The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

Jarrige 1973 ; Mughal 1990 ; Possehl 1997 b; Kenoyer 1998 : 173 – 178 ; Lahiri 2000 ), but the
abandonment of the major cities along the Indus Valley as well as the cessation of
writing, complex craft technologies, and other hallmarks of the Harappan Civilization
suggest a somewhat cataclysmic “de-urbanization” event. What remains are a number
of regional cultures with limited evidence for exchange and interaction – a situation
similar in many ways to the one that existed in the Early Harappan period.

EVIDENCE OF MESOPOTAMIAN RELATIONS WITH MAGAN

There are few indeed who would argue that the early development of “middle range”
societies on the Omani Peninsula was not in some way affected by Mesopotamia. Fifth
millennium Ubaid ceramics are attested along the eastern Arabian coast as far as the
Emirates (Shepherd Popescu 2003 ), while vague reports of Ubaid sherds from Omani
sites remain unconfirmed. Curiously, Uruk period ceramics are essentially absent from
both the western and eastern sides of the Omani Peninsula, due perhaps to the dearth
of fourth millennium sites in this region (Uerpmann 2003 ). A notable exception is the
site of R’as al-Hamra (RH 5 ) in modern-day Muscat, where two body sherds of Uruk
period Mesopotamian ceramics (Méry 1995 ) were reportedly found, although the
context of these two sherds is not clear. Regardless, the well-known ‘expansion’ of Uruk
trade as far as Egypt, the Caucasus, and north-central Iran does not seem to have
included seafaring (see Algaze 2005 ; papers in Rothman 2001 ), and Mesopotamia had
only a limited presence on the Omani Peninsula in the fourth millennium BC.
This picture changes dramatically at the very end of the fourth millennium and the
beginning of the third. At this time, called the Hafit period (c. 3100 – 2700 BC), the

–– Christopher P. Thornton ––

0200

kilometers

400

AFGHANISTAN

IRAN

PAKISTAN INDIA

ARABIAN

SEA

EASTERN

DOMAIN

SINDHI

DOMAIN

KULLI

DOMAIN

SORATH

DOMAIN

ANARTA

CHALCOLITHIC

HARAPPA

DOMAIN

NORTHWESTERNBORDERLANDS

CHOLISTANDOMAIN

Figure 31.4
Map showing the various
“domains” of the
Harappan Civilization
defined by differences in
local ceramic and small
find assemblages (courtesy
of Gregory Possehl)