Abstract
In South East Arabia (Sultanate of Oman and United Arab Emirates), oases are irrigated gardens characterised by intensive and mixed farming: date palms form a canopy under which other crops are protected from the sun’s rays and the heat. The origin of this agrosystem and its impact on the historical trajectory of Arabian populations are still much debated issues. Some scholars have suggested that oases developed as soon as agriculture was introduced into the region, at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (3200–2000 BC). The intensification of trade with neighbouring civilisations of Mesopotamia, Iran and Indus seems to have ignited the spark for the adoption of agriculture in Southeast Arabia. According to the existing theories, oases then emerged rapidly and were a means of adapting agriculture to the arid environment of this region. This agrosystem remained unchanged in its fundamental principles until the present day. This theory, however, denies the diachronic dimension of Southeast Arabian landscapes. The present chapter therefore aims to re-evaluate the data and reassess current theories of an Early Bronze Age origin for oases. An alternative development model, based on the available data, will be proposed. It is suggested that the development of oases corresponds to a long process with several steps resulting from environmental changes, technological innovation and socio-economic factors.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Al-Ghafri A, Inoue T, Nagasawa T (2004) Irrigation Scheduling of Aflaj of Oman: Methods and Modernization. University of Hokkaido. http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Traditional-Water-Distribution-in-Aflaj-Irrigation-Systems-of-Oman.pdf. Accessed 8 Feb 2015
Al-Tikriti WY (2002) The south-east Arabian origin of the falaj system. Proc Semin Arab Stud 32:117–138
Al-Tikriti WY (2010) Heading north: an ancient caravan route and the impact of the falaj system on the Iron Age culture. In: Avanzini A (ed) Eastern Arabia in the First Millennium B.C., Arabia Antiqua 6, “L’Erma” di Bretschneider, Rome, pp 227–247
Battesti V (2005) Jardins au désert, Évolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens, Jérid tunisien. IRD éditions, Paris
Beaumont P (1989) The qanat: a means of water provision from groundwater sources. In: Beaumont P, Bonine M, McLachlan K (eds) Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: traditional water systems in the Middle East and North Africa. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Middle East and North African Studies Press, London and Cambridgeshire, pp 13–31
Beech M, Shepherd E (2001) Archaeobotanical evidence for early date consumption on Dalma Island, United Arab Emirates. Antiquity 75(287):83–89
Bellini C, Condoluci C, Giachi G, Gonnelli T, Lippi MM (2011) Interpretative scenarios emerging from plant micro- and macroremains in the Iron Age site of Salut, Sultanate of Oman. J Archaeol Sci 38(10):2775–2789. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.06.021
Biagi P, Nisbet R (1992) Environmental history and plant exploitation at the aceramic sites of RH5 and RH6 near the mangrove swamp of Qurm (Muscat-Oman). Bulletin de la Société Botanique Française, Actualités botaniques 139: 571–578
Biagi P, Nisbet R (2006) The prehistoric fisher-gatherers of the western coast of the Arabian Sea: a case of seasonal sedentarization? World Archaeol 38(2):220–238. doi:10.1080/00438240600708188
Bisson J (1989) The origin and evolution of foggara oases in the Algerian Sahara. In: Beaumont P, Bonine M, McLachlan K (eds) Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: Traditional Water Systems in the Middle East and North Africa. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Middle East and North African Studies Press, London and Cambridgeshire, pp 179–194
Brunswig RH (1989) Cultural History, Environment and Economy as seen from an Umm an-Nar Settlement: Evidence from Test Excavations at Bāt, Oman, 1977/78. J Oman Stud 10:9–50
Charbonnier J (2014) In the shadow of the palm trees: time management and water allocation in the oasis of Ādam (Sultanate of Oman). Proc Semin Arab Stud 44:83–98
Charbonnier J (2015) Groundwater management in Southeast Arabia from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age: a critical reassessment. Water Hist 7(1):39–71. doi:10.1007/s12685-014-0110-x
Charbonnier J, Purdue LE, Calastrenc C, Régagnon E, Sagory T, Benoist A (in press) Ancient agricultural landscapes in Southeast Arabia: Approach and first results of an archaeological, geo-archaeological, and spatial study of the Masāfī Palm Grove, Emirate of Fujairah. In: al-Tikriti W (ed) Proceedings of the water and life in Arabia conference, Al-Ain
Cleuziou S (1982) Hili and the beginning of oasis life in Eastern Arabia. Proc Semin Arab Stud 12:15–22
Cleuziou S (1989) Excavation at Hili 8: a preliminary report on the 4th to 7th campaigns. Archaeology in the United Arab Emirates V: 61–87
Cleuziou S (1997) Construire et protéger son terroir: les oasis d’Oman à l’Âge du Bronze. In: Burnouf J, Bravard J-P, Chouquer G (eds) La dynamique des paysages protohistoriques, antiques, médiévaux et modernes. XVIIe Rencontres Internationales d’Archéologie et d’Histoire d’Antibes. Éditions APDCA, Antibes, pp 389–412
Cleuziou S (1998) The foundation of early bronze age Oases in the Oman Peninsula. In: Pearce M, Tosi M (eds) Papers from the EAA Third Annual Meeting at Ravenna 1997, vol I: Pre- and Protohistory. BAR International Series 717, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp 59–70
Cleuziou S (1999) Espace habité, espace utilisé, espace vécu dans les communautés d’Arabie orientale à l’Âge du Bronze. In: Braemer F, Cleuziou S, Coudart A (eds) Habitat et société. XIXe Rencontres Internationales d’Archéologie et d’Histoire d’Antibes. Éditions APDCA, Antibes, pp 83–108
Cleuziou S (2005) Pourquoi si tard? Nous avons pris un autre chemin. L’Arabie des chasseurs-cueilleurs de l‘Holocène à l’Age du Bronze. In: Guilaine J (ed) Aux marges des grands foyers du Néolithique. Errance, Paris, pp 123–148
Cleuziou S (2009) Extracting wealth from a land of starvation by creating social complexity: a dialogue between archaeology and climate? CR Geosci 341(8–9):726–738. doi:10.1016/j.crte.2009.06.005
Cleuziou S, Costantini L (1980) Premiers éléments sur l’agriculture protohistorique de l’Arabie orientale. Paléorient 6(1):245–251
Cleuziou S, Tosi M (2007) In the Shadow of the Ancestors. The Prehistoric Foundations of the Early Arabian Civilization in Oman. Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat
Córdoba JM (2013) New perspectives about Iron Age and the oasis culture in the Oman peninsula. Two conclusive seasons at al Madam (Sharjah, UAE). Isimu 16:139–151
Córdoba JM, Del Cerro MDC (2005) Archéologie de l’eau dans al Madam (Sharjah, Emirats Arabes Unis). Puits, aflaj et sécheresse pendant l”âge du Fer. Iranica Antiqua 40:515–532
Costa PM (1983) Notes on traditional hydraulics and agriculture in Oman. World Archaeol 14(3):273–295
Costa PM, Wilkinson TJ (1987) The Hinterland of Sohar, Archaeological Surveys and Excavations within the Region of an Omani Seafaring City. J Oman Stud 9, Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat
Costantini L (1979) Palaeoethnobotany: identification of the two rows barley and early domesticated sorghum. Archaeology in the United Arab Emirates II-III: 70
Costantini L, Audisio P (2001) Plant and insect remains from the Bronze Age site of Ra’s al-Jinz (RJ-2), Sultanate of Oman. Paléorient 26(1): 143–156
Costantini L, Costantini-Biasini L (1986) Palaeobotanical investigations in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. East West 36(4):354–365
Dalongeville R (1999) Mleiha: étude physique et paléoenvironnement. In: Mouton M (ed.) Mleiha I. Environnement, stratégies de subsistance et artisanats. Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient 29, de Boccard, Paris, pp 33–54
Deadman WM (2012) Defining the Early Bronze Age landscape: a remote sensing-based analysis of Hafit tomb distribution in Wadi Andam, Sultanate of Oman. Arab Archaeol Epigr 23(1):26–34
Degli Esposti M (2011) The Excavation of an Early Bronze Age Tower near Salut (Bisyah, Sultanate of Oman): the Iron Age levels. Egitto e Vicino Oriente 34: 189–224
Degli Esposti M, Benoist A (2015) More on Masafi ancestors: the Late Bronze Age site of Masafi-5. Proc Semin Arab Stud 45:57–74
Desruelles S, Fouache E, Eddargach W, Cammas C, Wattez J, Beuzen-Waller T, Martin C, Tengberg M, Cable C, Thornton C, Murray A (2016) Evidence for early irrigation at Bat (Wadi Sharsah, northwestern Oman) before the advent of farming villages. Quatern Sci Rev 150: 42–54. doi: org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.08.007
Dutton RW (1989) Aflaj renewal in Araqi: a village case study from Oman. In: Beaumont P, Bonine M, McLachlan K (eds) Qanat, Kariz and Khattara: Traditional Water Systems in the Middle East and North Africa. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Middle East and North African Studies Press, London and Cambridgeshire, pp 237–256
Fleitmann D, Burns SJ, Mangini A, Mudelsee M, Kramers J, Villa I (2007) Holocene ITCZ and Indian monsoon dynamics recorded in stalagmites from Oman and Yemen (Socotra). Quatern Sci Rev 26(1–2):170–188. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2006.04.012
Fleitmann D, Matter A (2009) The speleothem record of climate variability in Southern Arabia. CR Geosci 341(8–9):633–642. doi:10.1016/j.crte.2009.01.006
Fouache E, Desruelles S, Eddergach W, Cammas C, Wattez J, Martin C (2012) When was irrigation first used in Bat (Wadi Sharsah, northwestern Oman)? Poster. EGU General Assembly 2012, Held 22–27 April, in Vienna, Austria
Frifelt K (1985) Further Evidence of the Third Millennium BC Town at Bāt in Oman. J Oman Stud 7:89–104
Frifelt K (2002) Bat, a Centre in the Third Millennium Oman. In: Cleuziou S, Tosi M, Zarins J (ed) Essays on the Late Prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula. Serie Orientale Roma XCIII, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Rome, pp 101–110
Giraud J (2007) Reconstitution d’un espace géographique ancien: La province du Ja’alan à l’Âge du Bronze (Sultanat d’Oman). PhD dissertation, University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
Giraud J (2009) The evolution of settlement patterns in the eastern Oman from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (6000–2000 BC). CR Geosci 341(8–9):739–749. doi:10.1016/j.crte.2009.03.005
Gros-Balthazard M, Newton C, Ivorra S, Tengberg M, Pintaud J-C, Terral J-F (2013) Origine et domestication du palmier dattier (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Revue d’ethnoécologie 4. http://ethnoecologie.revues.org/1524. Accessed 8 Feb 2015
Hastings A, Humphries JH, Meadow RH (1975) Oman in the Third Millennium BC. J Oman Stud 1:1–55
Hogarth DG (1904) The Penetration of Arabia. A record of the development of Western knowledge concerning the Arabian Peninsula. Frederick A. Strokes Company, New York
Kennet D, Velde C (1995) Third and early second-millennium occupation at Nud Ziba, Khatt (U.A.E.). Arab Archaeol Epigr 6:81–99
Kunter M (1981) Bronze und eisenzeitliche Skelettfunde aus Oman. Homo 32:197–210
Laureano P (1998) The Oasis Model: Symbiosis, Intensification, Autopoiesis. In: Pearce M, Tosi M (eds) Papers from the EAA Third Annual Meeting at Ravenna 1997, vol I: Pre- and Protohistory. BAR International Series 717, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp 71–72
Magee P (2014) The archaeology of prehistoric Arabia. Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, Cambridge University Press, New York
Méry S (2013) The first oases in Eastern Arabia: society and craft technology in the 3rd millennium BC at Hili, United Arab Emirates. Revue d’ethnoécologie 4. http://ethnoecologie.revues.org/1631. doi:10.4000/ethnoecologie.1631
Mouton M (1999) Mleiha: environnement, stratégies de subsistance et artisanats. In: Mouton M (ed) Mleiha I. Environnement, stratégies de subsistance et artisanats. Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient 29, de Boccard, Paris, pp 265–285
Mouton M, Tengberg M, Bernard V, Le Maguer S, Reddy A, Soulié D, Le Grand M (2012) Building H at Mleiha: new evidence of the late pre-Islamic period D phase (PIR. D) in the Oman peninsula (second to mid-third century AD). Proc Semin Arab Stud 42:205–221
Nash H (2011) Water management: the use of stars in Oman. Society for Arabian Studies Monographs 11, Archaeopress, Oxford
Nelson GC, Lukacs JR, Yule P (1999) Dates, caries, and early tooth loss during the iron age of Oman. Am J Phys Anthropol 108:333–343
Orchard J, Orchard J (2007) The Third Millennium BC Oasis Settlement of Oman and the First Evidence of their Irrigation by Aflaj from Bahla. In: Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula through the Ages. Proceedings of the International Symposium (7th–9th May 2006). Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat, pp 143–173
Parker AG, Eckersley L, Smith MM, Goudie AS, Stokes S, Ward S (2004) Holocene vegetation dynamics in the northeastern Rub’ al-Khali desert, Arabian Peninsula: a phytolith, pollen and carbon isotope study. J Quat Sci 19(7):665–676. doi:10.1002/jqs.880
Parker AG, Goudie AS, Stokes S, White K, Hodson MJ, Manning M, Kennet D (2006) A record of Holocene climate change from lake geochemical analyses in southeastern Arabia. Quatern Res 66(3):465–476. doi:10.1016/j.yqres.2006.07.001
Pena-Chocarro L, Barrόn Lopez E (1999) Plant remains from the site of Mleiha. In: Mouton M (ed.) Mleiha I. Environnement, stratégies de subsistance et artisanats. Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient 29, de Boccard, Paris, pp 63–69
Peyron G (2000) Cultiver le palmier-dattier. Cirad, Montpellier
Potts D (1990) The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. Volume I : From the Prehistory to the Fall of the Achaemenid Empire. Oxford University Press, New York
Potts D (1999) ‘The plant for the heart grows in Magan…’: redefining Southeastern Arabia’s role in ancient Western Asia. Aust Archaeol 48:35–41
Power T, Sheehan P (2011) Bayt Bin 'Ātī in the Qattārah oasis: a prehistoric industrial site and the formation of the oasis landscape of al-'Ain, UAE. Proc Semin Arab Stud 41: 267–282
Power T, Sheehan P (2012) The origin and development of the oasis landscape of al-‘Ain (UAE). Proc Semin Arab Stud 42:291–308
Rowley-Conwy P, Deakin W, Shaw CH (1999) Ancient DNA from Sorghum. The evidence from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia. In: van der Veen M (ed) The exploitation of plant resources in ancient Africa. Springer, Boston, pp 55–61. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-6730-8_5
Sanlaville P (2000) Le Moyen-Orient arabe. Le milieu et l’homme. Armand Colin, Paris
Schreiber J (2007) Transformationsprozesse in Oasensiedlungen Omans. Die Vorislamische Zeit am Beispiel von Izki, Nizwa und dem Jebel Akhdar. PhD dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilans University, München
Tengberg M (1998) Paléoenvironnements et économie végétale en milieu aride - recherches archéobotaniques dans la région du Golfe arabo-persique et dans le Makran pakistanais (4ème millénaire av. notre ère - 1er millénaire de notre ère). PhD dissertation, University of Montpellier 2
Tengberg M (2003) Archaeobotany in the Oman peninsula and the role of Eastern Arabia in the spread of African crops. In: Neumann K, Butler A, Kahlheber S (ed) Food, Fuel and Fields: Progress in African Archaeobotany. Africa Praehistorica 15, Heinrich Barth Institut, Köln, pp 229–237
Tengberg M (2012) Beginnings and early history of date palm garden cultivation in the Middle East. J Arid Environ 86:139–147. doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.11.022
Weisgerber G (1981) Mehr als Kupfer in Oman. Ergebnisse der Expedition 1981. Der Anschnitt 33: 174–263
Weisgerber G (2005) The impact of the dynamics of qanats and aflaj on oases in Oman: Comparisons with Iran and Bahrain. Proceedings of the Internatinales Frontinus-Symposium “Wasserversorgung aus Qanaten – Qanate als Vorbilder im Tunnelbau”, 2.-5. Oktober 2003, Walferdange, Luxemburg. Schriftenreihe der Frontinus-Gesellschaft 26: 61–97
Weisgerber G, Yule P (2003) Al-Aqir near Bahla ̄’ – an Early Bronze Age dam site with planoconvex “copper” ingots. Arab Archaeol Epigr 14: 24–53
Wilkinson JC (1977) Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia, a study of the Aflāj of Oman. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Willcox G (1995) Some plant impressions from Umm an-Nar island. In: Frifelt K (ed) The Island of Umm An-nar: the Third Millennium Settlement. Jutland Archaeological Society Publications, Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, pp 257–259
Willcox G, Tengberg M (1995) Preliminary report on the archaeobotanical investigations at Tell Abraq with special attention to chaff impressions in mud brick. Arab Archaeol Epigr 6:129
Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge the Fyssen Foundation for its support through the granting of a postdoctoral fellowship, which enabled him to carry out a study of Southeast Arabia oases. The present article is an outcome of this work. He is also very grateful to the late Prof. Tony Wilkinson (Durham University) for its kind and wise advice.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Charbonnier, J. (2017). The Genesis of Oases in Southeast Arabia: Rethinking Current Theories and Models. In: Lavie, E., Marshall, A. (eds) Oases and Globalization. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50749-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50749-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50747-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50749-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)