In the beginning: Marhashi and the origins of Magan's ceramic industry in the third millennium BC

Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 67-78

  Potts, D T ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Bronze Age; Ceramics; Iran; Oman; Umm an Nar

Indexed keywords

CERAMICS; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT;

ASIA; EURASIA; MIDDLE EAST; OMAN;

EID: 27844502179     PISSN: 09057196     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.2005.00042.x     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. See e.g. Lawler A. Rocking the cradle. Smithsonian 35/2: 2004: 40-48;
2. Covington R. Iran's archeological Renaissance. Saudi Aramco World Sept/ Oct: 2004: 8-11.
3. Majidzadeh Y. Jiroft: The earliest Oriental civilization. Tehran: Printing and Publishing Organization of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, 2003.
4. See particularly Lamberg-Karlovsky CC. The 'Intercultural Style' carved vessels. IrAnt 23: 1988: 45-95.
5. E.g. Kohl PL. The balance of trade in southwestern Asia in the mid-third millennium BC. Current Anthropology 19:1978: 463-492;
6. Potts TF. Mesopotamia and the East: An archaeological and historical study of foreign relations 3400-2000 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph, 37: 1994, both with extensive earlier bibliography.
7. E.g. Pittman H. Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia and the Indus Valley. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984.
8. Despite the analyses of material from Tarut (Kohl PL, Harbotte G & Sayre EV. Physical and chemical analyses of softstone vessels from Southwest Asia. Archaeometry 21: 1979: 131-159), I am not convinced that it was a production centre of série ancienne soft stone during the third millennium. To begin with, a glance at the catalogue of soft-stone finds from Tarut (
9. Zarins J. Steatite vessels in the Riyadh Museum. Atlal 2: 1978: 65-93
10. shows that the bulldozing and sand mining on Tarut which originally brought the soft-stone finds there to light revealed a large amount of later third-millennium 'Omani' (série récente) as well as 'Hellenistic' material. Just as the Omani material is demonstrably imported from the Oman peninsula, where production was prodigious, I cannot see that the série ancienne, so strikingly similar to the Tepe Yahya and Jiroft material, could be anything but southeast Iranian in origin. The alleged semi-finished and raw pieces of soft stone could well be of Hellenistic date. Furthermore, the x-ray diffraction analyses of Kohl, Harbottle and Sayre really only tell us about compositional groups, not about production centres. In this regard, the fact that a Susa-Adab-Persian Gulf group was distinguished in no way necessitates the hypothesis of an Arabian manufacturing centre on Tarut. Rather, it simply indicates that some vessels at Susa, Adab and Tarut may have come from a common source, wherever that may be. Given the small size of Masry's soundings in the fort on Tarut, one should not read too much into the fact that, 'No steatite objects were recovered from any stratum of the main test trench' (Masry AH. Prehistory of northeastern Arabia: The problem of interregional interaction. Coconut Grove: Field Research Projects, 1974: 145). On the other hand, I think it very likely that Tarut was a production centre of pseudo-série ancienne using the inferior muscovite schist which has a pale brown or sandy colour.
11. Steinkeller P. The question of Marḩaši: A contribution to the historical geography of Iran in the third millennium BC. ZA 72: 1982: 251.
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15. Cf. Steinkeller P. Contacts between Babylonia, Makkan and southeastern Iran (Marhashi) during the second half of the third millennium BC. In press. My thanks to Prof. Steinkeller for providing me with a copy of this paper prior to its publication.
16. In chronological order, see Burkholder G. Steatite carvings from Saudi Arabia. Artibus Asiae 33:1971:306-322;
17. Porada E. Excursus: Comments on steatite carvings from Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Ancient Near East. Artibus Asiae 33:1971:323-331;
18. Zarins, Steatite vessels in the Riyadh Museum: 65-93;
19. Burkholder G. An Arabian collection. Boulder City: GB Publications, 1984;
20. Potts DT. Miscellanea Hasaitica. Copenhagen: CNIP, 9:1989, with earlier bibliography.
21. al-Tikriti WY. Reconsideration of the late fourth and third millennium B.C. in the Arabian Gulf with special reference to the United Arab Emirates. Cambridge: Unpubl. PhD dissertation, 1981: Pis. 130.1 and 154.B. I am not including a bell-shaped bowl from Al Sufouh or an undecorated canister from the Danish excavations on Umm an-Nar as these do not have the typically naturalistic decoration of the Jirofti examples.
22. Ziolkowski MC. The soft-stone vessels from Sharm, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. AAE 12: 2001: Figs 1-2.
23. Crawford H & Al Sindi K. A 'hut pot' in the National Museum, Bahrain. AAE 7:1996:140-142.
24. Lombard P, ed. Bahrain, the civilisation of the two seas: From Dilmun to Tylos. Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 1999: 93, no. 88.
25. Thorvildsen K. Burial cairns on Umm-en Nar. Kuml 1962:1963:219.
26. See e.g. Biagi P. The prehistoric fishermen settlements of RH5 and RH6 at Qurum, Sultanate of Oman. PSAS 17: 1987: 7-31;
27. Salvatori S. Death and ritual in a population of coastal food foragers in Oman. In: Afanas'ev E, Cleuziou S, Lukacs JR & Tosi M, eds. The prehistory of Asia and Oceania. Forli: ABACO Edizioni, 1996: 205-222.
28. Copeland L & Bergne P. Flint artifacts from the Buiaimi area, Eastern Arabia, and their relations with the Near Eastern post-Palaeolithic. PSAS 6:1976: 40-61.
29. Uerpmann M. Some remarks on Late Stone Age industries from the coastal area of northern Oman. In: Costa PM & Tosi M, eds. Oman Studies: Papers on the archaeology and history of Oman. Rome: Serie Orientale Roma, 63: 1989: 169-177.
30. E.g. Popescu ES. The Neolithic settlement sites on the islands of Dalma and Marawah, U.A.E. In: Potts D, AI Naboodah H & Hellyer P, eds. Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the U.A.E. London: Trident, 2003: 46-54;
31. Beech, M. The development of fishing in the U.A.E.: A zooarchaeological perspective. In: Potts, Al Naboodah & Hellyer, eds. Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: 290-308, with bibliography.
32. E.g. Uerpmann M, Uerpmann H-P & Jasim SA. Stone Age nomadism in SE Arabia - Palaeo-economic considerations on the Neolithic site of Al-Buhais 18 in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE. PSAS 30:2000: 229-234;
33. Kiesewetter H. The Neolithic population at Jebel Buhais 18: Remarks on funerary practices, palaeodemography and palaeopathology. In: Potts, Al Naboodah & Hellyer, eds. Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: 36-43.
34. Uerpmann, Uerpmann & Jasim, Stone Age nomadism;
35. cf. Uerpmann M & Uerpmann H-P. Faunal remains of al-Buhais 18, an aceramic Neolithic site in the Emirate of Sharjah (SE-Arabia): Excavations 1995-1998. In: Mashkour M, Choyke AM, Buitenhuis H & Poplin F, eds. Archaeozoology of the Near East IVB. Groningen: ARC-Publicatie, 32: 2000: 40-49.
36. Apud Kapel H. Atlas of the Stone Age cultures of Qatar. Aarhus: JASP, 6:1967: 18.
37. There is Palaeolithic occupation much further south in Oman, but to date there is no evidence of population continuity between the Palaeolithic/ Pleistocene population and the midHolocene occupants of the region. For the Palaeolithic in southern Oman see e.g. Biagi P. An early Palaeolithic site near Saiwan (Sultanate of Oman). AAE 5:1994: 81-88.
38. For a recent summary of the state of knowledge on southern Mesopotamian Ubaid, see Oates J. Ubaid Mesopotamia revisited. In: von Folsach K, Thrane H & Thuesen I, eds. From handaxe to Khan: Essays presented to Peder Mortensen on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Aarhus: Aarhus Univ. Press, 2004: 87-104, with extensive bibliography.
39. Uerpmann M & Uerpmann H-P. 'Ubaid pottery in the eastern Gulf - new evidence from Umm al-Qaiwain (U.A.E.). AAE 7:1996: 125-139, with earlier bibliography.
40. Although Roaf M & Galbraith J. Pottery and p-values: 'Seafaring merchants of Ur?' re-examined. Antiquity 68:1994: 770-83 concluded by noting that the composition of the sherds analysed originally by Kamilli, McKerrell and Davidson 'might be compatible with a range of alternative origins', they admitted that most of the Ubaid pottery found on the Gulf sites 'could have been imported from southern Mesopotamia'. For additional, more recent analyses, see
41. Méry S & Schneider G. Mesopotamian pottery wares in Eastern Arabia from the fifth to the second millennium BC: A contribution of archaeometry to the economic history. PSAS 26: 1996: 79-96.
42. Masry, Prehistory in northeastern Arabia: 123, 'pale-reddish standard straw-tempered coarse type, normally with a blackened core occurring on very irregularly shaped vessels. This kind represents the bulk of this ware, approximately 80%'. In fact, Masry also distinguished a second coarse ware, 'light to dark brownish, straw and chaff tempered type with a distinct basket mark impression on the flat bases of vessels. This makes up the remaining part of the coarse ware'. Overall, these coarse wares account for 45-50% of the total surface ceramic inventory.
43. Roaf & Galbraith, Seafaring merchants: 4 (preprint pagination). Joan Oates has noted, 'Coarse chaff-tempered cooking ware is found on all prehistoric sites in Mesopotamia, but the distinctively red Arabian ware would seem to be of local manufacture'. See Oates J. Prehistory in northeastern Arabia. Antiquity 50: 1976: 26.
44. If similar wares existed in another neighbouring region, e.g. in the southern Levant or across the Gulf in Iran, then of course this conclusion would not be so inevitable, but such is not the case.
45. Potts DT. The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, i. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990: 69-70. The main reason for my misgivings was largely the fact that the excavators were pointing to parallels with burnished grey ware in south-eastern Iran (e.g. at Tepe Yahya), but there is none that dates to the fourth millennium. Rather, it is a product solely of the third millennium BC. See
46. Potts DT. Excavations at Tepe Yahya, 1967-1975: The third millennium. Cambridge: Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research, 45: 2001: 199.
47. For an overview of the material from the tombs at Jabal Hafit, see Potts DT. Eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula during the late fourth and early third millennium BC. In: Finkbeiner U & Röllig W, eds. Ǧamdat Nasr: Period or regional style? Wiesbaden: TAVO Beiheft B, 62: 1986: 121-170, with earlier bibliography.
48. Méry S. Les céramiques d'Oman et l'Asie moyenne: Une archéologie des échanges à l'Âge du Bronze. Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 2000: 169-189.
49. E.g. Frifelt K. The island of Umm an-Nar, vol. 1. Third millennium graves. Aarhus: JASP, 26/1:1991: Figs 86-89, 125;
50. Frifelt K. The island of Umm an-Nar, vol. 2. The third millennium, settlement. Aarhus: JASP, 26/2: 1995: Figs 164-188.
51. Méry, Les céramiques d'Oman: Fig. 105.
52. As it happens, the graves on Umm anNar were not only the first archaeological findspots of the Umm an-Nar culture/period to be discovered and explored, they also appear to have been the earliest, chronologically speaking. For a tentative internal chronology of the Umm an-Nar period tombs excavated to date, see Benton JN. Excavations at Al Sufouh: A third millennium site in the Emirate of Dubai. Turnhout: Abiel, 1: 1996: 88-89.
53. E.g. at Tal-i Iblis and Tepe Yahya. See Caldwell JR, ed. Investigations at Tal-i-Iblis. Springfield: Illinois State Museum Preliminary Reports, 9: 1967: 111ff;
54. Beale TW. Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran, 1967-1975: The early periods. Cambridge: Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research, 38: 1986: 39ff.
55. The Tell Abraq vessel is discussed in extenso in Potts DT. Tepe Yahya, Tell Abraq and the chronology of the Bampur sequence. IrAnt 38: 2003:1-11.
56. For example, Frifelt, Third millennium graves: Figs 59, 63, 67, 93, 96, 97;
57. Méry, Les céramiques d'Oman: Figs 49.5, 50.2, 52.7 (all tomb A at Hili North) and 55.1 (tomb M at Hili).
58. To the ceramic evidence we can also add later third-millennium soft-stone which moved in both directions. See e.g. Potts DT. A soft-stone genre from southeastern Iran: 'Zig-zag' bowls from Magan to Margiana. In: Potts T, Roaf M & Stein D, eds. Ancient Near Eastern culture through objects: Festschrift for P.R.S. Moorey. Oxford: Griffith Institute, 2003: 77-91. Série récente and tardive soft-stone vessels with single or double dotted-circle decoration, a hallmark of the Umm an-Nar and early Wadi Suq periods (late third/early second millennia BC) in the Oman peninsula, has also been found on sites in southeastern Iran, such as Tepe Yahya (
59. Lamberg-Karlovsky CC. Urban interaction on the Iranian Plateau: Excavations at Tepe Yahya, 1967-1973. Proceedings of the British Academy 59: 1973: Fig. 5F
60. and Shahdad (Hakemi A. Shahdad: Archaeological excavations of a Bronze Age center in Iran. Rome: IsMEO, 1997: 617, Fm. 2 and 695, Ra. 4).