Husn Salut and the Iron Age of South East Arabia: Excavations of the Italian Mission to Oman 2004-2014

Description

The ancient oasis of Salut, located on the deserts fringes in the heart of the Oman Peninsula, not far from the modern cities of Nizwa and Bahla, is distinguished by its rich archaeological landscape, which the Italian Mission to Oman has been investigating for more than ten years. The impressive Iron Age site of Husn Salut was the focus of the coeval settlement of the area, and in all likelihood it was also a key site at the regional level. Founded in the second half of the second millennium BC, Husn Salut was a place for public gatherings which also entailed a degree of rituality, an aspect enhanced by its monumental architecture, merging, as it does, with the location on top of a small hill which dominated the surrounding plain and made the site visible from the distance.Agricultural exploitation of the plain, made possible by a sophisticated water management, stood at the basis of the sites subsistence. The site was largely abandoned after almost one millennium of continuous settlement, probably around 300 BC, with some evidence indicating a possible later date.While the investigation of the associated settlement of Qaryat Salut is just started, this book provides a general overview of the excavation at Husn Salut and its results, together with an exhaustive discussion of its material culture, with a specific attention paid to the pottery assemblage from selected, highly significant stratigraphic sequences. The sites chronology is also specifically addressed, as an array of radiocarbon determinations, which, when considered together with the associated material culture, indicate its fundamental relevance in the discussion about the chrono-cultural phasing of the Early Iron Age of South East Arabia.