High Places in Oman

The IMTO Excavations of Bronze and Iron Age Remains on Jabal Salut

by Chiara Condoluci and Michele Degli Esposti, with contributions by Carl Phillips

Book cover: High Places in Oman

Extent: 90 pages

Publisher: L’ERMA di Bretschneider

Subjects: Ancient Near East

Series: Quaderni di Arabia antica

Series volume number: 3

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(October 2015)

ISBN: 9788891309075

Price: $25.00

Out of stock

This book presents the results of two field seasons that the Italian Mission to Oman spent excavating a few tombs located on top of Jabal Salut in Central Oman. A cluster of these tombs was later razed and replaced by a small, rectangular pillared shrine built in stone and mortar that represents a unicum for the whole South East Arabia. The funerary monuments can be dated to the third and second millennium BC (Early to Middle Bronze Age), with evidence for reuse during the first millennium BC (local Iron Age). The small shrine is also datable to the Iron Age. In addition to architectural details, the excavations produced an abundance of pottery and soft stone vessels, which provide important dating information and enable the use of the tombs to be considered alongside evidence obtained from the excavation of nearby Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements. As well as showing the results from the excavations and placing them in a local context, it will be discussed how typical the results obtained from Jabal Salut might be for the rest of South East Arabia. In particular, it is tempting to consider what importance the region’s ancient inhabitants gave to high places.

  • By (author) Chiara Condoluci
  • By (author) Michele Degli Esposti
  • Contributions by Carl Phillips