A trait-based analysis of structural evolution in prehistoric monumental burials of eastern Arabia

Research on Early Bronze Age (ca. 3100–2000 BC) southeastern Arabia (encompassing Oman and United Arab Emirates [UAE]) has long been interwoven with the study of the thousands of monumental tombs built during the third millennium BC. Although our knowledge of Early Bronze Age settlements and subsistence activities is growing, these monumental stone tombs and their contents are still the best source of information on the past in the region. Karen Frifelt (1975a) was the first to investigate the chronological typol- ogy of these mortuary monuments. She described Jemdet Nasr tombs (ca. 3000 BC), Beehive tombs (early third millennium BC, later grouped into Hafit-type cairns with the Jemdet Nasr type), Umm an-Nar tombs (early to late third millennium BC), Wadi Suq tombs (ca. 2000–1300 BC), and Iron Age tombs (ca. first millennium BC). More recent studies have greatly improved our understanding of the complex funerary practices from this period, and while the basic typological subdivision proposed by Frifelt has been maintained as a general reference, the parameters archaeologists use to define tomb types have been expanded and stretched in order to en- compass the emerging variability of the archaeological record. Today, third millennium BC tombs are commonly divided into Hafit-type cairns and Umm an-Nar tombs (e.g., Cleuziou and Tosi 2007). While this subdivision is the convention, many debates focus on the issue of potentially transi- tional structural forms (Potts 2012; Williams and Gregoricka 2013).