First contribution of the excavation and chronostratigraphic study of the Ruways 1 Neolithic shell midden (Oman) in terms of Neolithisation, palaeoeconomy, social‐environmental interactions and site formation processes

Abstract

The NeoArabia project tries to understand how environmental, social, economic and technological factors work in concert to influence settlement and abandonment along a latitudinal transect of 1200 km from UAE to southern Oman. This region was affected by wide north-south variations in the Indo-Arabian monsoon, marine upwelling activity and eustatic variations in the Mid-Holocene. On the local settlement scale, this transect is based on fine stratigraphic excavations and permits the reconstruction of the site formation processes and site catchment analysis. A large number of studies have been conducted on the Ruways-1 site, focusing on a deep stratified sequence corresponding to three millennia of occupation. These studies include on-site climate-environmental signal analysis, local palaeogeography and environmental reconstruction, reservoir effect studies, typo-technological studies, palaeoeconomic strategies, anthropological studies, sclerochronological studies and, finally, site formation processes, the understanding of which makes it possible to explain the potential and limits of the archaeological excavation. The first results confirm the richness of these archaeological archives for documenting the socio-environmental dynamics, but also the richness of its complex sedimentary structure and the importance of conducting fine and multidisciplinary excavations to answer questions about the rhythms and functions of occupations and the causalities of socioenvironmental changes. K E Y W O R D S Coastal Neolithic, geoarcheology, shell midden, site catchment, site formation processes, Sultanate of Oman F I G U R E 8 (a) Map of the Ruways micro-region with the proposed Neolithic extension of a wide open lagoon with mangrove ecosystems (in purple) and the two khors situated on each side of the current village of Ruways, with the position of the four geological cores (yellow stars) and the RWY-1 site (orange area). (b) Electrical resistivity tomography section of the current sabkha located in the western part of the RWY-1 site, with the main superficial sedimentary formations and the location of core 4. (c) Lithological sequence of core 4 with the radiocarbon dating series on shells in BP and in cal. yr BC age [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

The adoption of cattle pastoralism in the Arabian Peninsula: A reappraisal

“…There, sheep and goat were exploited, along with gazelle deliberately introduced to the island, by the mid‐ to late sixth millennium BC (Beech, ; Beech & Glover, ). Further to the south‐east on the coast of the Oman Sea, sheep and goat bones, as well as the remains of fishes native to mangroves, were present in the shell midden Ruways 1, dated to the mid‐sixth millennium based on thermoluminescence dates, but no cattle remains were identified (Berger et al, ).…”

Collapse of Holocene mangrove ecosystems along the coastline of Oman

“…In our study area, archaeological evidence indicates that hunter-and-gatherer populations exploited mangrove ecosystems during the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age (Lézine et al, 2002, Berger et al, 2020. Thus, archaeological investigation is an appropriate way to localize paleo-mangrove settings.…”

“…This can be open sea or lagoonal fauna. At some sites, the latter includes mangrove-associated species like the gastropod Terebralia palustris (Martin, 2005;Berger et al, 2013Berger et al, , 2020.…”

“…The time of burial must have been during the shell accumulation, as indicated by the stratigraphy. Berger et al (2020) date the burials to the Middle Neolithic period. Mining activities were stopped, and the site was declared an archaeological heritage site by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture.…”

“…Neolithic archaeological evidence indicates that lagoons must have existed along the coastline, which is characterized by hyper-arid conditions today. Studies show that these lagoons were fringed by mangroves (Lézine et al, 2002;Berger et al, 2013Berger et al, , 2020Marrast et al, 2020). Owing to their sensitivity to salinity and temperature, and also to their intertidal position, mangrove ecosystems are excellent archives of environmental changes in climate and sea level.…”