Lizq fort

Located in the al-Sharqiyah North Province, Oman, Lizq has been important since first find notices appeared about it in 1981 as a type-site for the Early Iron Age (EIA) in south-eastern Arabia, complementing the site of Rumayla in the U.A.E. to the north.

Location

Lizq site L1 is located on the Jabal Raḍaniyya (UTM 40Q 621500 E, 2510627 N, altitude 479 m). The Lizq fort lies a little over 100 km SSW of Muscat, and 2.18 km as the crow flies SE downstream of the centre of Lizq town. This site lies in a drainage plain south of the rugged al-Ḥajar mountains SE of an open forest of Vachellia and Prosopis cineraria. The mountain appears on the 1:100.000 map (Fig. 1). It lies 13 km south of the important multi period centre at al-Muyassar and Samad.

History of research

After locals pointed out the site to the team of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum in Bochum, S. Kroll began excavation and restoration of the staircase in 1981 (Figs. 2–4). Detailed publication covers the short operations (Kroll 1981; Schreiber 1998; Kroll 2013). Eponymously Lizq and Rumayla gave their names for the south-eastern EIA.

Archaeological remains

In surface area L1 is the largest EIA fort in SE Arabia. The main defences cover an area of 175 x 100 m (20.000 m²). Most striking are the walls and fortified steps which lead presumably to a well (Fig. 3). A fire seems to have terminated this site. This and the blocking off of the steps down to presumably a well, are taken as signs of the site demise.

History/chronology

The EIA dating of L1 rests on pottery parallels and physical methods. Radiocarbon gives a date of 2410±80 which calibrates to 571±137 BCE at the 68 % level of probability. Two thermoluminescense datings confirm this: Hd TL 12a1 390±198 BCE and Hd TL 12a2 1180±250 BCE (Kroll 2013: 170; see also Benoist 2000).

Paul A. Yule

References and selected reading

• Benoist, A. 2000. La céramique de l’âge du fer en Péninsule d’Oman (1350 - 300 av. J.C.). PhD dissertation, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• Kroll, S. 1981. Die Bergfestung Lizq-1, in Weisgerber, G. 1981: 226–231.
• Kroll, S. 2013. The Early Iron Age Lizq fort, Sultanate of Oman, translated and revised by P.A. Yule, Zeitschrift für die Kultur außereuropäischen Kulturen 5: 159–220.
• Schreiber, J. 1998. Die Siedlungsarchitektur auf der Halbinsel Oman vom 3. bis zur 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Münster: Ugarit Verlag.
• Weisgerber, G. 1981. Mehr als Kupfer in Oman. Ergebnisse der Expedition 1981. Der Anschnitt 33(5-6): 174–263.