Revisiting ‘Settlement’: A case study of terminology and Early Bronze Age southeast Arabia

The nature of third‐millennium settlement: The example of al‐Tikha (Rustaq) an Umm an‐Nar site on the Batinah coast of Oman

“…Traditionally, Umm an‐Nar settlements have been thought to be made up of three main components: towers, domestic structures and tombs, but as we have seen, not all these features are always present, and if they are, the way they are related spatially varies considerably (Swerida, 2022). Research on Umm an‐Nar settlements, which for a long time was focussed predominantly on towers, has recently begun to focus increasingly on domestic structures (Swerida, 2022, p. 2). Although towers, tombs and domestic structures are present at al‐Tikha, they do not offer a clear interpretation, particularly the towers, whose function is still unknown.…”

“…A single settlement hierarchy is unlikely to be universally applicable across the Umm an‐Nar area (al‐Jahwari & Kennet, 2010, p. 211; Döpper, 2018c, p. 93; Kerr, 2016; pp. 189–190; Swerida, 2022). Al‐Tikha appears to be akin to multi‐towered settlements on the other side of the Hajar Mountains between Hili and al‐Khashbah, where the vast majority of round‐towers are found (Figure 20).…”

“…The layout of al-Tikha suggests, therefore, either that we should discount these theories or that they do not apply to all Umm an-Nar sites. This might support Swerida's (2022) point that there is no universal configuration of settlement applicable to the Umm an-Nar period, or it might simply indicate that we need more detailed information about the configuration of settlements. Because we are presented, at al-Tikha, with something that approaches a complete site layout, we can move away from a reliance on towers when thinking about how the site was organised, and instead focus on the actual location of areas of housing, as we cannot yet do at sites such as, for example, Bat, Hili and Bisya.…”

“…133-135). However, despite links to urbanised areas in Mesopotamia, Iran and the Indus Valley, Umm an-Nar settlements cannot be described as urban, and the question of how to categorise Umm an-Nar settlements, for example, in terms of size and social organisation, remains (Swerida, 2022).…”

“…However, despite this sizeable corpus of archaeological evidence and research, as well as recent renewed interest in the field (e.g., Döpper, 2018aDöpper, , 2018b, our understanding of the settlements of the period is still very limitedparticularly in relation to their layout and development. A recent paper by Swerida (2022) offers an overview of published Umm an-Nar settlements and argues the need for a clearer definition of 'settlement' in this period, in light of the dispersed and patchy data. Relatively few well-preserved Umm an-Nar settlements are known, and even fewer have been thoroughly investigated.…”