Archaeological investigations on the necropolis of Khor Jarama: towards the discovery of a new prehistoric culture in Oman?
Résumé
Archaeological campaigns led during these last four years on the necropolis of Khor
Jarama, located in the Ja’alan area, has brought to light what is probably a new prehistoric
culture unknown in Oman. Indeed, the excavation of seven tombs located not far from the Jarama lagoon has enabled the discovery of the first funerary monuments known to date in Oman. These latter has been dated from the middle of the 4th millennium BC for the oldest ones, that is to say several centuries before the monumental tombs of Hafit period. These tombs are characterized by new architectures as well as by new funerary practices observed in Oman. This discovery fills a void of data observed until now in Oman, called in the past “Dark Age” by some authors, and located between 3600 and 3200 BC., that is to say the period of transition between the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Hafit period.
This discovery highly changes the vision that we had about the first prehistoric societies in
Oman: there is here, well before the first contacts with city-states of Mesopotamia and the
Indus valley, strongly structured groups, probably hierarchized, and led by members buried in monumental tombs. The recent discovery of others necropolis belonging certainly to this period, and that will be excavated in the coming years, will allow to define further this new culture.