Lizq Explained

Lizq
Native Name:	لزق
Native Name Lang:	ar
Map Type:	Oman
Map Size:	220
Coordinates:	22.6979°N 58.183°W
Location:	Lizq, Ash Sharqiyah North Governorate, Oman
Region:	Eastern Arabia
Type:	Fortification
Length:	110m (360feet)
Width:	170m (560feet)
Area:	2ha
Material:	Stone
Built:	Early Iron Age
Epochs:	Iron Age
Dependency Of:	Lizq
Discovered:	1979
Excavations:	1981
Archaeologists:	Stephan Kroll
Condition:	Ruined

Lizq is an archaeological site in Ash Sharqiyah, Oman. Located on a mountain lying in a plain, 1000 m south-east of the south-eastern edge of the Lizq palm garden, the fort dates to the Lizq-Rumaylah/Early Iron Age.

Description

The site was discovered in 1979 during the archaeological exploration of Gerd Weisgerber of the German Mining Museum (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum) in Bochum. Shaikh Hamdan al-Harthy of Samad led Weisgerber to the site.^[1] In 1981 a single season long German archaeological team mapped and conducted minimal rescue excavation. They did an ad hoc restoration of the stairs which lead up the northern face of the mountain. Since there are several sites near Lizq town, the fort is disambiguated as 'L1'.

The Lizq fort owes its existence to the reliable occurrence of water at a natural causeway at the southern side of the central mountains. The main fort on the western mountain peak is some 175 m wide and has a surface of more than 20.000 m2 in surface area. This makes it the largest Early Iron Age fort in central Oman. The location of the Iron Age village associated with the fort remains unknown. No falaj was discovered.^[2]

Important is Kroll's comparison of the pottery with that of Iron Age Iran.^[3]

See also

• Archaeology of Oman

Sources

^[4]

^[5]

^[6]

^[7]

^[8]

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External links

• heidICON - Die Heidelberger Objekt- und Multimediadatenbank

Notes and References

1. [Stephan Kroll]
2. [Paul Alan Yule|Paul Yule]
3. Book: Kroll. Stephan. Kroll S.. 1991. Zu den Beziehungen eisenzeitlicher Keramikkomplexe in Oman und Iran. Schippman. Klaus. Herling. Anja. Salles. Jean-François. Golf-Archäologie: Mesopotamien, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Vereinigte Arabische Emirate und Oman. Internationale Archäologie. de. 6. Buch am Erlbach. M.L. Leidorf. 315–320. 9783924734244. 34928791.
4. Book: Nayeem. Mohammed. 1996. Prehistory and protohistory of the Arabian peninsula.¬The¬ Sultanate of Oman. en. 4. Hyderabad. Hyderabad. 221–222 fig. 25. 81-85492-06-9.
5. Book: Mouton, M.. Carrez, F.. Kroll. Stephan. 1998. Documents d'archéologie de l'Arabie. Assemblage céramiques des sites de l'Age du fer de la peninsula d'Oman. en. Lyon. MAISON DE L'ORIENT MEDITERRANEEN. 2-903264-85-6.
6. Book: Potts. Daniel. 1992. The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity . en. 1. Oxford. Clarendon. 357, 373, 394, pl. xiia. 9780198143901.
7. Book: Yule. Paul. 2001. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Orient-Archäologie. 'Die Gräberfelder in Samad al-Shan (Sultanat Oman): Materialien zu einer Kulturgeschichte . de. 4. Rahden. Leidorf. I, 386 site 13.32; II Pl. 591a. 3-89646-634-8.
8. Book: Cleuziou . S.. Tosi . M.. Muscat. Ministry of Heritage and Culture. 2007. In the shadow of the ancestors: The Prehistoric Foundations of the Early Arabian Civilization in Oman. en. 287–288 figs. 304–305.
9. Kroll. Stephan. 2013. The Early Iron Age Lizq Fort, Sultanate of Oman. Zeitschrift für die Kultur außereuropäischen Kulturen. en. 5 . 159–220. 978-3-89500-649-4.
10. Book: Mouton. Michel. Schiettecatte. Jérémie. 2014. Arabia Antica. In the desert margins. The settlement process in ancient South and East Arabia. en. 9 . Rome. L’Erma di Bretschneider. 82, 86, 95. 978-88-913-0680-7.
11. Book: Magee. Peter. 2014. Cambridge World Archaeology. The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. en. New York. Cambridge. 236. 9780521862318.