Lizq

Last updated
Lizq
لزق
Lizq plan 01.jpg
Plan of the Early Iron Age fort Lizq L1
Oman adm location map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Shown within Oman
LocationLizq, Ash Sharqiyah North Governorate, Oman
Region Eastern Arabia
Coordinates 22°41′52.5″N58°10′58.75″E / 22.697917°N 58.1829861°E / 22.697917; 58.1829861
Type Fortification
Length110 m (360 ft)
Width170 m (560 ft)
Area2 ha (4.9 acres)
History
Material Stone
Founded Early Iron Age
PeriodsIron Age
Satellite ofLizq
Site notes
Discovered1979
Excavation dates1981
Archaeologists Stephan Kroll
ConditionRuined
Northern face of the Jebel Radhania (or Jebel Ruwaydhah), on top of which the Early Iron Age Lizq fort, L1, was built Lizq to s01.jpg
Northern face of the Jebel Radhania (or Jebel Ruwaydhah), on top of which the Early Iron Age Lizq fort, L1, was built

Lizq is an archaeological site in Ash Sharqiyah, Oman. Located on a mountain lying in a plain, 1000 m south-east of the south-eastern edge of the Lizq palm garden, the fort dates to the Lizq-Rumaylah/Early Iron Age.

Contents

Description

The site was discovered in 1979 during the archaeological exploration of Gerd Weisgerber of the German Mining Museum (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum) in Bochum. Shaikh Hamdan al-Harthy of Samad led Weisgerber to the site. [1] In 1981 a single season long German archaeological team mapped and conducted minimal rescue excavation. They did an ad hoc restoration of the stairs which lead up the northern face of the mountain. Since there are several sites near Lizq town, the fort is disambiguated as 'L1'.

The Lizq fort owes its existence to the reliable occurrence of water at a natural causeway at the southern side of the central mountains. The main fort on the western mountain peak is some 175 m wide and has a surface of more than 20.000 m2 in surface area. This makes it the largest Early Iron Age fort in central Oman. The location of the Iron Age village associated with the fort remains unknown. No falaj was discovered. [2]

Important is Kroll's comparison of the pottery with that of Iron Age Iran. [3]

See also

Sources

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Alan Yule</span> German anthropologist

Paul Alan Yule is a German archaeologist at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (habilitation). His main work targets the archaeology of Oman, Yemen, previously India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samad al-Shan</span> Archaeological site on Oman

Samad al-Shan is an archaeological site in the Sharqiyah province, Oman where Late Iron Age remains were first identified, hence the Samad Period or assemblage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibri</span> Town in Ad Dhahirah, Oman

Ibri is a city and Wilāyat (Province) in the Ad Dhahirah Governorate, in northwest Oman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Izki</span> Town in Ad Dakhiliyah Region, Oman

Izki is a town in the Ad Dakhiliyah region of northeastern Oman. It is located at c. 544 m (1,785 ft) altitude, and has a population of 35,173 (2003 census).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeology of Oman</span>

The present-day Sultanate of Oman lies in the south-eastern Arabian Peninsula. There are different definitions for Oman: traditional Oman includes the present-day United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), though its prehistoric remains differ in some respects from the more specifically defined Oman proper, which corresponds roughly with the present-day central provinces of the Sultanate. In the north, the Oman Peninsula is more specific, and juts into the Strait of Hormuz. The archaeology of southern Oman Dhofar develops separately from that of central and northern Oman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amlah</span>

Amlah or ʿAmlāʾ, al-Dhāhirah province, Sultanate of Oman. The area around Amlah contains numerous archaeological sites which came to light during surveys in the mid 1970s. Those that are available to the public date from the Bronze Age Wadi Suq period to the late pre-Islamic period. 26 excavated graves provide evidence for a cemetery at al-Fuwaydah. The graves and grave goods are related most closely to those of the United Arab Emirates, Preislamique Récente, i.e. PIR, and not the Samad Late Iron Age. Among the most striking Late Iron Age finds are bronze phiales inscribed on the inside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Bustan, Oman</span> Village in Muscat Governorate, Oman

Al Bustān is a village in Muscat, in eastern Oman.. Its cemetery was used during the Samad Late Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bawshar</span> Province in Muscat Governorate, Oman

Bawshar is one of the wilayats of Muscat, in northeastern Oman. The province borders wilayat Muttrah in the east and Muscat International Airport in the west, it overlooks the Sea of Oman from the north. It contains several archaeological sites and the Qurm Nature Reserve Ramsar site.

Gerd Weisgerber was an eminent German professor of mining archaeology. He was one of the first mining archaeologists of the world, who set standards in this scientific discipline. As a scientist from the German Mining Museum, he focused his research mainly on Western Asia, especially on Oman, Jordan, Palestine, and Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qaryat al-Saih</span> Archaeological site in Samaʾīl Wilayat Sharqiyah, Oman

Qaryat al-Saiḥ in Wadi Maḥram is an archaeological site in Samaʾīl Wilayat Sharqiyah, in Central Oman. This fortified village was inhabited in the Samad Late Iron Age and during the Islamic Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ʿUqdat al-Bakrah</span> Archaeological site in Wadi Ḍank, Ad Dhahirah, Oman

ʿUqdat al-Bakrah, also known incorrectly as Al-Saffah, is an archaeological site in Wadi Ḍank, in the Ad Dhahirah Governorate of northwestern Oman. It is a metal-working site dating to the Early Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Akhdhar</span>

al-Akhḍar in Wadi Samad is an archaeological site in Mudhaibi Wilayat Sharqiyah, in Central Oman. This cemetery was inhabited from the Umm an-Nar to the Samad Late Iron Age and during Islamic times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Nejd, Sultanate of Oman</span> Archaeological site in Oman

Al-Nejd is an archaeological site in Ash Sharqiyah, Oman. It was a fortified village inhabited during the Samad Late Iron Age and possibly during Islamic times. The site was discovered in 2014 following the chance find of a coin by a local resident, and was then confirmed and dated by a team from the Ministry of Heritage and Culture. The site yielded an Abiel tetradrachm, struck in what is now the United Arab Emirates. The coin is on display in the National Museum in Muscat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Amqat</span>

Al-Amqat is an archaeological site in al-Dakhaliyah, Oman. Located on a slope to the north of the oasis, the cemetery dates to the Samad Late Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Akhdhar, Oman</span>

Al-Akhdhar is an archaeological site in Ash Sharqiyah, Oman. It is a cemetery containing with remains dating from the Umm al-Nar, Wadi Suq, Late Iron Age (Samad), and Islamic periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiwi, Oman</span>

Ṭīwī is a town in Oman. It is known for an archaeological site in the area known as al-Jurayf, in Ṣūr Wilayat Sharqiyah. The town and the site are located between Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi on the Gulf of Oman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Moyassar</span>

al-Moyassar is an archaeological zone in the Sharqiyah province, Oman where the remains of all pre-Islamic periods came to light. The geographic definition has changed in recent years for this irregular area which measures some 2 x 5 km. It lies directly west of the Samad oasis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Islamic recent period</span>

The Recent Pre-Islamic Period is an archaeological assemblage which is manifest in the few centuries around the year 0 in the lower Persian Gulf. It was discovered in the mid 1970s by Iraqi archaeologists. Some nine such sites are known at present especially ed-Dur in the Emirate Umm al-Qaiwain, and Mleiha in Sharjah in the Oman peninsula. Since the mid 1980s different teams studied especially these two sites, which are the largest in terms of surface area. They contain settlements, religious and industrial areas as well as cemeteries loosely scattered over a wide area. Mlayḥa forms an irregularly shaped surface of c. 4 km2. Two PIR sites have been identified in Central Oman, at Samāʾil/al-Bārūnī and at ʿAmlāʾ/al-Fuwaydah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jebel al-Salayli (archaeological site)</span>

Jebel al-Salayli, is an archaeological site in the Northern Sharqiyah province of the Sultanate of Oman, where a large number of Early Iron Age so-called hut tombs found first public mention. The first citation mistakenly refers to this site as 'Musfa', a site which actually lies a few kilometres to the north. The Jebel is the adjacent mountain to the immediate north. The al-Salayli site attracted the attention of archaeologists because of an abandoned copper mine, extensive slag fields, ruined settlements and numerous Early Iron Age tombs. Nestled between the mountains, this site is still relatively well preserved. The settlement ruins date to the Early Iron Age and the Muslim Period. At the lower end of a wadi, the hut tombs, designated stie 1, lie 400 m west of an abandoned copper mine, to which they probably originally owed their existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Khawdh (archaeological site), Oman</span> Archaeological site of Oman

Al-Khawdh (الخوض) contains several archaeological sites and lies in the Muscat Governorate, Oman where Early Iron Age and Late Iron Age sites have been under study in recent years.

References

  1. Stephan Kroll, Die Bergfestung Lizq-1, in: Gerd Weisgerber et al., Mehr als Kupfer in Oman, Der Anschnitt 33, 1981, 226-231. ISSN   0003-5238.
  2. Paul Yule, Cross-roads – Early and Late Iron Age South-eastern Arabia, Abhandlungen Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, vol. 30, Wiesbaden 2014, 31-34 Fig. 12.
  3. Kroll S. (1991). "Zu den Beziehungen eisenzeitlicher Keramikkomplexe in Oman und Iran". In Schippman, Klaus; Herling, Anja; Salles, Jean-François (eds.). Golf-Archäologie: Mesopotamien, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Vereinigte Arabische Emirate und Oman. Internationale Archäologie (in German). Vol. 6. Buch am Erlbach: M.L. Leidorf. pp. 315–320. ISBN   9783924734244. OCLC   34928791.
  4. Nayeem, Mohammed (1996). Prehistory and protohistory of the Arabian peninsula.¬The¬ Sultanate of Oman. Vol. 4. Hyderabad: Hyderabad. pp. 221–222 fig. 25. ISBN   81-85492-06-9.
  5. Kroll, Stephan (1998). Mouton, M.; Carrez, F. (eds.). Assemblage céramiques des sites de l'Age du fer de la peninsula d'Oman. Documents d'archéologie de l'Arabie. Lyon: MAISON DE L'ORIENT MEDITERRANEEN. ISBN   2-903264-85-6.
  6. Potts, Daniel (1992). The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon. pp. 357, 373, 394, pl. xiia. ISBN   9780198143901.
  7. Yule, Paul (2001). 'Die Gräberfelder in Samad al-Shan (Sultanat Oman): Materialien zu einer Kulturgeschichte. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Orient-Archäologie (in German). Vol. 4. Rahden: Leidorf. pp. I, 386 site 13.32, II Pl. 591a. ISBN   3-89646-634-8.
  8. Cleuziou, S.; Tosi, M. (2007). In the shadow of the ancestors: The Prehistoric Foundations of the Early Arabian Civilization in Oman. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture. pp. 287–288 figs. 304–305.
  9. Kroll, Stephan (2013). "The Early Iron Age Lizq Fort, Sultanate of Oman". Zeitschrift für die Kultur außereuropäischen Kulturen. 5: 159–220. ISBN   978-3-89500-649-4.
  10. Mouton, Michel; Schiettecatte, Jérémie (2014). In the desert margins. The settlement process in ancient South and East Arabia. Arabia Antica. Vol. 9. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. pp. 82, 86, 95. ISBN   978-88-913-0680-7.
  11. Magee, Peter (2014). The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Cambridge World Archaeology. New York: Cambridge. p. 236. ISBN   9780521862318.