Monuments and Landscape of Mobile Pastoralists in Dhofar: the Arabian Human Social Dynamics (AHSD) Project

The Ancient Human Social Dynamics Dhofar Monument Survey (AHSD-DMS), conducted by an international team in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, has documented and analyzed spatial and chronological patterning of small-scale stone monuments to better understand their place in the lives of Dhofar’s ancient inhabitants. Using remotely sensed imagery, the team has pioneered computer autodetection to assist in archaeological survey. For the interpretation of such survey results, the AHSD-DMS team has also excavated and dated numerous tombs, alignments and stone platforms. Excavations reported here have yielded important new dating evidence and also revealed details of construction and use that show the development of distinct Dhofari cultural patterns within the broader context of Arabian prehistory. Mobile pastoral and hunting groups that made up the vast majority of Dhofar's prehistoric inhabitants built these monuments. Evidence in Dhofar and elsewhere suggests that monument building accompanied a shift to dedicated pastoralist lifestyles. While the first monuments were collective building projects without burials, a shift to monuments as tombs in the Bronze Age probably signifies an emphasis on genealogical narratives as a basis for social identities and affinities in prehistory. This is a pattern widely recognized across Arabia but with distinct expressions in Dhofar.