The skeletal remains from Umm an-Nar tomb QA 1-1: spatial distribution and anthropological analysis

Abstract

Collective aboveground circular tombs of stone are one of the main categories of architectural structures from the Umm an-Nar period (2500–2000 BC) in the Oman peninsula. The tombs have been known since the late 1950s but various aspects of their functioning still await a full explanation. Most of them survived in poor condition, often empty, only a dozen or so actually yielding any human remains. Tomb QA 1-1, one of ten Umm an-Nar-type tombs at Wadi al-Fajj in northwestern Oman, has yielded a substantial assemblage of human skeletal remains (estimated MNI 25) from the two of four burial chambers excavated between 2016 and 2018. While the excavation of the tomb should be continued, a presentation of the bone assemblage recovered to date, including a distribution analysis of the remains, deposition characteristic, and preliminary osteological analysis, adds to the existing source base of Early Bronze Age populations in the ancient land of Magan.