| Abstract: | The publication of field work in central Oman has lagged behind the excavations themselves. Whereas the pioneer archaeologists in Oman could identify sites and finds only as “Iron Age”, the work of the past 10 years has enabled a clear conceptual distinction to be made between the Early and Late Iron Age assemblages, as well as their regional characters. Using as a point of departure the Samad Complex, for which most intact contexts exist, the less well-known Late Iron Age of the North and South of Oman is compared by means of newly recorded material from old excavations, there, as well as from a recent survey. There were contacts between central Oman and the South Province, Dhofar although such are elusive. Despite, archaeologically speaking, undeniable trade and ethnic contacts with the outside world, central Oman has a distinctive character of its own which has not been properly credited by specialists of the final Pre-Islamic Period. |
