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" Mapping Magan: The Ancient Social Landscape of North-Central Oman "
Dollarhide, Eli Nathaniel
Wright, Rita P
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1052628
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| Doc. No
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TL51745
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| Main Entry
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Dollarhide, Eli Nathaniel
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| Title & Author
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Mapping Magan: The Ancient Social Landscape of North-Central Oman\ Dollarhide, Eli NathanielWright, Rita P
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| College
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New York University
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| Date
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2019
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| Note
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246 p.
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| Abstract
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Since the late 1950’s, a wealth of archaeological research has shed light on the Bronze Age prehistory of southeastern Arabia (modern Oman and the United Arab Emirates.) Much of the work on the region’s prehistory—known as Magan in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts—has focused on the area’s external connections to its better understood Bronze Age/third millennium BC neighbors in Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Indus Valley. This dissertation takes an alternative, regional perspective on the archaeology of southeastern Arabia by examining connections between ancient settlements within northern Oman. This dissertation presents the results of an archaeological survey and ceramics study conducted by the author around the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat, Oman. A geospatial analysis of the Bronze Age settlements and tombs discovered during this work reveals a temporally-dynamic landscape with changing social boundaries. The results of petrographic thin-section analysis of three ceramic collections from the area (the survey zone and previous excavations at the settlements of Bat and ‘Amlah) indicate shifting centers of production and the development of new exchange networks at the end of the third millennium BC. In interpreting these results, the theoretical framework of habitat webs is proposed. Based on the writings of John Muir and landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson, these webs of interaction highlight the resources depended upon by particular classes of artifacts and features, offering a multi-scalar model of landscape history. The visualized webs spatially reveal the diversity of interactions between the natural and cultural environments, linking even ancient northern Oman’s smallest communities to regional and long-distance exchange networks. Ultimately, it is argued that the depth of these demonstrated connections render the predominant ‘tribal’ characterization of Bronze Age society in southeastern Arabia untenable.
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Archaeology
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Wright, Rita P
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New York University
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