Late Holocene onset of intensive cultivation and introduction of the falaj irrigation system in the Salut oasis (Sultanate of Oman)

Abstract

This paper discusses the time and steps of the introduction of intensive agriculture and evolution of irrigation systems to sustain crops in the palaeo-oasis of Salut in the northern Sultanate of Oman. Various geoarchaeological methods allow reconstructing the exploitation of the natural resources of the region and technological development of irrigation methods since the Mid-Holocene. Intensive agriculture started during the Bronze Age and continued with some spatial and intensity fluctuations up to the Islamic period. Cultivations were initially sustained by surface irrigation systems and later replaced by a dense net of aflaj, the typical surface/underground system adopted in the Levant, Arabian Peninsula and western Asia to collect water from deep piedmont aquifers and redistribute it to the fields located in the lowlands. Our results indicate that the aflaj were in use for a long period in the palaeo-oasis formed along Wadi Sayfam and surrounding the citadel of Salut. Uranium-Thorium dating of calcareous tufa formed in the underground tunnels of the aflaj suggests that they were used between ~540 BCE and ~1150 CE.After ~1150 CE Wadi Sayfam were abandoned and the size of the oasis shrank substantially.During the late Islamic period, a surface aqueduct descending from the piedmont of Jabal Shams 2 secured water supply. Our work confirms that in arid lands archaeological and historical communities were able to actively modulate their response to climate changes by using a variety of technological strategies.

An oasis soil reference collection for the identification and study of ancient cultivated soils in arid environments (Oasis of Masafi, United Arab Emirates)

“…However, although it is widely accepted that agriculture has been fundamental in the history of local societies, oases themselves have rarely been explored through their soils in this region. In Arabia, geoarchaeology and archaeo‐pedology of agricultural terraces have been developed in Yemen over the past 40 years (Kühn et al, 2010; Pietsch & Kühn, 2017; Pietsch & Mabit, 2012; Pietsch et al, 2010; Wilkinson, 1997, 2005) and in some regions of Oman (Cremaschi et al, 2018; Desruelles et al, 2016; Nagieb et al, 2004; Siebert et al, 2005), whereas only localised studies in the UAE have focussed on ancient agricultural landscapes (Cordoba, 2013) and rarely those interested in the long‐term use of soils (Power & Sheehan, 2011) and their characteristics.…”

Rock art survey in the ancient oasis of Salūt (northern Sultanate of Oman): a variegated iconographic record

“…The Late Islamic, rather sparse occupation started after the sixteenth century CE and lasted until today (Avanzini, Sedov, & Condoluci, 2005; Degli Esposti, Condoluci, & Phillips, 2018b; Whitcomb, 1975). All these main phases of occupation of the oasis are mirrored in the evidence for the contemporaneous functioning of the aflaj irrigation system (Cremaschi et al, 2018).…”

“…From the fifth century BCE at the least, this expansion was also supported by the introduction of underground galleries ( aflaj , sing. falaj ) supplying water to the fields (Cremaschi et al, 2018).…”

Geomorphology of the Jebel Qara and coastal plain of Salalah (Dhofar, southern Sultanate of Oman)

“…Climate data for the Pleistocene are scanty and mainly inferred by geomorphological observations. Several high-to medium-resolution stable isotope palaeoclimatic records from stalagmites and calcareous tufa have provided information on Holocene climatic fluctuations in southern Arabia (Burns, Matter, Frank, & Mangini, 1998;Cremaschi et al, 2015Cremaschi et al, , 2018Fleitmann et al, 2003Fleitmann et al, , 2004Fleitmann et al, , 2007Zerboni et al, in press). In the Early-Middle Holocene, a rapid northward displacement in the latitudinal position of the summer Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the associated monsoonal belt promoted a large amount of rainfall.…”