Umm-an-Nar culture

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Coordinates: 24 ° 26 ′ 21 ″  N , 54 ° 30 ′ 16 ″  E

Relief Map: United Arab Emirates
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Umm an-Nar​
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United Arab Emirates

The Umm-an-Nar culture is a Bronze Age archaeological culture that developed during the period 2700/2600 to 2000 BC. . Chr in the UAE and northern Oman unfolded.

Etymology and type locality

The Umm-an-Nar culture was named after its type locality , the island of Umm an-Nar ( Arabic أم النار, DMG Umm an-nār  'mother of fire'), which is located southeast of Abu Dhabi . The type locality is under protection, its public access is restricted due to its location between an oil refinery and a military restricted area. The authorities of the United Arab Emirates want to facilitate access in the future and classify the type locality among the cultural sights of the country.

Research history

The first excavations at Umm-an-Nar were carried out in 1959 by a Danish archaeological expedition led by Geoffrey Bibby , twelve years before the founding of the United Arab Emirates. She examined seven of the total of 50 tombs and three areas of the prehistoric settlement. On some of the cairns they were able to uncover well-fitting stones. From February 1959, work was carried out on the excavation of burial mound I on the plateau. In 1960 and 1961 further burial mounds were examined, and work on the settlement was carried out in 1962/1963, 1964 and 1965. The Danes' excavation work stopped in 1965; They were replaced in 1975 by a team from Iraq , which uncovered five other graves and a small part of the settlement. In the meantime (from 1970 to 1972) an Iraqi restoration troop led by Shah Al Siwani, member of the Directory of Antiquities in Baghdad, had repaired or rebuilt the burial mounds uncovered by the Danes.

description

Characteristic of the Umm-an-Nar culture are round burial buildings, the outer walls of which are made of stones that fit together very well. Some of the built-in stone slabs are decorated with simple reliefs. Inside were numerous human bones - remains of dead people that had been buried here over the centuries.

General cultural framework

The Umm-an-Nar culture, together with the Wadi-Suq culture, forms the middle section of the settlement history of the southeastern Gulf region. The older, previous settlement phase ( Hafit culture ) is characterized by hundreds of beehive-like stone graves in which ceramic objects from Mesopotamia were found. The subsequent Wadi Suq culture (2000 to 1600 BC) continued the relatively highly developed traits of its predecessor, but there was nevertheless a cultural decline. The last phase of the Bronze Age (1600 to 1300 BC), which is not very well documented, can only be found indistinctly in very few settlements. During the subsequent Iron Age (1300 to 300 BC) there was an enormous cultural boom due to the introduction of the underground irrigation system Qanat , here referred to as Falaj , by local communities.

literature

  • Geoffrey Bibby : Dilmun. The discovery of the oldest high culture . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1973, ISBN 3498004409 , pp. 291-301.
  • Karen Frifelt et al. a .: The Island of Umm-an-Nar. Jutland Archaeological Society Publications, Aarhus 1995
  • Walid Yasin Al Tikriti: Archeology of Umm an-Nar Island (1959-2009) . Abu Dhabi Culture & Heritage, Department of Historic Environment, Abu Dhabi 2011
  • Publications on Umm-an-Nar culture on academia.edu :
    • Charlotte Marie Cable, Christopher P. Thornton: Monumentality and the Third-Millennium “Towers” ​​of the Oman Peninsula. on-line
    • Daniel T. Potts: The Hafit - Umm an-Nar transition: Evidence from Falaj al-Qaba'il and Jabal al-Emalah . In. J. Giraud, G. Gernez, V. de Castéja (eds.): Aux marges de l'archéologie: Hommages à Serge Cleuziou . Paris 2012: Travaux de la Maison René-Ginouves 16, pp. 371–377. on-line

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