Five archaeological sites tracing back to 2500-2000 BC unearthed in Saham; oldest finds in northern Oman – Oman
Archaeological finds at the sites reveal it to be a settlement and full of cemeteries dating back to the Umm al Nar era. The sites are located at Dahwa, Wadi al Sukhn and Al Thaqibah, 26km to the west of Saham on the northern plains of Al Hajar al Gharbi mountains.
They were unearthed by the Archaeology Department of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The excavations began at these sites in 2010.
Dr Khaled Douglas, head of the Archaeology Department, SQU, said that the excavations and study of artefacts reveal that potteries and stone tools unearthed from the sites have close connection with Sindh, Mesopotamia and Iran civilisations. “The survey further points out that settlers at the sites were engaged in copper smelting and trading.”
The explorations also unearthed a number of cemeteries, which reveal that the dead were buried in group cemeteries built from white sandstone.
Also, the team has discovered a building that goes back to Bronze Age.
It is believed that the place of manufacture of the pottery found in Dahwa is located in the central region of the Sindh valley in Pakistan, specifically the Mohenjo Daro region, where archaeologists found the largest city in the world dating back to the early Bronze Age (2500-2000 BC).
Archaeologists also believe that these pottery were used to transport some products from the Indus Valley by small boats across the Indus River to the shores of the Arabian Sea. They were transported by larger boats to a port near the wilayat of Saham and then were carried on shoulders for 24km inwards through the edges of the Al Hajar Mountains to the Dahwa area.
The strong presence of Sindh pottery in Dahwa indicates the extent of trade activity that prevailed between Oman and Sindh during the early Bronze Age.
The nature of the materials that were imported from Sindh and transported in these jars has not yet been identified. Oman was famous for the export of copper to Sindh, Mesopotamia and Iran during the period of Umm al Nar.