societies of the Omani Peninsula underwent a dramatic transformation. For the first
time, sizable settlements with permanent (often monumental) architecture of stone
and mud-brick were built (e.g., Hili- 8 , Bat- 1147 , Hadd- 6 ). Tens of thousands of nearly
identical stone-built cairn burials appeared on the tops of low hills from Abu Dhabi
to R’as al-Hadd. These highly visible tombs on the landscape often contain one or two
inhumations with an assortment of graves goods, including ornaments of fired steatite,
shell, metal, and semi-precious stones, as well as weapons and tools of copper-base
metal. Most importantly, nearly every Hafit period grave contains at least one minia-
ture Jemdet Nasr-style (c. 3100 – 2900 BC) or Early Dynastic I-style (c. 2900 – 2700 BC)
ceramic vessel.
The origins of these Mesopotamian-style vessels has been explored by Sophie Méry
(e.g., 1991 , 2000 ; Méry and Schneider 1996 , 2001 ; see also Cleuziou and Méry 2002 ),
who has demonstrated that many of these were manufactured in Mesopotamia and
brought to the Omani Peninsula. This is particularly true for the polychrome painted
jars and the wheel-made jars with a greenish-buff and well-fired fabric. However, the
majority of ceramics in Hafit period tombs are of a distinctly different character – that
is, their shape is the same (or similar) to the polychrome and greenish-buff jars, but
–– Mesopotamia, Meluhha, and those in between ––ab00cmFigure 31.5 Two Jemdet Nasr/Early Dynastic I-style rim sherds from Matariya (Tower 1147 ) at Bat
in northern Oman: (a) fine greenish-buff fabric, wheel-made, small black inclusions, lot 092607 ;
(b) medium coarse red-brown fabric with darker core and buff slip on exterior, hand-made, small
white, black, and red inclusions, lot 090827 (courtesy of the Bat Archaeological Project)