The 2004 campaign at Salut, Oman - Università degli Studi di Pisa

The Survey
On March/April 2004 thirteen topographical Units (UT) have been determinated, on the base of the structures evidence and on the large amount of pottery scattered around. The surveyed area, which includes the hill of Salut and the closely surrounding plain, was 15000 square metres.
The most part of structures was located on the top of the hill, where the existence of a defence wall was indicated on the surface by rows of medium size squared sandstone slabs. A lower semicircular structure, made by the same building technique, adjoins the eastern slope of the hill. Isolated circular structures, made from roughly stones and stone slabs, lay on the west side of the top. Probably collapsed houses, large circular structures made of squared sandstone blocks (most probably pertinent to a third millennium context), an Islamic cemetery, the presence of irrigation system (falaj) and remains of a building (according to local reports are the ruin of an ancient mosque), testifying an intense peopling during different times.
The preliminary analyses of the collected surface materials, mainly pottery, confirmed the existence of medieval occupations divided into: Early Islamic (VIII-X centuries), Middle Islamic (XI-XIV centuries) and Late Islamic (XVI century to modern times); on the other hand, the presence of surface materials as bronze arrowheads and distinct types of pottery vessels, indicate an earlier occupation, dated to the late 2nd millennium BC.

The sounding
The excavation of October 2004 allowed us to determinate four constructional phases.
The first results of radiocarbon dating show that the foundation of the site must be dated close the late 2nd – first half of the 1st millennia BC (Early Iron Age period on Omani Peninsula). The large amount of pottery materials comes from layers of second and third construction phase, comprising diagnostic sherds as spouted-jars and carinate bowls, but also soft-stone decorated vessels, terracotta animal figurines and one triangular-shaped arrowhead.