The Joint Hadd Project and the Early Bronze Age in south-east Arabia

The researches of the last decades in Oman and especially in Ja’alan led to the recognition of an evolutionary path of settlement pattern from Middle Holocene to the Iron Age. In this paper the Early Bronze Age will be considered as a key point to understand the great transformations, the change in social and economic background that dates to the end of the 4th and through the 3rd millennia BC. The excavations at Ra’s al-Hadd started with the discoveries in late 1980s by the British Museum team, led by Julian Reade and continued within the Hadd Joint Project by the Italian team of the University of Bologna. The results of the investigations at the settlement of HD-6 allow us to open a new window on the Early Bronze Age 1 (Hafit period), while researches at HD-1, dating to Early Bronze Age 2 (Umm an-Nar period), confirm the exchange network between the Arabian Peninsula and the Indus Valley civilisation, connected to the trade with Mesopotamia. The paper will stress particularly the first phase, well known in Oman from the thousands of cairns spread throughout the whole country, but still poorly investigated in relation to settlements and craft activities. The results of HD-6 excavation show a well-established knowledge and practice in mudbrick architecture, copper exploitation and date palm cultivation. All these commodities were developed mainly in the interior of Oman and their discovery on the coast implies investment and early connection with the Indian Ocean since the early 3rd millennium BC.