ar-Ramlah and a site known as ‘Police Pit’ (Preston 2011 : tabs 4 a– 4 c). Sum probabilities
for these dates from the Gulf coast peak during the first half and the last two centuries
of the fourth millennium (Preston 2011 : fig. 9. 2 ), suggesting a potential gap in occu-
pation between c. 3200 and 3500 BC. No metal has yet been reported from these sites,
but their existence indicates that Akab was not isolated on the Gulf coast. The presence
of this population means that, should merchants, explorers or prospectors from
Mesopotamia have reached the Lower Gulf coast at almost any time in the fourth
millennium except the final part of the Middle Uruk and the earliest part of the Late
Uruk period, they would have encountered a small local population with whom to enter
into trading relations, which had connections with the mountains and the eastern side
of the peninsula. If the visitors travelled further still, beyond the Straits of Hormuz and
round to the east coast of Oman, they would have found a more densely populated
coastline, in closer proximity to the copper-bearing mountains, with communities
which possessed knowledge of copper.Jamdat Nasr period interactions with the Oman Peninsula
As noted above, the evidence for both production and trade with Mesopotamia is more
solid for the Jamdat Nasr to ED II period. Potts’ survey of Mesopotamian pottery in
Hafit period tombs enumerated eighteen vessels, extending as far as Tawi Silaim in the
Sharqiyah of Oman (D. Potts 1986 b: fig. 1 – 2 ). Cleuziou and Méry also show a Jamdat
Nasr-style vessel from Qarn Bint Saud, and Jamdat Nasr–ED II funerary vessels at Jebel
al-Emelah and Ras al-Jinz (RJ- 6 ) (Cleuziou and Méry 2002 b: figs. 2 a, 4 ). Jars of
Mesopotamian style of ED I–II date are also seen in cairn tombs BHS 72 at Jebel al-
Buhais and tomb K 2 at Kalba, with additional rims of typical ED I–II Mesopotamian
vessels in tomb BHS 69 (Eddisford and Phillips 2009 : fig. 4 , bottom left; Jasim 2006 :
figs. 9 : 1 – 2 , 16 ). To the funerary corpus of the Gulf coast can be added a miniature pot
from the island of Marawah, recorded by the author (Figure 30. 4 ). This was in a brown
ware with a faded plum-red slip surviving internally, found in a small cairn with a
simple chamber at site MR 6. 3. A coastal population in contact with the wider world
can be inferred from Mesopotamian pottery of Jamdat Nasr, ED I or ED II date on the
Gulf coast, including Jebel Dhannah 3 , consisting of surface finds on a slope probably
derived from cairn burials situated uphill (Vogt et al. 1989 : 56 , pl. 8 : 5 ).
Evidence of Jamdat Nasr–ED II connections is also found at the few known
excavated Hafit period settlement sites, including rare pottery from Hili 8 (around 100
sherds from less than sixty vessels possibly spanning 300 years); even rarer material from
HD- 6 (‘hardly ever found’); greenish-buff Jamdat Nasr-ED I type vessels from Bat (al-
Matariyah, Tower 1147 ; see Thornton, this volume), and various vessels of ED II style
from the settlement on Umm an-Nar island Period 0 (Cleuziou and Méry 2002 b: 282 ;
Cleuziou 2003 : 139 ; Azzarà 2009 : 5 ; Frifelt 1995 : 41 , 237 – 239 ). Period 0 at Umm an-Nar
was the earliest occupation above bedrock and should be regarded as a Hafit period
coastal settlement; Hafit tombs are found in the adjacent cemetery (Potts 1990 : 74 ,
fig. 7 , n. 67 ). Radiometric dating evidence for HD- 6 and al-Matariyah (Bat) has not
yet been published, so it remains possible that elements of these sites may even pre-date
the Jamdat Nasr period. At Hili 8 , the earliest radiocarbon dates (two of 4400 +/- 100
BC) calibrate at two sigma to a long range of 2874 – 3364 BC, centred around 3000 BC.
These mark the construction date of the first major building, and ceramics of the first
–– The Sumerians and the Gulf ––