UniBo Excavations in Arabia

Modern archaeology in the Arabian Peninsula began in the mid-1950s, thanks to the pioneering systematic campaigns conducted by a Danish research team at the invitation of the governmental institutions of several Gulf countries. In the 1950s and 1960s, for small and institutionally fledgling countries such as Kuwait and Qatar, inviting foreign archaeologists was not only a scientific choice. Investigating their own roots helped to build a shared historical memory and to strengthen national identity — precisely as oil was transforming their society and their international role forever. International collaborations remain very active in the area today, with the exception of Yemen, where political instability and recent conflict have interrupted most fieldwork.

The history of archaeology in the Arabian Peninsula is also a history of women: at many key moments in the building of this field of study — especially in the Gulf, in Oman, in the Emirates and today also in Saudi Arabia — women were not marginal figures but protagonists in founding research traditions, in directing missions, in the study of materials, in bioarchaeology and in the institutional management of heritage. Among the most significant names are Karen Frifelt, Beatrice de Cardi, Theresa Howard-Carter and Margarethe Uerpmann. Even before modern archaeology, a phase marked by travels, surveys, antiquarianism, epigraphy, historical geography and early scientific explorations saw the presence of figures such as Lady Anne Blunt, Gertrude Caton-Thompson, Elinor Wight Gardner and Freya Stark.

Bahrain was the first Gulf country to host a modern, systematic archaeological campaign. In 1953, a Danish team led by Peter Glob and Geoffrey Bibby arrived on the island to investigate the traces of Dilmun, the kingdom known from Mesopotamian sources as a hub of trade between the Gulf, Mesopotamia and the Indo-Iranian world. To give stability to this research, the permanent French Archaeological Mission was founded in 1977 and has, for almost fifty years, excavated continuously at the Bahrain Fort site, Qal‘at al-Bahrain. Bahrain, historically open to exchange and international contacts, has continued to support the presence of foreign researchers and collaboration with scientific institutions from various countries.

In the United Arab Emirates, the history of modern archaeology is intertwined with the very birth of the nation. In 1959, before independence from the United Kingdom, a British oil company invited the Danish archaeological school to investigate a monumental complex on the island of Umm an-Nar, in Abu Dhabi. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, future founder of the UAE, immediately grasped the value of studying the past, and from that moment the Emirates have continued to welcome foreign missions, hosting Iraqi, French, German, Italian and Australian teams from the 1970s and 1980s onwards.

Kuwait opened its doors to foreign missions in 1958, when the local government invited the Danish expedition already active in Bahrain. Attention focused almost immediately on the island of Failaka, strategically positioned off the coast of Kuwait City. Here the Danish archaeologists recognised a key outpost of the Dilmun civilisation during the Bronze Age and, later, an important Hellenistic settlement equipped with a fortress in the Greek tradition. From that moment Kuwait has remained a stable partner of international research, welcoming over time French, Polish, Slovak, Georgian and Italian missions.

The history of foreign archaeology in Qatar began in 1956, when the country invited the Danish team led by Peter Glob. This first season of research (1956–1965) made it possible to document numerous prehistoric settlements in the interior and the petroglyphs of Jebel Jusasiyah. After independence, between 1976 and 1982, a new phase of investigations was conducted by French archaeologists. In the early 2000s, with the birth of the Qatar Museums Authority and a broad programme of cultural investment, the country further strengthened its collaboration with international universities and missions. The focus of much research became Al Zubarah, a fortified coastal city of the 18th century linked to the pearl trade, today a UNESCO site and a symbol of Qatar’s historical narrative.

Yemen was already known in antiquity for the wealth of its pre-Islamic kingdoms, including that of Saba — which is why Pliny the Elder called it Arabia Felix. Through its echoes in literature, the country aroused the interest of travellers and scholars as early as the 18th century, among them Carsten Niebuhr. The first modern archaeological missions, however, began in the early 1950s, with the American expeditions led by Wendell Phillips in the Marib area. After a phase of political instability, from the 1980s Yemen experienced a new season of international research. In 1980 the country ratified the UNESCO convention and welcomed French, German and Italian missions. Unlike many neighbouring Gulf countries, however, this history of collaboration has been interrupted: the conflict that began in 2014 forced foreign missions to suspend fieldwork and exposed many archaeological sites to severe risk.

For decades Saudi Arabia remained a context difficult to access for foreign missions. After a first opening in the mid-1970s, the real turning point came in the early 2000s thanks to a historic agreement with France. In 2003 a Franco-Saudi mission began excavating the site of Hegra, which a few years later would become the country’s first UNESCO site. This result encouraged the opening to new international collaborations: from 2009 teams arrived from various countries, including Italy, with the University of Naples “L’Orientale” engaged at the oasis of Dumat al-Jandal. In recent years, and particularly since 2016, thanks to the Vision 2030 programme, this opening has expanded further, within a national strategy seeking to diversify the economy by investing in tourism, culture and heritage. Today Saudi Arabia supports major archaeological projects in areas such as AlUla, transforming long-inaccessible regions into important international research laboratories.

Oman

In the Sultanate of Oman, modern archaeological research developed above all from the 1970s, in parallel with the construction of the national institutions dedicated to heritage. The establishment in 1976 of a ministry for Omani heritage — later transformed into the current Ministry of Heritage and Tourism — accompanied a new season of protection, research and enhancement. In this context, archaeologists such as Serge Cleuziou and Maurizio Tosi played a decisive role, helping to define the archaeology of south-eastern Arabia as an international field of research. At Bat, investigated by Karen Frifelt’s Danish missions, one of the most important monumental landscapes of eastern Arabia emerged, with towers, settlements and necropolises of the 3rd millennium BCE; Oman itself is identified with the ancient land of Magan, known from Mesopotamian sources for copper and for contacts with Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. Today the Sultanate has five UNESCO sites — Bahla, Bat-Al-Khutm-Al-Ayn, the Land of Frankincense, the aflaj irrigation systems and the ancient city of Qalhat — which convey the chronological and geographic breadth of its heritage.

The history of the University of Bologna excavations

The research of the University of Bologna has focused on the Sultanate of Oman, above all on prehistory and protohistory, with particular attention to Neolithic and Bronze Age communities, to the relationships between coast and interior, and to the exchange networks of the Indian Ocean.

This history is part of a broader Italian tradition of collaboration with the Omani authorities, begun in the 1970s and supported by universities, research centres, ISMEO (International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Within this framework, Oman became a privileged laboratory for studying the adaptation of human communities to coastal, mountainous, desert and oasis landscapes. A fundamental starting point is represented by the research of Maurizio Tosi (1944–2017). Having arrived in Oman in 1975, Tosi began investigations in 1977 into the Neolithic fishers of Ras al-Hamra, in the Muscat area. Tosi was then affiliated with the Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples, before his move to the University of Bologna — which would later establish itself as one of the principal Italian centres for archaeological research in south-eastern Arabia.

From 1985 this line of research developed into the Joint Hadd Project, an Italian-French collaboration directed by Maurizio Tosi and Serge Cleuziou and dedicated to the Ja‘lān area, between Ras al-Hadd and Al Ashkarah. The project — linked to ISMEO, the French CNRS and the University of Bologna — investigated the evolution of settlement from the early-middle Holocene to the Islamic era, with particular attention to the relationships between coastal communities, inland regions and the exchange networks of the Indian Ocean.

At Ra’s al-Jinz, the excavations documented a settlement of the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE, with craft activities and materials originating from the Indus and Mesopotamia. At Ra’s al-Hadd, by contrast, the settlement of HD-6, investigated from 1995 under the direction of Maurizio Cattani, brought to light a settlement of the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE, with mud-brick architecture, a perimeter wall, production in metal, shell and stone, and relations with the Omani interior.

In more recent years, the Bologna research has continued on several fronts. At Ra’s al-Hadd, the investigations at HD-1 have deepened understanding of the role of the eastern Omani coast in the maritime networks of the 3rd millennium BCE; in the HD-7 necropolis, the excavations are clarifying aspects of the Hafit and Umm an-Nar funerary traditions. At Al-Khutm, a UNESCO site, the University of Bologna is investigating a monumental Bronze Age tower, now better understood thanks to the excavation of the external structures and to 3D digital documentation.

A more recent strand within the Bologna research is represented by the Italian Anthropological Mission for the Heritage of the Arabian Peninsula, directed by Eugenio Bortolini and Stefano Benazzi. The project integrates archaeological excavation, 3D modelling, and osteological, isotopic and proteomic analyses. At Halban, in the southern Batinah region, the mission studies monumental Bronze Age tombs dated between the Hafit and Umm an-Nar periods. At the Romail shelter, between the Wahiba Sands and the eastern Hajar mountains, the research has instead identified a stratified sequence with lithic tools, hearths, faunal and plant remains, perforated shells, ochre and rock art: important data for understanding the transitional phases between the Final Palaeolithic and the Neolithic in Oman.

Alongside the planned excavations, mention should also be made of the Italian commitment to preventive and rescue-archaeology projects, fundamental for reducing the impact of modern infrastructure on the archaeological heritage. In almost fifty years of activity, the research of the University of Bologna has helped to reconstruct the role of Oman between south-eastern Arabia, Mesopotamia, Iran and the Indus Valley.

Ras al-Hadd

At the coastal locality of Ra’s al-Hadd, at the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, the University of Bologna has for over thirty years conducted archaeological research dedicated to Bronze Age communities. Current investigations focus above all on the HD-7 necropolis, connected to the HD-6 settlement and dated to the 3rd millennium BCE.

The excavations have brought to light circular stone tombs, organised in small groups on the rocky terraces behind the beach south of the village. Architecturally, some structures display features typical of the region, such as the outermost wall courses built with white blocks of sedimentary rock gathered along the coast. The burials have yielded human remains, ornaments — above all shell and various kinds of stone — lithic tools and pottery, offering new information on funerary rituals and on the symbolic meaning of the materials used.

The research integrates stratigraphic excavation, 3D digital survey, GIS and bioarchaeological analyses, contributing to the reconstruction of the social and cultural transformations of Oman’s coastal communities during the Bronze Age.

Khutm

The site of Al-Khutm, in the Bat area, is part of Oman’s UNESCO heritage together with Bat and al-Ayn. Here the University of Bologna is investigating a monumental Bronze Age tower, built between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE and which until a few years ago was almost invisible, covered by metres of collapse and sediment. The excavations have revealed a circular building about 20 metres in diameter, preserved to a height of several metres, with corridors, internal rooms, articulated entrances and a central well. Ongoing research is helping to clarify the tower’s various construction phases and the relationship between the monumental building, the surrounding structures and the landscape of the Bat oasis.

The study of the materials (pottery, stone and metal artefacts) indicates a long occupation between the Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq phases.

The fieldwork combines archaeological excavation, photogrammetric documentation and 3D modelling, with the aim of deepening knowledge of the site and making it more accessible to the public.

Halban

The archaeological excavation project is conducted by the University of Bologna in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman, with the ultimate aim of creating a visitable archaeological park. The Early Bronze Age necropolis of Halban occupies a geographically and strategically crucial position in Oman, located about 35 kilometres west of the capital Muscat. The site rises on a high coastal terrace of limestone origin, positioned precisely between the fertile Al-Batinah coastal plain and the majestic Al-Hajar al-Gharbi mountain range. It stands out for the excellent state of preservation of its structures and for its exceptional visibility over the territory, having already acted in the past as a point of communication between the inland valleys and the coastal communities. The necropolis comprises 33 monumental stone funerary structures with differing structural characteristics: some tombs display the architecture of the Hafit culture (c. 3100–2700 BCE), while others seem to attest to the architectural and ritual evolution or transition towards the more complex forms typical of the subsequent Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700–2000 BCE).

Extensive fieldwork, begun in 2023 and still active, has focused on the in-depth exploration of three burials, designated HAL016, HAL021 and HAL025. The burials have been the subject of archaeological, topographic and digital documentation, biomolecular analysis of the osteological remains and typological study of the grave goods. Systematic digital photogrammetric documentation was carried out for all excavation phases. Through Structure-from-Motion (SfM) algorithms, the aerial and terrestrial frames were processed to generate very-high-resolution orthophotomosaics and accurate three-dimensional models of the tombs (such as those of burials HAL016 and HAL021 at the end of excavation).

Owing to the severe taphonomic processes and the harsh environmental conditions of the limestone terrace, the skeletal remains recovered within the funerary deposits were extremely fragmented and degraded, making it impossible to apply macroscopic anthropological methods. To overcome this, the researchers adopted a cutting-edge bioarchaeological approach based on the proteomic analysis of amelogenin, a dental-enamel protein encoded on the sex chromosomes in different forms (X and Y). For tomb HAL021, where macroscopic observation of the enamel and dental wear generically indicated only two individuals (an adult and a non-adult), molecular analysis identified the presence of an adult man, an adult woman and a young girl. Strontium isotope analysis of the dental enamel allows the mobility of people to be observed: in the case of HAL021 the man and the girl were local, while the woman had very different values.

This was further underlined by the results of the study of the grave goods, with the identification of two carnelian necklace beads and three segmented tubular beads of blue-green and whitish-yellow faience that show close parallels with the productions of the Indus Valley Civilisation dating to Harappa Period 3 (Pakistan). The study attests to the integration of the Halban community into a dense continental network of trade and people. The objects found in HAL025 highlighted the continuity and later reuse of the area in subsequent periods, yielding three copper rings mixed with Islamic-period pottery fragments.