Bioarchaeology of the Near East, 7:21-32 (2013)

Biological remains at al-Madam (Sharjah, UAE). Archaeological, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological studies in an Iron Age farming-stockbreeding village

Carmen del Cerro
Departamento de Historia Antigua, Medieval y Paleografía y Diplomática,
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid,
28049, Cantoblanco Universidad, Madrid, Spain
email: carmen.delcerro@uam.es

Abstract: The interdisciplinary study undertaken at al-Madam (Sharjah, UAE) since the mid-1990s has allowed an archaeological team from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid to work together with geologists, topographers, archaeozoologists and archaeobotanists in order to shed light on Iron Age society in the Oman Peninsula. thanks to field study and abundant laboratory evidence, we now know about the subsoil, natural resources, food and animals surrounding these human groups. Biological remains yielded from the archaeological record at al-Madam are really rich and permit us to study the diet and economy of a small Iron Age population and compare it with other communities in the Oman Peninsula during this period.

Key words: Oman Peninsula; Iron Age; water collecting galleries; farming; stockbreeding; offering area

Received 31 October 2012; accepted 23 March 2013; published online 11 April 2013.

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