Archaeologists shed light on a Gulf boom-time based on dates rather than oil

Study finds three villages near Al Ain thrived during 18th and 19th centuries

A study has revealed how three rural settlements grew in size and prosperity as demand for dates from Sohar's port and hinterland soared. The National

Long before oil reshaped the Gulf, villages in Oman near the UAE border thrived on a very different resource – dates.

A study has revealed how three rural settlements flourished for nearly two centuries during a forgotten economic boom, before collapsing when global markets shifted.

The archaeological research focused on three villages, Milleyeneh, Ghurak and Sahlat, lying on the old trade route between Al Ain and Sohar. Enjoying their peak between 1750 and 1920, the settlements experienced what scholars describe as a “golden era”, growing in size and prosperity as demand for dates from Sohar's port and hinterland soared.

The ruins of a mosque-like structure in the village of Milleyeneh, Oman. Photo: Irini Biezeveld and Bleda During

Cycles of growth and decline

The study titled Quantifying the Late Islamic occupation peak: The case of the upper Falaj Al Mu’tarid was published in a new book, Explorations in Islamic Archaeology.

Bleda During, a professor of archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands and one of the authors of the study, said one of the ideas behind the research was to carry out “a boom and bust analysis”.

“Were the kinds of things we see in the Gulf region at present – for example, we see an enormous boom, which is driven by the development of oil resources, which are being reinvested in all kinds of ways in the economies of the Emirates and Oman – also occurring in the past?” Prof During told The National.

“We have good indications that this is a cyclical kind of thing that happens repeatedly.”

Dr Irini Biezeveld carrying out research work as part of the project to analyse the three villages. Photo: Irini Biezeveld and Bleda During

Traces of a thriving community

Over several seasons Prof During and the paper’s first author, Dr Irini Biezeveld, a curator of archaeology at Drents Museum in Assens in the Netherlands, undertook detailed surveys of the three villages as part of a broader landscape research project.

The villages each had many dwellings, in some cases dozens, along with a cemetery and field systems. The project also surveyed mosques.

About 1,500 pieces of pottery were collected from the sites and analysed by Dr Biezeveld. This included glazed and unglazed pottery of Arabian origin along with fragments from Europe and China.

“The presence of finds like coins, glass and imported ceramics indicate interaction with the coastal area and the wider world,” the authors wrote.

More than just farming

The research suggests that the main means of subsistence was the production of dates, which were grown in the palm gardens surrounding the villages.

Crucial to the palm plantations was water, and the three villages were linked to the same irrigation system, which, stretching 70km, may have been the longest in eastern Arabia.

Ghee, dried limes, cow hides and goat skins might also have been traded.

Growing demand for agricultural products from Sohar port and town was crucial to the villages’ expansion, a pattern also seen, the authors say, around other port towns in the Gulf region.

At the villages’ peak, Ghurak might have been home to about 60 people, the surveys indicate, while Milleyeneh and Sahlat each had about three times as many residents.

But there was more to the villages than just agriculture: at Sahlat four slag heaps were found, indicating that copper production was taking place on a more extensive scale than previous research in the area had suggested.

The main field system of the village of Ghurak, which was partially eroded down the slope.

Collapse of a date-driven economy

Like all booms, the one that saw the three villages thrive from the 18th century onwards could not last for ever.

Cheaper exports of dates from other parts of the world increased in the late 19th century, reducing demand for fruit grown in the hinterlands of Sohar. By the 1930s the need for the dates from the area had “collapsed”, according to the study.

“Fewer financial resources could be put into expanding and maintaining agriculture,” the study said. “The outbreak of the First World War added to the overall difficult financial situation. Consequently, settlements in Oman were likely abandoned.”

Prof During said that changes in the climate, which could have made it harder to sustain water supplies, may have played a role in the villages’ abandonment, although he said that further work would be needed to test this idea.

From dates to oil

Many men left the area when the region’s oil boom arrived, Prof During said, taking on jobs as migrant workers in Bahrain, a stark contrast to today, when Oman plays host to hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.

While they were highly detailed, the surveys carried out for the study were based on data from the surface only, and Prof During said detailed excavations could yield much more information about the settlements.

The villages have been surveyed as present-day development transforms the previously well-preserved landscape where they lie.

“The development in that region at present is quite dramatic – there’s a huge construction boom, there’s infrastructure projects, there’s urbanisation, there’s all kinds of factories being put in place,” Prof During said.

“Until a few decades ago we would have classified this as a landscape of preservation where basically the past was preserved in almost unprecedented quality … suddenly you see that disappearing almost overnight.

“That was one of the ideas – let’s document as much as possible, within the limit of resources … before it’s all gone.”