Dal Kinship al Kinship: Le tombe collettive nell’Oman del terzo millennio a.C. e la costruzione della civiltà di Magan

From the end of 4th millennium BC Eastern Arabia knew a rapid accretion of social com- plexity connected to the expansion of trade networks, at the outcome of Middle Holocene adaptive strategies. However, contrary to other areas across South West Asia, neither state nor urban centres developed in the region. Water management systems were built and the re- sulting oases and coastal plateaus were closely overlooked by hundreds of monumental col- lective burials. A novel approach is proposed to explain the socio-cultural evolution underlying the formation of Magan by means of an architecture of tribal alliances testified by complex funerary practices.