Vegetation, land, and wood use at the sites of Bat and Al-Khashbah in Oman (fourth-third millennium BC)

About 4200 charcoal fragments have been identified from the fourth- to third-millennium BC archaeological sites of Bat and Al-Khashbah in order to gain an understanding of plant resources available at the sites. Acacia sp., Ziziphus sp., and Tamarix sp. were the main taxa identified at both sites and indicate a similar vegetation composition as today. Phoenix sp. (date palm) charcoal also has been found at both sites. Whereas the cultivation of date palm for the 2700-2300 BC layers from Bat was likely, given other circumstantial evidence (i.e. local cereal cultivation and floodwater irrigation), it is unclear whether date palm was cultivated at Al-Khashbah. Especially for the older periods (3300-2700 BC) it is possible that nomadic pastoralists were exploiting and/or managing wild date palms. The find of Avicennia marina at Al-Khashbah indicates long-distance contacts with the coast.