Experts shed new insights into Oman's earliest settlements
The Oman Across Ages Museum hosted a lecture on the region's Early Bronze Age settlements on Wednesday.
The event featured presentations by Mathilde Jean, Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the British Museum and Martin Sauvage, Research Engineer at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Their research, centred on Bisaya and Bat, offers groundbreaking findings on ancient society, environmental adaptation and early settlement development.
The Bat Archaeological Project's 2025 field season continues to explore two main objectives; understanding the human-environment interactions that allowed Early Bronze Age populations to thrive and engaging with the modern Bat community and the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism's support to conservation.
The excavation efforts this season have focused on Umm an-Nar period (2700-2000 BC) structures in Bat and the nearby Rakhat al Madrah site. Jean highlighted the significance of Bisya as one of the richest archaeological areas in Oman, revealing monumental architecture, ancient villages and tombs that provide exceptional insights into early trade networks, craft activities and societal structures. She explained that the first evidence of oasis settlements in the Oman Peninsula dates back to the Early Bronze Age in the third millennium BC, emphasising how recent discoveries by the French Archaeological Mission in Central Oman have reshaped the understanding of ancient life in the region.
The research spans two key periods of Oman's early history. The Hafit period, from 3200 to 2700 BC, was characterised by thousands of court tombs that reflect demographic growth and social organisation. This era saw the construction of monumental buildings but had few settlements and no visible hierarchy. The subsequent Umm an-Nar period, from 2700 to 2000 BCE, was marked by the emergence of large collective tombs, the expansion of settlements, and advancements in crafts such as pottery and copper metallurgy. Despite these developments, there were no cities, royal systems, or extensive iconography during this time.
Among the key findings was a Hafit-Umm an-Nar transitional tomb measuring 4.5 meters in diameter, which contained the remains of 52 individuals. The tomb provided evidence of ante-mortem dental pathologies, as well as significant discoveries such as pottery vessels, shell and stone beads made from steatite and carnelian, and other burial offerings. These artifacts offer valuable insights into the burial practices and health conditions of the period. Excavations also revealed new insights into early tower structures, including mudbrick towers with walls reaching 1.80 meters in height, and traces of burnt layers that may indicate significant historical events or structural modifications. Additionally, a shark vertebra and nearly 600 fishbones were found in the archaeological layers, confirming the presence of coastal-inland trade networks that played a vital role in food and subsistence strategies.
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