gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, Persian Gulf, Iran, Arabia, Oman

In antiquity the Persian Gulf region was culturally diverse, containing at least four major regions and many more subregions. These included (a) southern Iran, from the Shatt al-Arab to the Strait of Hormuz, certainly not a homogenous area and one which is frustratingly understudied; (b) southernmost Mesopotamia; (c) northeastern Arabia (modern Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), Bahrain, and Qatar, in whose material culture we can recognize enough similarities to justify such a geographical grouping; and (d) southeastern Arabia, the modern UAE, and, although technically outside the Gulf (except for Ras Musandam), Oman. Our knowledge of the Arabian littoral and its offshore islands (Failaka, Bahrain, and the Abu Dhabi islands) is infinitely greater than that of its Persian counterpart. In spite of the fact that archaeological research in Iran has a much longer history than it does in eastern Arabia, the vast majority of surveys and excavations have been conducted in continental Iran rather than along the coast. Little survey or excavation has been conducted on the Iranian Coast and offshore islands, with the exception of Tul-e Peytul (ancient Liyan), near modern Bushehr, where a large mound with Elamite occupation was sounded in 1913; Kharg Island, where a French expedition excavated part of a Nestorian monastic complex and surveyed numerous other pre-Islamic tombs and monuments in 1959 and 1960; Siraf, where an important site of the Sasanian and early Islamic era was excavated from 1966 to 1973; and Kish Island, where a limited survey and soundings were carried out in the mid-1970s. We have some notices in Greek and Latin sources on this coast and on some of the major islands (e.g., Qishm), but these, although interesting, are of limited value.