Podcast How archaeology is inspiring Omanis and the world

in january 2022 archaeologists working in oman's north found what they believed to be 4 000 year old board game the discovery sparked interest worldwide and gave us peek into the leisure time of the gulf's ancient people unlike in other areas of the world where archaeological marvels focus on kings queens and grand temples much of the heritage work going on in the sultanate right now focuses on how ordinary people lived archaeological findings across the gulf are changing long-held beliefs about how the region was first settled you're listening to beyond the headlines i'm your host taylor heyman and this week we're looking at how discoveries of oman's past are inspiring the next generation of omanis if you want to get all the latest from beyond the headlines hit subscribe in your podcast app the board game made headlines across the world it may only look like piece of stone with grid-like markings but it represents so much more the game dates back to the bronze age back then oman was placed between the sumerian civilization mesopotamia to the northwest and the indus valley civilization to the southeast both were connected by sea routes that passed through the gulf of oman it's potentially precursor to other ancient board games including famous one from an archaeological dig almost century ago called the royal game of ur it was one of the items excavated in the royal cemetery of ur hence the name in the 1920s and 30s ur was once the capital of the ancient civilization of sumeria and also the empire of mesopotamia and sits in modern-day iraq the game found in oman adds to the growing number of artifacts that show unlike previously thought the first known human inhabitants of oman and the wider gulf region didn't just settle on the coast near water and teams from all over the world are finding evidence that the inhabitants of oman around 3000 years ago traded goods from india and iran and teams from all over the world are finding evidence that the inhabitants of oman around 3000 years ago traded goods from india and iran they even smelted copper piotr belinsky is an archaeologist from the university of warsaw he was part of the team who found the game he explains how oman being on route between the civilizations of mesopotamia and the indus valley would have exposed inhabitants to both cultures oman at the time was in the middle in between two large cultural centers and was let's say intermingled in the exchange not only of mineral sources but also of ideas what is in fact game game it's an intellectual play you have well to adopt some rules and the people from gujarat who will be not understanding single word in sumerian we will be finding the common language with the people of the sumerians on playing the same games we cannot say where it was in fact invented it was probably invented in the indus valley that's only supposition we have no no proofs but in the middle of two large cultural centers it lays oman and our small village kumera he says the very fact that the game was even made points to peaceful era for people living there was also thinking about these guys who scratched this game over stone plate because it was homemade and found the time to to play the game which probably came to them as an idea from one of the seaports of the coast know of the arab gulf or the romani golf but came inland and looking at that it was not very sophisticated work of this plate they scratched it just to spend their free time they were not looking tv they were not calling smartphones through smartphone relatives they were playing this normal game they have bit of leisure and this it's for me very important sign that the times were quiet and the people were happy more and more discoveries which opened window into the umangna bronze age culture that existed around 2600 to 2000 bc are made every day these discoveries tell us that the umangna people who came from what is modern day uae and northern oman traded with people from across arabia mesopotamia the indus valley and beyond just after the board game find in february 2022 team from the country's ministry of heritage and tourism nyu abu dhabi and the university of pennsylvania found beads from india shell beads from the gulf coast and grey pottery made in southeastern iran providing evidence of international trade stretching back over 4 000 years they even discovered ancient seeds which could tell us more about what people in this period ate but the archaeologists and historians will have to wait to learn more the seeds have been sent to lab to be analyzed one of the biggest discoveries was the way people settled in the region previously thought to have settled along the coast it seems that humans in this region were away from the sea far earlier than thought it is likely the temperature and landscape were radically different back then allowing people to set up homes in the interior the other side of oman's northern mountain range these findings were made at place called bat perhaps the most famous of oman's archaeological sites thousands of tombs and fascinating beehive-shaped buildings have been found there as well as outlines of houses with ovens bat and surrounding sites in oman have been declared by the unesco world heritage center to be the most complete collection of 3rd century bc settlements and necropolises in the whole world it's an archaeologist's dream piotr's focus is not on the temples and grandeur of ancient kings he prefers to try and discover some of the minutiae of daily life for ancient peoples as team we dream about unearthing large parts of the settlement to understand the life of ordinary people it's true that the archaeologists have tendency to focus their attention of so-called important buildings temples palaces about this kind of structures should say that for me it's much important are the dwellings to understand the people we had crazy chance in kumera that we found house which was abandoned in hurry in the ruins every piece of internal arrangements was in place we don't know what really happened but it seems it was don't know there are no traces of the fire but maybe short earthquake local earthquake anyway they run away and never never came back so starting with the kitchen every piece of the kitchen's utensils was in place the fireplace here grinder here the big jars absolutely complete so we understood we are reconstructing how it works maybe it would be possible with other houses other rooms to understand what's an average omani of the third millennium well we shall never know what he was dreaming about or thinking about but what were his living conditions oman's strategic position and its own rich more modern history means it offers potential treasure trove of undiscovered artifacts over the millennia oman has been controlled by the ancient persian empire the portuguese who were driven out in the 17th century then oman built an empire of its own before persian invasion in the 18th century who were then driven out by the local population tumultuous history which makes it understandable why the country has over 500 forts towers and castles oman is gem for archaeologists everywhere but the government and the local people are just as excited about discovering oman's past omani authorities are playing an important role in unearthing and preserving heritage inviting international teams to spot dig sites from the air excavate and train new generation of omani archaeologists all the people we spoke to for this podcast told us they were doing some element of cultural collaboration one of those people is bob bewley bob is an aerial archaeologist he uses hot air balloons helicopters and other aircraft to photograph landscapes from above looking for sites of interest to dig pilot himself he's worked in the uk and jordan and just made his third trip to oman after visiting in 2018 and 2019. bob approaches archaeologists before taking his flights which in oman are conducted by military helicopters piloted by the sultanates air force the photos taken are then made publicly available for everyone to use now there are very few landscapes where aerial archaeology doesn't work and the moment we got into the air immediately you could see that it would really be very useful in terms of technique you know man and we initially in the first season focused on castles and forts because there are so many of them and then we started looking at prehistoric landscapes in 2019. the involvement from the government has been wonderful and very supportive and although it's changing its name the ministry of culture and heritage as was but think it's moving to tourism have been really supportive and helped give us information that we needed to be able to plan the flights and then be also you know be the recipient of the images because they can use them as well it's about sharing the information that we've got whether you're foreign mission or local mission so that everybody understands who's doing what and that's one of the great things about the aerial archaeology expeditions is that you can coordinate with all the archaeologists and say well would you like an aero photograph of the area you're working on to help put it in wider context and many of them respond and say yes that's really useful so it is totally collaborative whatever they do bob has been working with omanis to find the archaeological sites with the advantage of bird's eye view sounds like the perfect job right but you'll need stomach of steel if you want to follow in bob's footsteps one of the things that isn't conveyed by people seeing the photograph on website is how much planning and effort actually goes into taking that photograph and you know the planning can start six nine months ahead and you're planning the route you've then got to communicate that with the pilot but then there's actual physical business of being in the helicopter and orbiting around for minute after minute after minute and you do need to have strong stomach and i'm used to it but many many colleagues aren't and always carry with me at least five i'm now going to double it to 10 sick bags because if you're not used to it it is really easy to get ill in the air because you're orbiting at an angle your brain is having to think about the camera but actually your brain is also going i'm actually thousand feet with just one strap holding me safely on and i'm orbiting which is making my brain go why do feel bit queasy so it looks like glamorous wonderful thing to do but you do need strong stomach and strong head and lot of planning to go into it oman's investment in its heritage fits neatly into the country's vision 2040 to diversify oman's economy away from oil tourism plays key part in the strategy first thought up by the late sultan caboose al-saeed who passed away in 2020 it's now being put into action by sultan haytham bin tariq sultan haitham actually used to serve as oman's minister of culture and has visited many of the country's archaeological and heritage sites piotr explains how interest in ancient history in oman has changed over his time working there generally dominion authorities under the late sultan and the present one pay lot of attention to heritage but at the beginning that the main objects they were caring about were the remains of the famous fortresses let's say the remains of the roots of the omani state the interest in the older periods came later in month for example in the united arab emirates but it speed up with the discoveries on the shores of the indian ocean discoveries near salah this made this rise of the interest must say that now it's launched special program which is in my opinion very important besides the fabulous national museum in moscow they are starting to construct the local museums which would be addressed not only to foreign tourists but also for the locals population which should slowly considered this glorious past let's say including as part of their heritage and that it's working we are seeing it in our small corner of the country where the interest of the local population in the progress of our work and the lectures they are inviting us to have in schools the small exhibitions organized at the end of the season in the schools for the teachers and for the pupils it's showing certain trend which is very important well important not only for development of man as large touristic center because for some of the tourists oman means the beaches of salah for some the mountains of musandam or herbal harley desert but the interior of the country and that building these new museums and organizing the cooperation with local population it's an important step for the moment of course the archaeological site which it's the best part of its famous butt which is on the world heritage list of unesco but also the salute where important conservation works were done by our italian colleagues preserving omani heritage needs to fall to the omani people and there is whole generation of young historians and cultural experts springing up with pride in their country's history we spoke to trainers and participants in pilot program teaching omani's how to document sites of interest digitally using 360 cameras to preserve snapshot of forts and other sites crucially they've also been trained in how to educate and communicate to others to share their knowledge belkisol hannah one of the participants in the center for international learning and leadership and 4d heritage projects says omanis know little about their heritage but she hopes projects like hers and others will spark more interest think the level of the awareness of the hysterical places is not that much maybe they know there is fall there's castle or the historical events in the past but not that much they need to know more about the places the narratives are the stories that happen inside the bases course participants undertook project to create 3d model and virtual tour of bachelor fort unesco world heritage site it's fortified oasis settlement of the medieval islamic period during the process the local community took real interest we talked actually with the two of the local people first in bahala soup and bahala fort we talked to them before we went there and they prepared everything for us they prepared the person who will take part in the acting scene for our virtual tour and everyone was there in balazur watching us moving around with our esta 360 camera they involved in the photo shooting they came and asked us and assist us in everything also for the hella fault also when shared this experience in my social media accounts they were like want to know more about it alexandria camera one of the course trainers says engaging young people is critical to making new discoveries and preserving them for years to come and think that's what's made this lot more exciting and sort of innovative because at the moment heritage is not really curated by younger people as much as it is by the older experts and think that's why we want to shift the view and say that the locals and the young people that have grown up in these surroundings are the curators of the heritage and should be able to tell their story to other people think empowering for young people to be able to like document their heritage and culture in way that they have control over it think lot of these issues global issues at the moment can make young people feel disenchanted and bit out of control of the situation whether it's due to politics climate change and so things like this is really good way of letting people like take ownership of things they want to do in the future bulkies has also noticed surge in interest due to social media and more omani personalities sharing heritage sites on apps like tiktok seeing the trend has fueled her passion to create similar content to drive oman's heritage preservation and education forward want to share like trend or the current situation of the historical places and the awareness of the people actually now people started going to these places and for me was shocked and shared with the uk team and how people started going to the fords to the castles and they want to know more about it and think the reason why because people started like posting videos about the faults and like there's car in nisswa fort using to like giving them information with the tour guide so when people saw it like in tik tok or in the social media accounts they started going there for me went last week and saw them like more than 500 or 1000 visitors inside the place itself so people started like to know more about the heritage the culture so if we adopt this type of technologies in the right way and we implement everything we can reach the highest level of awareness new archaeological finds and showcasing what oman has to offer online add new strings to oman's economic bow encouraging visitors from around oman and elsewhere international tourism companies are even offering archaeological tours of the sultanate and museums are springing up everywhere piotr says there is particular care for the history here generally now you cannot start archaeological project without being fully aware that it should be not only excavated and documented but also it must be conserved and with access for the tourists as much the foreigners as much as the local ones and that's an effort we are really admiring because that's not the general approach we are seeing in different corners of the near east think that's the right way of course it will take time but if more of the local inhabitants will consider these rains as part of their everyday age and generally think in fact it is there is no the proof of any real changes in population in this corner of the arabian peninsula so think that as much romanis as every righties are in fact descendants of this woman are people which by climatic changes became more than cultivators but they settled several times then with climate exchange they were let's say send more into the desert but they are coming again and that's let's say tree which is enrouted into this bronze age well not on humana but also its predecessor feed culture training the next generation of omanis forms part of belkis and heritage 4ds program too another participant herra aluffi tells us about her plans for the future this program one of the main goals of it after training us to use the camera the software and so on we will become trainers and we will train more people in the future how to use you know this software the cooler program the camera and learning them how to create their own virtual tours and in new places for sure so we are seeking to do that in the future maybe in the next months we will start implementing that as well oman's history stretches back millennia evidence of its relevance in trade between the indus valley and mesopotamian civilizations as well as places further afield is being uncovered there is hope that even more almost untouched ancient artifacts will be discovered with the next generation of omanis ready to take part in the reveal but as bob bewley explains it's not just omanis that have reignited passion expatriates are interested too what fascinates me about oman is that it is given its location at the end of the arabian peninsula the connections between india and africa go back thousands of years because those are the trade routes because those are the way the winds take the sailing the sailors and the boats so all that history is wrapped up and when you're in oman yes you meet lot of omanis but you meet lot of people from africa and even more people from india so it's big it's melting pot and think one of the great things about oman is its openness and its toleration and yet in history it's all about protecting either your identity from these terrible foreigners like the portuguese and the british and the french and the dutch who were all coming into the bachelor locals and then also protecting each other against different tribes so that's why you've got so many defended things obviously now it's much more it is very peaceful place and wonderful place to visit but its history is there's no question built on conflict and local tribal identities and that's part of the heritage it's the same in britain we have lots of contested history so that's part of understanding it as well which is why it should be preserved to show that you know things change things will never stay the same it's always changing and that's part of the story of the history of any country and also what archaeology can bring to these subjects you've been listening to beyond the headlines i've been your host taylor heyman if you liked this episode of beyond the headlines please subscribe and leave us review thanks this week to all our guests this week's episode was produced by aisha khan and arthur edison