This concluding chapter focuses on the major themes resulting from this volume and the future of this discipline. For too long, Arabia has remained on the margins of the study of the ancient world. Up until that point, previous research thought that this region contained little to no prehistoric archaeology. One of the first and most important results of this volume is to disprove that notion. This work is important, not just in terms of funerary ritual and tomb architecture but also as a reminder that the perspective that homogenizes human behavior on the basis of apparent material culture uniformity runs the risk of erasing individual and group agency. In short, these chapters offer new insights. Arabian archaeology is a young discipline that embraces new conceptualizations of ancient societies and new methodologies modes of practice. Its researchers challenge the strict and often calcified concept of material cultures that compartmentalized southeast Arabian prehistory. As the discipline of Near Eastern Archaeology collapses, an opportunity arises to bring more nuance to our knowledge of how past people lived in Asia.

The Iron Age II site of Hili 2 (Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) is remarkable because of its preservation. The initial excavations, begun in the 1970s, unearthed mudbrick walls preserved in places two meters high. Fieldwork recommenced at Hili 2 in 2018 and as part of this effort the previously exposed architecture was re-examined. Of particular interest were three collapsed mudbrick walls that were excavated in order to conserve the surrounding architecture. The walls were removed course by course, providing new insight into mudbrick construction and raising questions about the social organisation of Iron Age settlements.

Excavations at Muweilah have uncovered twelve buildings encircled by two pairs of walls and ditches. We have published preliminary studies of several buildings. Research has now progressed to a stage where it is possible to produce a more complete analysis of the architecture. In this report, we present a detailed discussion of the fortifications and each building with its installations. Our assessment of the architecture identified the repeated combination of three rooms in many of the buildings in the Central Area of Muweilah. Moreover, a detailed study of the fortifications revealed several means of accessing Building II, the columned hall, in the Western Area. These findings offer insights into the organisation of Iron Age II settlements in south-eastern Arabia.

Ancient iron objects from early Iron Age archaeological sites are almost always severely corroded, which can severely limit the possibilities for their archaeometallurgical analysis. In this paper, a range of corroded iron objects from different sites and regions of the ancient Near East are investigated with the purpose of developing an integrated scientific approach to the investigation of such materials, outlining the capabilities and major technical limitations of currently available techniques. Specific objectives of the research include: (1) Assessing the state of degradation of ancient ferrous objects in respect to the portion of remnant carburized areas preserved; (2) Identifying metallographic structures and evaluating the carbon content from the observation of remnant carburized areas; (3) Developing an understanding of the representativeness of remnant carburized areas in corroded ferrous samples; and (4) Exploring the validity and technical constraints of SEM-EDS analyses of slag inclusions in corroded iron artefacts for the determination of provenance.

Bitumen was widely traded throughout the Arabian Gulf in prehistory and its movement in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age is well studied. This article presents the results of new geochemical work conducted on bitumen from the mid-second millennium BC at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Sharjah, UAE) to determine the geological origin of the samples. This study uses Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis (delta C-13) on the asphaltenes fraction and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) on the saturated hydrocarbon fraction. The Tell Abraq dataset offers a unique opportunity to understand trade and interaction as no bitumen from this period in south-eastern Arabia has ever been investigated. The mid-second millennium BC is one of immense change in the region. It is widely considered that south-eastern Arabia was disengaged from major economic interactions in the Arabian Gulf while Kassite influence in the central Gulf had drawn Bahrain (ancient Dilmun) into closer economic and political ties with Mesopotamia. The identification of Iranian bitumen at Tell Abraq illustrates that the situation in south-eastern Arabia was more complex than previously thought.

Research recommenced at Tell Abraq in 2007, carried out by Bryn Mawr College with an international team in co-operation with the Sharjah Archaeology Authority. Between 2007 and 2010 fieldwork was limited to documenting sections of the previous excavations and one small sounding while our attention focused mainly on the nearby shell-midden site of Hamriya and the fortified Iron Age settlement site of Muweilah. Since 2010, large-scale excavations have been conducted which have fundamentally altered our understanding of the layout of the settlement and its economic relations during the second and first millennia BC. In this report, we detail the results of this work and present preliminary interpretations.

Paul Yule . Cross-roads: Early and Late Iron Age south-eastern Arabia (Abhandlungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 30). 2014. 120 pages, numerous colour plates and b&w illustrations, several tables. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; 978-3-447-10127-1 hardback €48. - Volume 90 Issue 349

Dromedaries have been fundamental to the development of human societies in arid landscapes and for long-distance trade across hostile hot terrains for 3,000 y. Today they continue to be an important livestock resource in marginal agro-ecological zones. However, the history of dromedary domestication and the influence of ancient trading networks on their genetic structure have remained elusive. We combined ancient DNA sequences of wild and early-domesticated dromedary samples from arid regions with nuclear microsatellite and mitochondrial genotype information from 1,083 extant animals collected across the species' range. We observe little phylogeographic signal in the modern population, indicative of extensive gene flow and virtually affecting all regions except East Africa, where dromedary populations have remained relatively isolated. In agreement with archaeological findings, we identify wild dromedaries from the southeast Arabian Peninsula among the founders of the domestic dromedary gene pool. Approximate Bayesian computations further support the "restocking from the wild" hypothesis, with an initial domestication followed by introgression from individuals from wild, now-extinct populations. Compared with other livestock, which show a long history of gene flow with their wild ancestors, we find a high initial diversity relative to the native distribution of the wild ancestor on the Arabian Peninsula and to the brief coexistence of early-domesticated and wild individuals. This study also demonstrates the potential to retrieve ancient DNA sequences from osseous remains excavated in hot and dry desert environments.

In their note, Marom et al. (1) correctly point out that the phylogeographic pattern emerging from the (mito)genetic signatures in modern dromedary breeds and ancient wild and domestic dromedaries may help illuminate the organization of caravan trade. With the latter not being the focus of our paper, however, we did not address this aspect in full detail but concluded that transcontinental and crosscontinental transportation of bulk goods using dromedaries would offer the most plausible explanation for the lack of patterning in our data (2). As far as we understand, the authors do not challenge our conclusions but support our argument that camel caravans played a role in dispersal and genetic admixture. … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: pamela.burger{at}vetmeduni.ac.at. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

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There is a range of evidence that informs us about the organisation of the Achaemenid Empire, but our understanding ofthe eastern-most reaches of the empire, which lie within the bounds of modern-day Pakistan is relatively limited. Whilethere is evidence for the eastern provinces in imperial art and references to them in Achaemenid Royal inscriptions, thearchaeological record in the subcontinent is far more ephemeral and less straightforward to interpret. Some of the clearestinformation about these eastern regions comes from the historians who wrote about the conquest of Alexander at theend of the 4th century BC. The evidence for the Achaemenid period in the east is also informed by an understanding ofthe archaeological evidence from the preceding periods, which implies that the Achaemenid Empire annexed existingregional entities during the 6th century BC, and employed a layered administrative system in the east that saw differingdegrees of control exerted in different regions.

This article summarizes the outcome of a workshop sponsored by the Durham University Centre for Iranian Cultural Studies, where papers were presented on the entire chronological range of water management systems in Iran from around 8000 years bc until around 1000 ad. The primary aim was to recognize major research questions that could be used to create an agenda for future studies of ancient water use in the country. In the Durham meeting, it appeared that although the small-scale prehistoric systems probably constituted an example of ‘human niche construction’, the later imperial systems did not. Despite the recognition of occasional irrigation systems of third millennium bc date in the Deh Luran plain by Neely and Wright, as well as perhaps in Khuzestan, there appears to be a general dearth of evidence of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age systems in Iran. However, by the first millennium bc there was a considerable increase in the construction of major water management systems, some of which were, at least as far as the associated evidence suggests, constructed by imperial authorities. All agreed, however, that just because a system appeared large in scale, it was not necessarily a result of imperial management. For the subject of qanats it was argued that not only were they usually built by small-scale societies, but also that there may have been multiple centres of origin; one primary centre being a broad zone of south-east Iran, Pakistan and south-east Arabia.