This project investigates changes in human migration patterns with the development of interregional exchange networks in the United Arab Emirates throughout the Bronze Age (ca. 3100-1200 BC). Stable strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope values extracted from human tooth enamel will be utilized in reconstructing the childhood geographic residence of individuals in order to identify non-local adults interred in tombs across the Oman Peninsula. This study tests the hypothesis that the burial of foreigners within local tombs was a common practice by the Early Bronze Age but declined rapidly in the Middle Bronze Age after the fall of the Indus Valley civilization, with which this region was interconnected. This research challenges the long-standing assumption that these monumental tombs acted as powerful symbols tying local populations to the land where their ancestors were buried; the presence of non-locals in these tombs may point to a more flexible and complex funerary ideology than previously speculated. This project will contribute significantly to our knowledge of the influence of trade on mobility and migration patterns in ancient Arabia and seeks to address broader issues by challenging the theoretical assumptions behind these relationships. Through analyses of isotopic signatures from skeletal remains, evidence of the exchange of people has the potential to give insight into the political economy and idealogical aspects of life in this region and facilitate a comparison between the archaeological record and direct biogeochemical evidence as to the true nature of foreign relations and subordination during this time.
This project impacts a female graduate student's training and generates opportunities for success, as well as contributing to the education and training of undergraduates in methodology related to stable isotope analysis. The project provides interdisciplinary collaboration with Emirati scholars. Public outreach is also a key aspect of this project and underrepresented groups will be able to attend the Girls Explore Archaeology! Program, which introduces middle school-aged girls to the science behind archaeology.
The purpose of this investigation was to assess residential mobility and how patterns of mobility changed from the Umm an-Nar (Early Bronze Age; ca. 2500-2000 BC) to the Wadi Suq (Middle Bronze Age; ca. 2000-1300 BC) periods relative to times of economic interregional connectivity and disjunction in southeastern Arabia, as well as the impact of migration on local tomb membership by using stable isotope ratios extracted from human dental enamel. The Oman Peninsula has often been examined as a "peripheral" region relative to other major centers in the Near East. In fact, the Oman Peninsula sat at the nexus of burgeoning Bronze Age trade networks; by the Umm an-Nar period, coastal sites across southeastern Arabia show evidence of extensive exchange systems with the Indus Valley (Pakistan), Mesopotamia (Iraq), Dilmun (Bahrain), Central Asia, and Elam (Iran). Previous studies had speculated that foreign immigrants were interred in both Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq communal graves, but no systematic study of skeletal material has been done to support this claim. This research addressed the hypotheses that mobility, the presence of non-locals, and dietary variability increased during the Umm an-Nar period as a result of increasingly complex and widespread interregional exchange networks, but that interregional mobility, the presence of non-locals, and dietary variability decreased during the Wadi Suq as a result of a "collapse" of these pan-Gulf trade systems. In conjunction with addressing the nature of the movements of people in association with these trade systems using stable isotopes, this project also sought to address broader issues by challenging theoretical assumptions and reconsidering southeastern Arabia’s assignment to the periphery. The results of this project suggest that despite the vast network of exchange systems developing in the Early Bronze Age Umm an-Nar period, only 3% of tomb members were identified as non-local immigrants to the region. Mobility was relatively restricted for local inhabitants of the Oman Peninsula, likely a reflection of an increasingly sedentary lifestyle associated with a reliance on domesticated plants from oasis gardens and coastal gathering/fishing, although surprising given the increased involvement of the peninsula in regional and interregional trade networks. Also, despite archaeological evidence to the contrary, Wadi Suq tomb members did not appear more mobile than their Umm an-Nar counterparts. The broad, mixed diet of the Umm an-Nar population as gleaned from stable carbon isotope ratios fits with evidence of the employment of a variety of subsistence strategies. Carbon values between this period and the Wadi Suq differed significantly as well, indicative of a considerable modification to subsistence practices involving a narrowed dietary focus – not on marine resources, as predicted by the archaeological record, but on what appears to be oasis agriculture. Mobility in southeastern Arabia during the Bronze Age involved a complex arrangement of social and economic factors, all of which impacted local inhabitants of the peninsula on both a regional and interregional level. The presence of non-locals in Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq tombs not only confirms the intimate involvement of this so-called periphery in a pan-Gulf interaction sphere but also sheds new light on the nature of economic exchanges from this less recognized perspective. Far from a subordinate position relative to larger, more complex centers like Mesopotamia, the people of the Oman Peninsula appear to have lived relatively autonomous lives. Monumental tombs from both periods speak to the importance of maintaining a local social identity, with the majority of tomb members representing multiple generations of local ancestors. The absence of any specific expression of foreign identity coupled with immigrants interred within these graves reinforces the idea that these non-locals may have readily adopted the practices of their local host community, even in death. Such a relationship may indicate a form of fictive kinship in place as a means of more formally cementing economic ties. Subsequently, it appears that the relationship between ‘core’ centers and indigenous tribal communities was more likely to involve cooperation in lieu of subjugation. This study contributes substantially to the bioarchaeology of the Persian Gulf. As the first biogeochemical study in the region, this research provides critical insight into temporal patterns of mobility and diet as well as changing Bronze Age interregional relationships during a formative archaeological transition in the Oman Peninsula. As a result, these findings create an important framework against which other biological, archaeological, and theoretical questions may be posited. This work is also significant in that it takes on a broad geographic area extending across both the Middle East and South Asia. Finally, it is important to recognize the potential of bioarchaeological data to more critically evaluate theoretical models, and from this union, get at more elusive aspects of social identity in the past, including status, power, and group membership.
