In January-March 2017, a group of ASOM researchers conducted our first field season focused on both collection of hyrax middens as well as the survey and excavation of monuments and settlements in Dhofar, Oman. The first few weeks were spent arduously coming the wadis that drain into the desert for signs of preserved middens and for Bronze and Iron Age monuments. Although no hyrax middens had previous been collected from Dhofar, ~30 new middens were collected by the team and sent back the U.S. for paleoecological analysis. Further, numerous monuments were catalogues and mapped near midden location in the desert.
Anna Berlekamp holds one of our first hyrax middens
Field manager, Wael Abu-azizeh, looks at a monument before excavation
The second half of the field season was devoted to excavation of a large settlement near Jibjat. Mapping and digging at the site revealed a much larger complex and number of structures than previously assumed. Termite mounds which were built on top of and into some of the stuctures were also sampled in order to be included in analysis of paleoclimate and paleoecology.
Excavation at settlement near Jibjat
Mapping the settlement with Tim Everhart