Exploitation of Ja’alan’s Coastal Resources During the Neolithic : The Settlements of Suwayh 1 and Ruways 1 (Sultanate of Oman)
Abstract
Suwayh 1 and Ruways 1 are two shell-middens facing the Arabian seashores, whose occupations range from the end of the 7th millennium to the end of the 4th millennium. These shell-middens, mostly composed by seashell, fish, turtle and mammal remains, reflect that the marine resources played a major role in the subsistence for these Neolithic groups of people.
This presentation introduces new results for these two sites based on fish bones and seashell studies.
Ruways 1 shows an exploitation mostly oriented toward littoral fish like mulets, catfishes, sardines and sea breams, weighing between 20 to 120 g. These small individuals of such species highlight the presence of a paleo-lagoon and a mangrove near the site. The shellfish taxa identified also confirm such hypothesis.
Suwayh 1 presents a different facies. While the seashells illustrate lagoon and mangrove shallow waters exploitation, the fishermen exploited other habitats, like the close open-water, here represented by numerous small shark and ray vertebrae accompanied by large size catfishes.
These sites appear to be ancient fishing-stations, where people relied mostly on marine resources and took advantage of the surrounding environments, directly accessible and exploitable.