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A multi-analytical study of Bronze Age pottery from the UNESCO site of Al-Khutm (Bat, Oman)

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Abstract

The extensive investigation carried out in recent years at the UNESCO site of Al-Khutm (Ibri, Oman) has allowed to uncover the monumental remains of a tower dated back to the third millennium BC and to collect an abundant ceramic assemblage from the associated soil deposits. Eighteen selected pottery samples have been investigated using a multi-analytical approach including microfocus X-ray computed tomography, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and prompt gamma activation analysis to analyse the vessel-forming technique and to characterise their micro-structure, mineralogical and chemical composition to recognise possible local vs. non-local raw materials. The results provided new insights on ancient manufacturing processes and revealed that most of the vessels were locally produced exploiting raw materials from the surroundings of the site with the exception of a fragment of a black slipped jar. The chemical results suggest that the latter was imported from the Indus area in nowadays Pakistan. This evidence integrates our knowledge about the presence of this type of vessels in Oman and confirms the involvement of inland centres like Bat and Al-Khutm into a large-scale exchange system.

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Acknowledgements

We would like thank H.E. Hassan b. Mohammed Al- Lawati (Special Adviser for World Heritage Sites); Sultan b. Saif Al-Bakri, Director General for Archaeology; and Sultan b. Ali Al-Maqbali (Director World Heritage Sites Department) and Khamis Al-Asmi (Director Department of Excavations and Archaeological Studies) for giving us the opportunity to work at Al-Khutm. Special thanks to Sulaiman Hamood Aljabri (supervisor of Bat, Al-Khutm, and Al-Ayn) for his help and collaboration. We finally thank the Italian team working at Al-Khutm (Alessandro Armigliato, Marco Bianchi, Ilenia Gennuso, Antonio Di Michele) for the collection and preliminary analysis of the documentation of the pottery sample here presented.

Funding

David Prokop has been financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the project CEITEC 2020 (LQ1601) and by the project CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure (MEYS CR, 2016–2019). This research has been supported by Fondo Ricerca Ateneo 2018 of Trieste University in the framework of the project SCAN (Studio mineralogico, petrografico e strutturale di Ceramiche ANtiche tramite metodologie convenzionali e innovative). The PGAA measurements have been done at the Budapest Neutron Centre, within the IPERION CH project of the H2020-INFRAIA-2014-2015 framework, Grant Agreement No. 654028.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro di Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Piazza del Viminale 1, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Federico Bernardini & C. Tuniz

  2. Multidisciplinary Laboratory, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34014, Trieste, Italy

    Federico Bernardini, G. Vinci & C. Tuniz

  3. CEITEC-Central European Institute of Technology, Purkyňova 123, 612 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    D. Prokop

  4. Institute of Physical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

    D. Prokop

  5. Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, Via Weiss 8, 34128, Trieste, Italy

    L. Barro Savonuzzi, A. De Min, D. Lenaz & F. Princivalle

  6. Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 244, 00186, Rome, Italy

    E. Cocca

  7. Nuclear Analysis and Radiography Department, Centre for Energy Research, Konkoly Thege 29-33, Budapest, H-1121, Hungary

    Zs. Kasztovszky, V. Szilágyi & I. Harsányi

  8. Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna, Piazza S.Giovanni in Monte 4, 40124, Bologna, Italy

    M. Cattani

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  1. Federico Bernardini
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  2. G. Vinci
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  3. D. Prokop
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  12. C. Tuniz
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Contributions

FB designed and led the study; FB, GV, ADM wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors; FB, GV, EC, MC conducted archaeological research; GV, EC coordinated archaeological investigations; FB, LBS, ADM, DL, FP conducted mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical research with contributions from ZK and VS; FB, DP, CT conducted microCT scans and data analysis; ZK, VS, IH conducted PGAA; all authors contributed to final interpretation of data.

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Correspondence to Federico Bernardini.

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ESM 1

Major (wt%) and some trace (ppm) elements of the investigated vessels analysed by PGAA including LOI. Fe2O3: total Fe content (XLSX 21 kb)

ESM 2

Detailed macroscopic description of investigated pottery samples (XLSX 11 kb)

ESM 3 MicroCT-derived transversal sections of the investigated samples. Images not in scale.

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Bernardini, F., Vinci, G., Prokop, D. et al. A multi-analytical study of Bronze Age pottery from the UNESCO site of Al-Khutm (Bat, Oman). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 163 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01099-x

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