Three Seasons at Kasr al-Khafaji (Tower 1146) at Bat, Oman

Abstract

Since 2007, a team from the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Prof. Gregory L. Possehl has carried out survey and excavation at the third millennium settlement of Bat in northwestern Oman (Fig. I: Map). This settlement is part of a larger UNESCO World Heritage Monument, which also includes the well-preserved prehistoric cemetery being studied by a German team under Dr. Conrad Schmitt and the late Prof. Gerd Weisgerber. The village of Bat is located in the Wadi Sharsah approximately 24 kilometers east of the modern city of lbri. The archaeological remains at this site were first reported in 1964 by Captain Anthony Witheridge, then in the service of the Sultan's armed forces. Mention was also made of the site by Beatrice de Cardi in her Bampur report (1970: 268) and in her 1974- 75 survey of the lbri-Bat-Amlah region (de Cardi et al. 1976).