Life and Death in Prehistoric Oman: Insights from Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Funerary Practices (4th - 3rd mill. BC)

This paper aims to give an overview on the change in funerary practices of eastern Arabia from the late Neolithic, when human settlements were concentrated in coastal refuges, to the end of the third millennium, when the appearance and development of agricultural systems can be documented for the first time. During these millennia the societies of the Oman Peninsula adapted to profound changes in their environment, mostly related to aridification started around 4500 BC (inter alia Bar-Matthews et al. 1997; Fleitmann et al. 2003, 2007; Fuchs and Buerkert, 2008; Gupta et al., 2003; Lézine 2009; Lézine et al. 2002; 2010; Mayewski et al. 2004; Parker et al. 2006; Staubwasser et al. 2002). Over the last 40 years, archaeologists investigating the origins of Oman have indeed documented a rich heritage: evidence of daily activities, subsistence, material culture, ritual and funerary practices (for a comprehensive overview see Cleuziou and Tosi 2007; Potts 1990). In the Oman Peninsula, funerary structures offer a privileged perspective on these economic and social transformations: their distribution, architecture, furniture, as well as the human remains they contain, are all critical to explore lifestyles, social organization, technological innovations and forms of intra-and inter-regional exchange.