Nasser Al-Jahwari, Archeology, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
Boundaries Lecture Series
Co-sponsored with the Department of Anthropology, the Global Studies Program, and the Department of Geography and Ubran Studies
The Arabian Gulf has long been a venue for exchange of goods, ideas, and people. This is true today, as it was in the ancient past. The waters that separated the Gulf islands and the Arabian Peninsula from Elam, Baluchistan, and Indus have served as a trade corridor for more than 5,000 years. During the Bronze Age (3200-2000BC), trade focused on copper mined from the mountains of the Oman Peninsula in exchange for ceramics, personal ornaments, and other valued commodities. This talk will explore the role of the site of Dahwa as a regional redistribution center that existed at the nexus of two borderlands: on the coast with access to foreign traders and travelers and at the mouth of a major wadi that connected it to the rest of the Oman Peninsula.