The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

Robert Carter

Figure 30.3 Map o f the G u lf showing sites o f the Uruk to E D II periods with Mesopotamian

finds, and Late Neolithic sites mentioned in the text

Copper is also reported on shell midden sites in the Wadi Shab (possibly the same as
Wadi Shab GAS-i) and Ras Shaqallah, also o f Neolithic date (Tosi and Usai 2003: 22,
n. 15). These finds suggest tentatively that there were coastal communities in Oman
with knowledge o f and access to copper.
These communities were in contact with other Late Neolithic peoples living on the
G u lf coast side o f the Oman Peninsula, in the foothills o f the western side o f the copper-
bearing mountain range, and on the G u lf coast itself. This would have shortened the
distance between early Mesopotamian seafarers and any local population. It is usually
considered that eastern Arabia was almost completely deserted during the first eight or
nine centuries o f the fourth millennium because o f a period o f extreme aridity, save for
the fishing communities o f the Indian Ocean coast o f the Oman Peninsula (Uerpmann
2003; Parker et al. 2004, 2006b; Preston 2011: 64). Evidence is now beginning to
emerge that people lived on or visited the G u lf coast prior to the Jamdat Nasr period,
and in the case o f some sites (especially Akab, Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE) they continued
to visit the area almost throughout the fourth millennium dry spell. Cultural
connections between the people o f the two coasts are evinced by distinctive softstone
tubular beads (‘Akab type’) found at sites on the coast o f the UAE, and at Suwayh 2
(eastern Oman) (Charpentier and Mery 2008: 130). As well as a series o f radiocarbon
dates from Akab ranging from the late fifth to the late fourth millennium BC, evalu­
ations from other coastal shell middens and late Neolithic campsites in Ras al-Khaimah,
Umm al-Qaiwain and Sharjah give calibrated date ranges in the fourth millennium BC,
including al-Daith, U A Q 2, Point 69, Point 81, Point 70, Hamriyah, al-Qassimiyah,

Sites with Mesopotamian finds of Late Uruk to ED II date

Selected Late Neolithic sites

0 100 200 300 400 500

kilometres

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