Abstract

Ra’s al-Hamra 6 (RH-6) and Ra’s al-Hamra 5 (RH-5) are two of the most important Neolithic coastal sites in the Sultanate of Oman. Located in the capital Muscat, they have supplied an important corpus of fish bones and revealed a high taxonomic richness in the different assemblages. The results provided information on fishing practices that held an important role in the subsistence strategies of the inhabitants during the two millennia of occupation (sixth to fourth millennia BC). Pelagic species (jacks and kawakawa/tunas) were largely dominant throughout both occupations, calling into question the interpretation of inshore or offshore fishing; these fish could have been caught with a hook-and-line or by setting nets at a reasonable distance from the coast. However, the inhabitants also had to supplement this subsistence by catching demersal fish and small fish, caught from the cliff, in the estuary or the mangrove. At both sites, the inhabitants clearly exploited the different nearby inshore environments: coastal open water, reefs, estuary, and mangrove. Moreover, the high fish richness (69 genera at RH-6; 35 genera at RH-5) indicates that both sites could have been occupied on a year-round basis.

摘要

Ra's al-Hamra 6 (RH-6) 和 Ra's al-Hamra 5 (RH-5) 是阿曼苏丹国两个最重要的新石器时代沿海遗址。它们位于首都马斯喀特，提供了重要的鱼骨库，并揭示了不同组合的高度分类学丰富性。研究结果提供了有关捕鱼方法的信息，这些方法在两千年的占领时期（公元前六世纪到四千年）期间在居民的生存策略中发挥了重要作用。中上层物种（鲹鱼和卡瓦卡瓦鱼/金枪鱼）在这两种职业中都占主导地位，这使人们对近海或近海捕捞的解释产生了疑问；这些鱼可以用钩线或在离海岸适当距离的地方撒网来捕获。然而，居民还必须通过捕捞底层鱼类和从悬崖、河口或红树林捕获的小鱼来补充生计。在这两个地点，居民显然都利用了附近不同的近岸环境：沿海开放水域、珊瑚礁、河口和红树林。此外，鱼类丰富度很高（RH-6 处有 69 属；RH-5 处有 35 属）表明这两个地点可能全年都被占用。