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MTN 81:7-9 Marine Turtle Exploitation in Bronze Age Omanseaturtle.org :MTN :ARCHIVES :document.write("INDEX :"); Sign InMarine Turtle Newsletter 81:7-9, © 1998 Marine Turtle Exploitation in Bronze Age OmanChristine Mosseri-MarlioInstitute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H OPY, UK (E-mail: chris@cwinkelb.demon.co.uk)Archaeologists working over the past decade at Ra's al-Hadd in Oman have been uncovering the remains of a coastal community that lived there during the third millennium BC. Ra's al-Hadd is located at the eastern most tip of the country (Figure 1), and the sites included in this study include HD1, a midden area on a sandy spit between a lagoon and the Indian Ocean, and HD6, a settlement site located southeast of HD1 on the eastern beach (Figure 2). The area is now a regionally important nesting beach and conservation area (Ross & Barwani 1995).The Ra's al-Hadd excavations were carried out under the direction of Dr. Julian Reade of the British Museum, and form part of the Joint Hadd Project, an international group working under the aegis of the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, Oman. Also participating were Dr. S. Cleuziou from the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris and Professor M. Tosi of the Instituto Universitario Orientale, Naples. A monograph on the Ra's al-Hadd sites will be completed this year by the British Museum.The focus of the excavation of HD1 has been at the centre of the peninsula between the lagoon and the open ocean. The site yielded a large quantity of Bronze Age artefacts in a matrix of organic materials such as shell and bone (Reade 1990) and has been interpreted as a midden (waste deposit area). HD6 revealed a similarly rich archaeological context, containing an abundance of copper hooks, beads and bone as well as the remains of small round buildings (Cleziou & Tosi 1996). This site, as well as comparable sites in the area have been C14 dated to a period roughly 5000 years before present. A significant assemblage of environmental evidence has been excavated from the site, which should do much to increase archaeological understanding of the lives of the early occupants. Figure 1. Map showing the location of Ra's al-HaddEvidence of marine turtles, fish, molluscs, animal bones, charcoal samples and pollen (Cartwright 1994) will be used to make inferences about the habitat, landscape, subsistence strategies and raw materials during the Bronze Age in this part of Arabia.The sea turtle skeletal assemblage consisted of roughly 5000 fragments, most of which weighed 5 grams or less, that came from over 100 sampling areas, or contexts. Each context is a discrete unit of excavation, which is used to define different archaeological features such as hearths, filled deposits or architectural features. Roughly 85% of the fragments by weight were carapace and plastron, the remaining 15% being made up of skull and post-cranial elements. Scutes do not survive in the archaeological record owing to their keratinous composition. The preservation was generally good, the fragments were in themselves quite robust in spite of being broken and some cases burned. It is therefore likely that the material was broken during processing and/or disposal and that the sample has not disintegrated due to poor preservation (taphonomic processes), as is often the case with zooarchaeological materials.The identification of the sample proved problematic because most of the traditionally diagnostic zones were either absent or damaged. Skull fragments were scarce, with only two mandible fragments and a small number of parietal and post-frontal bones being found. Traditional fishermen often decapitate the animals upon capture to avoid being bitten, so the absence of skull fragments is not unexpected (Hoch 1977). The largest piece of shell was roughly 10cm x 30cm. The presence of two large curved ultimate phalanges suggest at least some males in the assemblage. Because of the site's location on a beach where green turtles (Chelonia mydas) could have been collected freely throughout the year, it is likely that this is the predominant species in the assemblage. The few species diagnostic elements that have been noted reflect this.Butchery and burning were noted in nearly all contexts. Cut plastral elements may indicate that the animals were turned over onto their backs and then cut open after roasting, a practice reported both during the classical period and in modern ethnographic studies (Burstein 1989; Sheppard et al. 1992). Radii, ulnae and humeri, though not common in the sample, did show butchery marks. Phalanges frequently showed cuts, a practice associated with the removal of the skin for the production of leather. One phalange in particular shows cut marks on both plantar and palmar aspects.HD6 revealed remains of bead making activity and a large quantity of flint which have been interpreted as indicating some form of industrial area. This deposit showed a particularly large quantity of carapace fragments, which may be evidence that the shells were being used as receptacles. Two carapace fragments show evidence of residue, possibly bitumen, a substance used during this period as a sealant on reed sailing vessels.With their many useful body parts: flesh, fat, shell, leather, egg and bone, it would certainly be in line with historical and ethnographic reports of maximum utilisation of the entire animal (Sheppard et al. 1992; Burstein 1989). This, in conjunction with the location of the settlement directly adjacent to a nesting beach, which very likely was established thousands of years before colonisation by humans, gives every indication that the green turtles of Ra's al-Hadd were exploited vigorously during the Bronze Age. Figure 2. Map of Ra's al-Hadd area showing approximate limits of conservation area.An early ethnographic account of the Red Sea during the Classical period written by Agatharchides of Cnidus in the second century B.C. tells of sea turtle hunting in this area (Burstein 1989). The chelenophagi, or turtle eaters, are described as swimming out to the animals in twos and tipping them over, whereupon a rope was fastened to the tail and the animal hauled in. Reports are also given of using shells for shelter as well as boats, for "they are huge in size and not smaller than the smallest fishing boat" (Burstein 1989). The usefulness of the sea turtle is then neatly attested to: "so that nature seems to have granted them with one gift, the satisfaction of many needs, for one and the same gift is their food, container, house and boat" (Burstein 1989).From the point of view of the archaeologist, the sea turtle remains from this Bronze Age site are of particular interest since they represent the first such assemblage of this period and area. While sea turtle remains figure with some frequency in faunal reports of Pacific rim excavations, the mention of sea turtles in the archaeological record in the Old World has been up to this point anecdotal. The raw materials provided by sea turtles are vital in understanding the subsistence strategy and paleoeconomy of the region. Further awareness of this archeological assemblage seems valuable to biologists examining sea turtle populations past, present and future.Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the correspondents of the C-turtle Listserver, especially J.P. Ross; L. Martin and C. Phillips of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London; C. Cartwright and J. Reade of the British Museum.BURSTEIN, S. 1989. Agatharchides of Cnidus' on the Erythraean Sea. Hakluyt Society, London. CARTWRIGHT, C. 1994. Preliminary results of the study of fish remains from a 3rd millennium BC site, HD1, at Ra's al Hadd, Oman. In: W. Van Neer (Ed.) Fish Exploitation in the past. Proceedings of the 7th meeting of the ICAZ Fish Remains Working Group. Annales du Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Sciences Zoologiques no. 274, Tervuren. pp. 239-241.CLEZIOU, S., & M. TOSI. 1996. A short preliminary report on the 9th excavation campaign of the Joint Hadd Project. Unpublished report. Instituto Universitario Orientale, Naples. 24 pp.HOCH, E. 1997. Prehistoric life at Umm an Nar. South Asian Archaeology, vol 1 Maurizio Taddei, (Ed.) Instituto Universitario Orientale, Naples.READE, J. 1990. Provisional reports of the British Museum Oman expedition. British Museum, London. 14 pp.ROSS, J.P. & M.A BIRWANI. 1995. Review of sea turtles in the Arabian area. In: K.A. Bjorndal (Ed.), Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, D.C. pp. 373-383.SHEPPARD, C., A. PRICE & C. ROBERTS. 1992. Marine ecology of the Arabian region: Patterns and processes in extreme tropical environments. Academic Press, London. |
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