Pre-agricultural Neolithic site found in Oman :

The archaeological reconnaissance is an introduction to a four-year long Omani–Polish research project in the region of Qumayrah. The project is being carried out in cooperation between the Department of Excavations and Archaeological Studies, Ministry of Heritage and Culture (MoHC), and the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA), University of Warsaw. The PCMA expedition, led by Professor Piotr Bielinski, initially surveyed four settlement sites and five burial sites in a mountain valley near the villages of Bilt and Al Ain. The survey team discovered two other settlement sites of which at least one is of a prehistoric date. Qumayrah stretches over several mountain valleys. Professor Bielinski said that it is a very interesting area archaeologically since these valleys must have been crossed by trade routes connecting the hinterland with the coast of Persian and Omani gulfs. “Moreover, these mountains were the source of Oman’s most precious natural resource in antiquity – copper. This metal, as well as copper alloy objects were transported through these trade routes. One of the main export markets was Mesopotamia, where copper objects were found, among others, in Sumerian royal tombs (third millennium BC),” he said.

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I throw in this modern map above to show the ancient route by sea or land could have reached Mesopotamia , the part of the map that is largely blank is called the empty quarter and is very hostile to travel one would have to hug the coast, also this put products in reach of the Dravidian kingdoms of Pakistan.

Work on the prehistoric site will be the next objective. “This season’s finds hint at it being a pre-agricultural Neolithic site, which is a very interesting phenomenon,” said Professor Bielinski. A senior official from MoHC said, “Earlier, an Italian team had done some surveys of the site but this is a detailed excavation programme.” Jebel Qumayrah is located on the western side of northern Oman mountains, 40km southeast of Al Ain and Buraimi.

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One of them is excavating a burial ground from the Hafit period (beginning of the third millennium BC) with stone tower tombs.

Interesting discovery , looking forward to news of any discoveries from the site in the coming years.
As it's a pre-agricultural Neolithic site I guess they were reliant on trade for their survival so would imagine there could be much in the way of finds to be found.

How old is the Persian Gulf?

The stones in the photo, the circle....that is much better workmanship than I would expect from a hunter-gatherer. Not to mention the work it would take to smelt out the copper that was mined.

Its just hard to fathom how any of these skills could be gained while living in a preagrecultural society.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
How old is the Persian Gulf?

The stones in the photo, the circle....that is much better workmanship than I would expect from a hunter-gatherer. Not to mention the work it would take to smelt out the copper that was mined.

Its just hard to fathom how any of these skills could be gained while living in a preagrecultural society.

I thought the same thing about the "Basketweavers" over your way. :p

a reply to: Rosinitiate

That makes more sense, with division of labor helping. While Native American's may have been called "hunter gatherers", and were in fact hunter gatherers...there was still exposure to agrarian life. And its likely that even the hunter gatherers were fairly agrarian in a lot of ways, replanting what they harvested along the way.

But if you set a Comanche ca 1600 next to a neolithic old world man....i think it would be a pretty stark contrast between the two

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan


How old is the Persian Gulf? .

Its formed by tectonics over millions of years, the Arabian plate on the left and the Eurasian plate on the right, they were originally pulling apart, then about 20 million years ago, they started pushing back together.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
The stones in the photo, the circle....that is much better workmanship than I would expect from a hunter-gatherer. .

No, its pretty shoddy. Compared to other pre agricultural Neolithic sites like Çatalhöyük or Gobekli Tepe. What it does show though is that the site was continually occupied over a long period.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexanIts just hard to fathom how any of these skills could be gained while living in a preagrecultural society.

This might have been pre agricultural, but that doesn't mean primitive, remember they were trading the copper with Mesopotamia, which wasn't pre agricultural. Pre agricultural in this context means that they didn't grow their own crops, they still would have had domesticated animals and local natural food supplies

Mesopotamia called this place Magan, it appears frequently in Mesopotamian texts as a source for good copper
Magan

May the land of Magan offer you strong, powerful copper, dolerite, u stone and šumin stone (Diorite)

Let the Magan boats be loaded sky-high

They shall bring you from the land of Magan. You shall shape Strong Copper like leather and then you shall be perfectly adapted for my heroic arm, for me, the lord

From the copper and tin of Magan you are Enakam.

a reply to: Marduk

So then...agriculture (in this sense) only refers to growing crops, not raising animals.

An important distinction.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Marduk

So then...agriculture (in this sense) only refers to growing crops, not raising animals.

An important distinction.

There's a list here
en.wikipedia.org...
Most common animals were domesticated by 5-6000BCE at the latest
So if they were trading with Sumer, which was agricultural by 3500bce, they would have had animals...

There's also a distinction which needs to be made between crops. A lot of cultures survived on subsistence crops in the mountains without planting them. Fruit for instance is available year round as is honey and fish and birds. Up in the mountains foodstuffs were in abundance, which was why the Sumerians called mountain steppes, Eden
About 2500 years before another group started using the word in their mythology for paradise...

Crop farming is really only required to feed very large populations

a reply to: Marduk

im familiar with Amerinds harvesting "crops" that they had planted the year before along migration routes. You harvest a food under a bush, replant another there.

Some of that is the fallacy of the "harmonious indian". But some of it just makes sense.

a reply to: Marduk

People should also understand that Pre-agricultural Neolithic and PPNA often chronologically overlap with varying degrees of sophistication based on geography. Some of the Turkish sites Catalhoyuk and Gobekli Tepe show much more advanced sense of civilization than contemporary Levantine sites and the Levantine sites are much more organized and advanced than contemporary European sites for example.

originally posted by: peter vlar
a reply to: Marduk

PPNA

Wow, I'm out of touch, they used to call PPNA, Aceramic
I had to google that, thanks for the update

a reply to: Marduk

Hi Marduk, I have this long unanswered question about where exactly were the locations of Magan and Meluha , that area of the ancient world you perhaps know better than I do, for certain by later in the historical records of Assyria both countries were identified as Kemet and Kush, Dilmun, seemed to be in the Persian gulf, that is what is confusing me and it's the ancient's fault.
Esarhaddon's words:

my first campaign I marched against Magan,Meluha, Tarka, king of Egypt and Ethiopia
www.academia.edu...

And sometime earlier I think Rib Addi in one of his letters to Akhenaten begged him to send troops from Meluaha ( Kush) even if only one to deter his enemies from attacking his interest.
Maybe I'll make a post of the Rib Addi correspondence between him and Akhenaten, fascinating stuff.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
How old is the Persian Gulf?

The stones in the photo, the circle....that is much better workmanship than I would expect from a hunter-gatherer. Not to mention the work it would take to smelt out the copper that was mined.

Its just hard to fathom how any of these skills could be gained while living in a preagrecultural society.

Remember that this site and this time period is between two great emerging civilizations: Sumer and Egypt. Both had active trade systems... it wouldn't require a long journey but rather a trip to the next village in the chain who traded with villages closer to the other civilizations ... and so on and so forth. Goods moving by small steps and not by long journeys.

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: Marduk

Hi Marduk, I have this long unanswered question about where exactly were the locations of Magan and Meluha , that area of the ancient world you perhaps know better than I do, for certain by later in the historical records of Assyria both countries were identified as Kemet and Kush, Dilmun, seemed to be in the Persian gulf, that is what is confusing me and it's the ancient's fault.

A lot of scholars think that it was the Indus civiliation, but if Esarhaddon is claiming to have been in conflict with them, then he'd need a time machine as the civilisation collapsed about 600 years earlier. I have always thought that it referred to Southern Anatolia around the Taurus mountains. Mesopotamian kings were always beating the crap out of that area, so it must have ad good resources. Its known that Mesopotamia kept it as a vassal state because it was rich in tin deposits.

The location of Magan seemed to have changed over the years textually, but as it appears to be a compound word consisting of MA and G and AN, the first word means "Ship and the second is a compound word connecting element as you can't have a word with a double "A", which is how we get Satan from SA.AN. (Enemy of heaven), the last AN, means heaven/mountain/sky

So it could be basically translated as ship from heaven, heaven being recognised as a mountain in Sumerian, so a river route to a mountain resource and not a proper noun..

Sumerian linguistics is simple, the older a word is the more it tends towards a collection of smaller words describing what it is. The later the word appears the more its meaning is lost in its reading as it becomes more abstract. This happens until you get to the point where we are today where no one knows what the original meaning of nouns were

originally posted by: Marduk

originally posted by: peter vlar
a reply to: Marduk

PPNA

Wow, I'm out of touch, they used to call PPNA, Aceramic
I had to google that, thanks for the update

Every once in awhile I'm good for something. You just caught me on a lucky day is all. In addition to PPNA and PPNB there is talk of, or perhaps it has been added by now, of including a PPNC. The main difference between PPNA and PPNB is animal husbandry being common during PPNB along with new types of tools and different construction style. PPNC from what I recall kind of merges slowly into Halaf Culture.

a reply to: peter vlar

I guess they gave up on Aceramic, because when you say

It was an aceramic culture

everyone hears

It was a ceramic culture