Samad al-Shan

Plan of the main cemetery

Samad al-Shan (22°48'N; 58°09'E) is a site in the central part of Oman in the Sharqiyah province where Late Iron Age remains were first identified, hence the Samad Period/Culture or assemblage. The site was discovered by surveyors from Harvard University (1971). It is located 2 km east of al-Maysar(al-Moyassar). The excavation of this site (1981-1982, 1987-1998) by Burkhard Vogt, Gerd Weisgerber and Paul Yule of the German Mining Museum, Bochum and later University of Heidelberg documented some 260 graves which span the Bronze Age to Late Iron Age in the Sultanate of Oman. Samad is the type-site for the non-writing Late Iron Age of south-eastern Arabia, that is Central Oman. It is preceded by the Early Iron Age which differs somewhat in terms of pottery from that distriubtged in the neighbouring present-day United Arab Emirates. The remains of different pre-Islamic periods exist at Samad. The Samad Late Iron Age dates from c. 250 BCE to c. 400 CE. Other artefact assewmblages exist parallel to it.

References

• Paul Yule, Die Gräberfelder in Samad al-Shan (Sultanat Oman): Materialien zu einer Kulturgeschichte (2001), ISBN 3-89646-634-8.[1]
• Paul Yule, Sasanian Presence and Late Iron Age Samad in Central Oman, some corrections, in ed. J. Schiettecatte/Christian Robin, L’Arabie à la veille de l’Islam Bilan clinique (Paris 2009), 69–90, ISBN 978-2-7018-0256-5