seafaring regions became wealthier as a result, leading to significant changes in Dilmun
(e.g., the rise of the Barbar Culture with strong ties to Mesopotamia and Magan), in
Magan (e.g., the late Umm an-Nar development of important sites along the Emirati
coast as well as increased contact with the Meluhhans as seen at R’as al-Jinz), and even
in Meluhha itself (e.g., the creation of “colony” sites as far as Badakhshan and across
the Sorath Domain of Gujarat in order to control access to important resources such
as lapis and carnelian, respectively).
This summation is a fairly well-trodden path in discussions of Indus-Mesopotamian
relations and their influence on the rise of Dilmun and Magan in the third millennium
BC. However, it remains mostly hypothetical and does not take into account the third
major contender for economic and social power in this region, that being the highland
polities of Southwestern Iran (i.e., “Elam”) and Southeastern Iran (i.e., “Marhashi”).
While not major seafarers, the advanced societies of Kerman (e.g., “Jiroft”) and Fars
(e.g., the Old Elamites of “Anshan” or Tal-e Malyan) were both producers and con-
sumers of raw materials and luxury trade items that were part of the Gulf trade (see
Madjidzadeh 2003 , 2008 and Lamberg-Karlovsky 2004 for Jiroft; Sumner 1989 and
Petrie et al. 2005 for Kaftari period Malyan). Indeed, the role of “Marhashi” in the
development of Magan has long been ignored, with some scholars seeking either an
indigenous origins for the Hafit Culture in the fourth millennium villages of the
northeast Omani coast (e.g., RH 5 ) despite few parallels, or a Mesopotamian origin for
social complexity in Magan. Few have ever sought the origins of the Hafit in nearby
Southeastern Iran, which contained small-scale but complex societies with monu-
mental architecture, mud-bricks, and long-distance imports as early as the Yahya
VI A period (c.mid-fifth millennium BC; Thornton 2010 : 33 ).
There are of course a few exceptions to this statement. In numerous publications,
Sophie Méry (e.g., 1996 , 2000 ) has noted that some of the earliest locally produced
pottery in Hafit societies were Black-on-Red high-neck jars imitating Southeastern
Iranian pottery of the Yahya V A/IV C period (c. 3100 – 2900 BC). Furthermore, the
locally-produced pottery of the following Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700 – 2000 BC) is
unquestionably related (both technologically and typologically) to the southeastern
Iranian style of black-on-red/buff pottery of the Yahya IV B period. Similarly, both de
Cardi ( 1970 : 268 – 269 ) and D. T. Potts ( 2003 , 2005 ) have noted the important links
between southeastern Iran and the Omani Peninsula in the third millennium BC. So
why is there so little discussion about the influence of “Marhashi” on the formation
of Magan?
The answer to this rather loaded question lies partly in modern geopolitics, and
partly in the dominant paradigm of the 1930 s– 1950 s emphasizing the centrality of
urban, literate “civilizations” over their neighbors, a theory that was then re-imagined
in the 1970 s as “World Systems Theory” or “Core-periphery” dynamics (see Kohl 1989 ;
Stein 1999 ). While this is not the venue to expound on these issues, it is important to
note that the recent “discovery” of the urban, proto-literate “Jiroft Civilization” of
Southeastern Iran (e.g., Lawler 2004 ; Covington 2004 ) with strong cultural ties to
the Umm an-Nar Culture of the Omani Peninsula must surely raise new questions
about the actual influence of both Mesopotamia and the greater Indus Valley in this
region. As Holly Pittman ( 2008 , in press-a, in press-b) has noted, based on the
radiocarbon dates and extensive seals and sealings from Konar Sandal South, the “Jiroft
Civilization” erupts into a monument-building, proto-literate urban society in the ED
–– Christopher P. Thornton ––