By the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third millennium BC, the cultural manifestations around the Arabian Peninsula begin to show more and more divergence in all forms of material culture. In southeastern Arabia, monumental tombs built of unworked stone, of so-called ‘Hafit’ type (after Jabal Hafit), appear on ridge tops near oases such as Baat and Buraimi. Although they contained few individuals, they were probably collective. Imported ceramics point to links with the Jamdat Nasr period (c. 3000 BC) in southern Mesopotamia. Towards the middle of the third millennium, the better-attested ‘Umm an-Nar’ culture, with its large circular fortifications (c. 16-40 m in diameter, built of stone, mud brick, or a combination of both) and far more numerous collective tombs, built of unworked stone faced with finely masoned limestone ashlars, emerges. In rare cases, the limestone ashlars of these tombs have scenes in low relief, including humans and animals (camel, oryx, donkey, bull). Mesopotamian and Bahraini pottery, Iranian, black-on-gray ceramics and carved softstone vessels, ivory combs from Bactria and/or the Indus Valley, and Harappan weights and etched carnelian beads, all reflect peak close ties with a wide array of regions extending from the Indus Valley in the east to Syria in the west. At RJ2 in eastern Oman (Ras al-Jinz), a sprawling settlement with third millennium occupation has revealed fragments of bitumen bearing cord and reed mat impressions that come from boats. Harappan material, including ceramics and seals, found at the site suggests that Ras al-Jinz, the nearest landfall to Pakistan and India if one crosses the Arabian Sea by boat, was probably an important stage in the maritime routes linking the Indus Valley and the west. Importantly, RJ2 has also yielded a rectangular, footed incense burner with traces of aromatic resin still adhering to its upper surface. This find suggests that the trade in aromatics linking south Arabia, or the frankincense and myrrh-producing regions of Dhofar (technically in Oman, but culturally south Arabian), was already underway in the Bronze Age, a probability made highly plausible by references to a large variety of aromatics in Mesopotamian cuneiform sources of third millennium date.
Late in the third millennium, several large settlements were founded on Bahrain (Qalat al-Bahrain and Saar), while nearby temples (Barbar and Diraz) displayed the first public religious architecture known in the region (Figure 1). In contrast to southeastern Arabia where collective burial (sometimes involving hundreds of individuals) was the norm, burial mounds
Figure 1 Temple of cut limestone ashlars at Barbar, Bahrain.
On Bahrain, over 150 000 of which have been counted on aerial photographs of the main island, were predominantly individual inhumations.
Cuneiform sources in Mesopotamia allow us to identify southeastern Arabia with the region known as Magan (Sumerian) or Makkan (Akkadian) at this time. The mainland of eastern Saudi Arabia, with the important island of Tarut, and Bahrain, on the other hand, formed the land known as Dilmun (Sumerian) or Tilmun (Akkadian). Settlements and tombs on the mainland at Rufayah, Abqayq, and Dhahran, and on Tarut, show evidence of strong connections with southern Mesopotamia (ceramics) and southeastern Iran (softstone vessels).
Elsewhere in the peninsula, however, third millennium occupation is more elusive. Recent C-14 dates from the deepest levels at Tayma, in the Hejaz, suggest that Bronze Age occupation underlies the predominantly Iron Age strata at the site. In Yemen, the ‘Bronze Age’ was only discovered less than 25 years ago when Italian archaeologists revealed stone structures near Sirwah at Khawlan at-Tiyal and Hada’; in the Wadi Hirab, north of the Jawf; and on the high plateau near Sana’a around Hadur Hamdan and Rayda. These seem to be small villages of agriculturalists who cultivated wheat, barley, sorghum, and oats, and kept domesticated sheep, goat, and possibly donkey. A limited range of brick-red, sand-tempered ceramic forms, some of which are decorated with burnishing and incision on the exterior, as well as ground and flaked stone tools, copper tools (pins/ awls) and weaponry (short swords with raised midrib and two rivets at the base for attachment to the hilt, c. 16-25 cm long, all from Bayt al-Mujali), and jewelry made of shell and semiprecious stones, constitute the bulk of the material found on these sites, with one important exception. A small number of monolithic, anthropomorphic statues, made of granite and varying between c. 17.5 and 33 cm in height, appears to date to the third millennium (and possibly the second as well). All have small, triangular, flattened heads with eyes indicated by slight depressions and a clear nose, atop broad, square shoulders. The upper arms are held vertically against the body, and the forearms are horizontal, a pose that is reminiscent of Mesopotamian statuary of the mid-third millennium in the Diyala region (Early Dynastic II). Males are often distinguished by a raised ridge running from the shoulder downward, between the hands and around the upper waist (a rope? braid? edge of a toga-like garment that left the neck and one shoulder uncovered?); a belt closer to the hips; and a penis. In one case, a female is identifiable by a large pubic triangle, while in another small breasts and the labial area are clearly delineated. The function of such statuary is unknown. On analogy with contemporary Mesopotamia, these anthropomorphic images may represent dead individuals who wished to be commemorated by a statue in an attitude of perpetual prayer. If so, then it is likely that they were originally displayed in a temple or shrine of some sort.
The third millennium inhabitants of south Arabia were buried in ‘turret’ graves, collective inhumations built of unworked stone whch often occur in clusters or alignments. Most have been robbed, however, and the paucity of archaeological finds contained in them have made their dating problematic. Another tomb type dating to the mid-third millennium, attested at al-Qibali 9 in the Wadi Arf and at graves in the Wadi al-Muhammadiyin, consists of a circle of vertical, unworked boulders, some of which may have incised, anthropomorphic forms on the outer face. These resemble the freestanding granite statuary described above, with the addition of a particular dagger type, with crescentic pommel or handle (perhaps the handle type that would have been riveted to the copper blades found at Bayt al-Mujali). Close parallels for precisely this type of weapon are known from the so-called grave of Meskalamdug (PG 755) in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (c. 2500 BC) and later in a Xllth Dynasty grave at Dahshur in Egypt (early second millennium BC). Archaeological explorations at shell middens on the Farasan islands in the lower Red Sea have been directed at documenting links between southwestern Arabia and pharaonic Egypt but to date there is no compelling evidence of such ties before the Late Bronze Age (see the relevant section below). As for the Early Bronze Age of central and northern Arabia, as well as most of the Red Sea littoral north of Yemen, we have no information at the present time.
By the mid-third millennium, eastern Arabia began to figure increasingly in Mesopotamian cuneiform sources. Late Early Dynastic documents show us Dilmun (Bahrain/eastern Saudi Arabia) as an exporter of woods ‘from foreign lands’ and copper to the southern Mesopotamian city of Lagash. By the twenty-fourth century BC, Magan (UAE/Oman) had become an object of aggression as at least two Old Akkadian kings, Naram-Sin and Manishtushu, conducted campaigns there. Further aggression may have taken place during the Ur III period, but the trade of Mesopotamian textiles and oil (sesame) for copper from Magan (extracted from the copper-rich ophiolite formation of the Hajar mountains in Oman) is also attested (Figure 2). A decentralized political system is suggested by the size and nature of sites from this period in the UAE and Oman, most which are dominated by one or more fortified towers and were probably the
Figure 3 Gold objects from the late 3rd millennium BC tomb at Tell Abraq.
Figure 2 The copper-rich Hajar mountains run from the northern UAE to the southeastern part of Oman.
Strongholds of local rulers, but there is at least one text from Ur in Iraq which records the receipt of gold dust from a ‘king of Magan’ (Figure 3) (see Political Complexity, Rise of).
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