-Nar period were found. The grave structure consists of four chambers with an entrance at the west side. In two of the chambers (North-East and North-West) bones were preserved for excavation by the author in the field season 2010. The grave also yielded an intrusive burial – as well as bone fragments of a second individual – from the 4th century AD which were analyzed in 2009 and are also presented below.

Umm an-Nar period human remainsNorth-East chamber:In the NE-chamber two skulls, four mandibles and several fragmentary long-bones were recovered. One of the skulls was labelled with find number 1, the other one with find number 14.

The minimal number of individuals in this chamber is four. The metal objects excavated by the Directorate of Antiquities are most likely associated to the individual with the skull number 14. Skull 1 consists of a frag-mentary neuro-cranium (see Fig. 2 upper part). The mandible with the find-number 5 is possibly belonging to this skull, as it was lying near to it. The skull displays no diagnostic features for a sex determination. This individual was at least adult at the time of death.

Skull 14 (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3) was recovered with an associated mandible. The mastoid process as well as the occipital region are robust, indicating male sex. Other features were not preserved for sex determination. Tooth wear (Lovejoy 1985) and dental status (all four third molars are complete) argue for an age between 25-40 years at the time of death. The upper and lower teeth are very brittle and fragmentary (Fig. 4). They were sam-pled for future bio-geochemical analysis.

One right and two left humeri (3, 9 and 20) recovered from the NE-chamber of the grave, which all three seem to belong to different individuals (different robusticity), exhibit strongly developed sites of muscle insertions and increased robusticity at the deltoid tuberosity (Fig. 5), which is related to habitual stress of the upper limb. Since two of the humeri are left ones, it seems that the activities that led to this hypertrophy involved both arms, such as grinding etc. No pathologies could be detected in the excavated human remains.

North-West chamber:From the NW-chamber only some long-bones are preserved. It seems that a femur as well as two tibiae are the remains of a disturbed primary burial (Fig. 6) of a person that was buried in a left-sided squatting position.

Intrusive burials (4th century AD)Skeleton 1:Preservation: The skeleton was excavated by the Directorate of Antiquities under the direction of Dr. S.A. Jasim. It lay in the grave on its right side in a flexed position with the face facing slightly downwards. The bones are fragile and fragmented and the bone surfaces are eroded. The skull is in a rather good condition although it is deformed

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due to soil pressure. Both mandible and maxilla are preserved. The upper incisors are broken post-mortem. Most of the other teeth are preserved for examination.

Sex: The skull morphology indicates that the individual was of male sex (Acsádi & Nemeskéri 1970),? but the characteristic features are not very distinctive.

Age: The age of the individual could be estimated to 20-25 years by analysing the tooth-wear (Lovejoy 1985)? and skull sutures (Meindl & Lovejoy 1985).

Dentition: The incisors and canines of both mandible and maxilla show a higher degree of abrasion than the rest of the teeth. On the right side of the mandible the first and second molar were lost intra vitam and the pulps are com-pletely closed. On the left side of the mandible the first molar was lost intra vitam.

The upper incisors, left canine, first premolar and second molar are missing and/or destroyed. The M³ is pre-served but loose. The lower left third molar is also loose.

Special features:One rib displays a healed fracture. No joints are preserved for examination. Due to the fact that all bone sur-faces are eroded, the periosteum could not be examined for pathological alterations.

No body-height could be determined because the long bones were fragmented. It can be stated, however, that the post-cranial skeletal elements are gracile, especially the lower limbs. Nevertheless they display quite pro-nounced sites of muscle insertions. In this respect the individual is very similar to the skeletons found in other intrusive burials using the Bronze-Age-graves of BHS12 and BHS64 for re-burial (Uerpmann et al. 2006, p.82-84).

Skeleton 2:Fragments of a second skeleton were recovered by the Directorate of Antiquities. This individual only consists of a small piece of mandible and a fragment of an ulna. No abnormalities could be observed.

Bibliography:Acsádi, G. & Nemeskéri, J., 1970. History of Human Life Span and Mortality, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.

Lovejoy, C.O., 1985. Dental wear in the Libben population: Its functional pattern and role in the determination of adult skeletal age at death. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 68(1), 47-56.Meindl, R.S. & Lovejoy, C.O., 1985. Ectocranial suture closure: A revised method for the determination of skeletal age at death based on the lateral-anterior sutures. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 68(1), 57-66.

Uerpmann, A., Schmitt, J., Nicklisch, N. & Binder, M., 2006. Post-Neolithic Human Remains from the Jebel al-Buhais Area. In H. Uerpmann, M. Uerpmann, & S. A. Jasim, eds. Funeral Monuments and Human Remains from Jebel Al-Buhais. The Archaeology of Jebel al-Buhais. Kerns Verlag.

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Figure 1: Umm an-Nar tomb BHS-88 (viewed from a westerly direction)

Figure 2: NE-chamber with disturbed human bones including two skulls (skull 1 upper part, skull 14 middle) and four mandibles

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Figure 3: Skull (find number 14)

Figure 4: Maxilla and mandible with dentition of individual 14

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Figure 5: Humeri 9 and 20 with pronounced sites of muscle insertion at the deltoid tuberosity

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Figure 6: NW-chamber with the remains of a disturbed burial in a left-sided squatting posture consisting of two tibiae and a femur

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Appendix 2

BHS 89Excavation 2010 and osteological report from Tomb BHS 89,

Sharjah (UAE)

Adelina & Johannes Kutterer

IntroductionThe site BHS 89 is a cairn-grave located in the Central Region of the Sharjah Emirate, UAE. It is situated in the middle one of three passes through the chain of rocky hills connecting the western flanks of Jebel al-Buhais in the south with Jebel al-Aqabat to the north (Fig. 1). Its exposed position allows for a wide view westwards to-wards Wadi Yudaydah and the sand dunes of the coastal desert and eastwards onto the Mleiha/al-Madam plain and the Hajar Mountains in the distance. The southern slopes of Jebel al-Aqabat are situated north of the site, while to the south the hanging northern hillside of Jebel al-Buhais is visible (Fig. 1 right side, background).

Excavations of the cairn by the archaeological team of the Directorate of Antiquities of the Department of Culture an Information, Government of Sharjah, started in 2008, directed by Dr. Sabah A. Jasim. They were continued in 2009 and 2010 by the Joint Archaeological Project of the Sharjah Directorate of Antiquities and the Institute of Pre- and Protohistory of Tuebingen University (Germany) under the local guidance of Johannes and Adelina Kutterer from the latter institution. For studying, the human remains from the grave chamber were exported to the palaeoanthropological laboratories of Tuebingen University. There, osteological analysis of the human remains was undertaken by Adelina Kutterer. The architecture of the cairn and grave goods suggest that the tomb was used during the transition from the Hafit to the Umm an-Nar period. Typical UaN-objects were found in the upper level, while Mesopotamian ware typical for Hafit-tombs was found lower down. No hiatus (sterile level) could be observed between the two horizons. From a partly disturbed burial of the Umm an-Nar level the lower extremities of an infant with a bronze anklet (see below) were excavated in 2009. The human remains from the lower horizon – excavated in 2010 – are highly commingled and in a poor state of preservation. For exact documentation ortho-rectified photographs of all features and strata with bones were taken (comp. Uerpmann et al. 2006) and diagnostic bones were numbered. The grave structure and the topography of its surroundings were measured with the help of a total station in order to create a digital terrain model (Fig. 2). Archaeological NotesArchitecture of the GraveThe grave structure is embedded in a rounded cavity in the base rock directly east of the saddle-point of the incision between the two mountain-ridges. The highest elevation of the base rock is in the west of the grave, the lowest in the east. The western wall is built against a ridge of natural rock (Fig. 3, left side). Unshaped blocks of the local limestone were used as building material. The cairn is preserved to a height of about 80-120cm. The walls form a concentric structure with an outer diameter of about 5m (Fig. 3). The thickness of the walls varies between 80cm in the western part (facing the natural rock) and 160cm in the rest of the structure. The part that was built against the natural ridge consists of two rows of stones, while for the rest a third row was added. The inner chamber has an extension of around 2m from north to south and 2.2m from west to east. The entrance to the grave chamber is 40cm wide and opens to the south. It was found blocked at the time of excavation.

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Opposite to the entrance a short wall protrudes from the northern wall towards the centre of the grave. Appar-ently this wall functioned as support of a roof and partly separated two sections of the grave-chamber. The floor of the grave was paved with some flat stones.

History of use and taphonomyDuring the earlier period the grave functioned as a collective tomb. More than 24 individuals were interred during that time. Only three vertebrae were found in anatomical order and are evidence that the individuals were originally buried as complete bodies. Apparently skeletons were disturbed and pushed aside when new bodies were placed in the grave chamber. Therefore skulls and larger bones are concentrated along the walls. During these interments, small skeletal remains of earlier burials may already have been damaged. Fragments of typical Mesopotamian pottery of the Hafit period as well as various beads and a bronze needle were found scattered in this horizon (see below), which was around 30 cm in thickness. It contained numerous human bone fragments.

In the Umm an-Nar period at least one individual was buried in this grave. The lower extremities of an infant skeleton, buried in a left-sided, flexed position with a bronze anklet at the right ankle, were uncovered.

The entrance to the cairn was found blocked with small- to medium-sized stones at the time of excavation. At some point in time a collapse of the roof took place – visible through scattered slabs of stones inside the tomb, which partly were found lying directly on crushed bones. The fine-grained sediment inside the gave-chamber was probably deposited there as wind-blown dust coming through the gaps of the irregular building materi-als.

Grave goodsLower horizon Several hundreds of beads made of Steatite, Carnelian, shell, fish vertebrae and sawn Dentalia were found throughout the sediments (see fig. 4 for a selection).

Three fragments of diagnostic pottery (fig. 5) were recovered along the walls of the grave structure, two of them were found near the entrance, the third one in the western part. A bronze needle (fig. 6) was discovered beneath the skull of individual 20 at the bottom of the grave. A sample was taken for archaeo-metallurgical analyses. None of the objects could be associated to a particular individual.

Upper horizonA steatite vessel as well as a bronze anklet were found in the upper level (fig. 7). The anklet was still attached to the distal part of the right Tibia and Fibula of the infant. The steatite vessel was situated close to this burial. The anklet will also be included in archaeo-metallurgical studies by Johannes Kutterer.

Osteological resultsMaterialThe commingled human remains from the early period of the collective grave BHS89 are in most cases frag-mentary and very brittle. Of the 23 skulls that were identified in the field, only four are represented by larger connected fragments. Nearly no facial bones are preserved. In one individual (no. 20) the maxilla as well as mandible, with a part of the dentition, are present. Skull fragments and associated teeth of a 5-6 year old infant (no. 9) were also found. Of the more than 300 numbered post-cranial bones only some are well preserved, few of them are complete.

Minimum number of individualsA minimum number of 23 individuals could be determined in situ by counting skulls or large skull fragments

315

in 2010. In the laboratory this number was enlarged to 24, since postcranial bones of a subadult individual – which is not presented by a skull – were found in the material. On the upper level, excavated in 2009, another subadult individual (25) was excavated, resulting in a total of 25 individuals.

Age and sex determinationDue to the poor state of preservation and the low number of individuals a statistical analysis of the demograph-ic composition of the group of people that were buried in the collective tomb of BHS 89 is not possible. It can, however, be stated, that children and young adults as well as old adults were interred together (comp. Tab 1). Nearly all age and sex determinations of the adult individuals listed in Tab. 1 hold one – or even two – ques-tion marks since their incompleteness only allows for rough estimations based on morphology (e.g. robust vs. gracile) and the states of fusion of cranial sutures. Individual 20 could be recovered with associated maxillary and mandibulary dentition. Here dental wear could be included in the age determination ((Lovejoy 1985). The age of one of the infants (Ind. 9) was identified through the dental status (Ubelaker 1989, p.64), for the other two (Ind. 24 and 25) by using the estimated greatest lengths of long bones (Ubelaker 1989, p.71).

Tab. 1: Summarized information on the individuals from BHS 89

Individual Sex Age Comments1 M?? At least adult2 - Mature? Fused S. coronalis3 - - Very fragmentary4 - - Very fragmentary5 - Young adult? State of preserved skull

sutures implies a young age

6 - - Very fragmentary7 - - Very fragmentary8 Subadult?? Very fragmentary9 - 5-6 years Age determination from

dentition10 - - Very fragmentary1112 F?? At least adult13 - - Very fragmentary14 - At least adult15 - - Very fragmentary16 - - Very fragmentary17 - - Very fragmentary18 - Old adult Preserved cranial sutures

are completely fused19 M? At least adult20 M? 30-40 Peri-mortem puncture?21 - - Very fragmentary22 - - Very fragmentary23 F?? At least adult

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24 - ca. 2,5-3,5 years Age determination by us-ing the estimated greatest lenghts of both femora

25later Umm an-Nar - Around 2-5 years Age determination by us-

ing the estimated greatest lenghts of one femur and one tibia

Remarks on special features and pathologiesOne skull exhibits a – possibly peri-mortem – puncture on the left parietal. The diameter of the more or less circular perforation measures about one centimetre and there is internal bevelling.None of the preserved teeth displays caries. One mandible shows ante mortem tooth loss of at least 5 teeth with completely fused alveoli. This mandible is athrophied and seems to stem from an older individual. The reason for this tooth loss cannot be reconstructed.

Several long bones – which could not be associated to the numbered skull-individuals – were measured in situ and used to estimate living statures (Tab. 2). All in all the bones leave a more gracile impression than the ones from the Neolithic graveyard of BHS 18 (Kiesewetter 2006; Kutterer 2010) but nevertheless show rather strongly developed sites of muscle insertions and enthesopathies of the upper extremities, which is consistent with a subsistence strategy based to some extent on agriculture (Uerpmann et al. 2006). Geo-chemical analy-ses, which are currently underway, will hopefully help to reconstruct the diet of the buried individuals.

Tab. 2: Living statures estimated from long bone measurements taken in situ

Bone ID Skeletal element Greatest lenghts (cm) Estimated living stature (cm) after

Trotter (1970) Estimated living stat-ure (cm) after Pearson (1899)

53 Humerus left 32 female 165,5 ±4,45male 169 ±4,05 female 159,6 ± 3,5male 163,25 ±3,3 79 Radius left 25,5 female 175,8 ±4,24male 175,4cm ±4,32 female 166,5 ±4,1male 169,34 ±4,0128 & 129 Ulna left & right 27 female 173,05 ±4,3male 173,95 ±4,32271 Femur left 41,5 female 156,6 ±3,72male 160,18 ±3,27 female 153,6 ±3,3male 159,33 ±3,3276 Femur left 46 female 167,72 ±3,72male 170,89 ± 3,27 female 162,3 ±3,3male 167,8 ±3,3175 Fibula 34 female 159,23 ±3,57male 162,9 ±3,29

317

ReferencesKiesewetter, H., 2006. Analyses of the Human Remains from the Neolithic Cemetery at al-Buhais 18 (Exca-vations 1996-2000). In H.-P. Uerpmann, M. Uerpmann, & S. A. Jasim, eds. Funeral Monuments and Human Remains from Jebel Al-Buhais. The Archaeology of Jebel al-Buhais, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Sharjah and Tübingen: Department of Culture and Information, Government of Sharjah United Arab Emirates and Kerns Verlag, pp. 103-380.

Kutterer, A.U., 2010. Leben unter marginalen Bedingungen - Prä- und Protohistorische Human-Osteoarchäol-ogie im südöstlichen Arabien. Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.

Lovejoy, C.O., 1985. Dental Wear in the Libben Population: Its Functional Pattern and Role in the Detarmina-tion of Adult Skeletal Age at Death. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 68, 47-56.

Ubelaker, D.H., 1989. Human Skeletal Remains: Excavation, Analysis, Interpretation 2. ed., Washington D.C.: Taraxacum.

Uerpmann, A. et al., 2006. Post-Neolithic Human Remains from the Jebel al-Buhais Area. In H.-P. Uerpmann, M. Uerpmann, & S. A. Jasim, eds. Funeral Monuments and Human Remains from Jebel Al-Buhais. The Ar-chaeology of Jebel al-Buhais, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Sharjah and Tübingen: Department of Culture and Information, Government of Sharjah United Arab Emirates and Kerns Verlag, pp. 69-99.

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Fig.

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Fig. 2: Digital terrain model of BHS 89 situated in the passage between two mountain ridges

320

Fig. 3: Vertical ortho-photo of cairn BHS 89

321

Fig. 4: Selection of beads found at BHS 89

Fig 5: Pottery fragments from BHS 89 (above Umm an-Nar period, below Mesopotamian type ware)

322

Fig. 6: Bronze needle discovered beneath the skull of individual 20 at thebottom of the grave

Fig 7: Infant bones with attached bronze anklet and steatite vesselclose by (right side of the picture)

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Appendix 3

Anthropological notes on the human remains from Tomb BHS 90, Sharjah (UAE)

Adelina Kutterer

Minimum number of individuals:Skeletal remains of at least 21 individuals were recovered in Tomb BHS 90 after the end of excavations di-rected by Dr. Sabah Jasim. The minimum number of individuals was determined by the number of skulls that were found at the base level of the tomb.

State of preservation:All human remains from this grave are in a very bad condition and extremely fragile. In total only two teeth were found. The skulls only consists of fragmented pieces of the neurocranium, no facial bones (including maxillae) were preserved. Two fragmented mandibles were uncovered, but only one of them still have one tooth in situ, a third molar.

Age and sex:The fact that this tooth mentioned above was fully developed, indicates that the individual was older than 18 years. Apart from bones of adults, a fragment of a humorous and a piece of skull as well as a tooth crown of sub adult individuals were recovered. It is unclear whether these sub adult skeletal elements belong to one or more individuals.

One pelvis could be determined in situ as belonging to an adult male (Acsadi & Nemeskeri 1970), otherwise no sex determinations could be made. The few determinations of age and sex that were possible allow no demographic assumptions, but generally speaking nothing argues against a normal distribution of males and females of different ages in the tomb.

Body height:One femur and one tibia could be measured in situ, with the first being 460mm long and the latter 380mm. A body height of 1.68cm3. ± 5cm for the tibia could be reconstructed, using the formula of Pearson (1899). This reconstructed body height lies in the range of several other Post-Neolithic skeletons from al-Buhais area (Uerpmann at.al. 2006, p. 92).

Palaeopathology:The periosteum could not be tested for pathological lesions due to the poor preservation, The same is true for the joints of the excavated long bones. All in all no pathologies or special features were observed.

Bibliography:Assadi, G. & Nemeskeri, J. 1970. History of Human Life and Mortality, Budapest: Akademiai Kiado.Pearson, K. 1899. Mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution. V. On the construction of the stature of prehistoric races. London.

Uerpmann, A. , Schmitt, J. Nicklish, N. & Binder, M. 2006. Post Neolithic Human Remains from the Jebel al-Buhais Area. In: H. Uerpmann, M. Uerpmann & S. A. Jasim 2006, eds. Funeral Monuments and Human Remains from Jebel al-Buhais. The Archaeology of Jebel al-Buhais. Kerns Verlag.

the necropolis of jebel al-buhais - prehistoric discoveries in the emirate of sharjah, united arab...

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