Gathering in the lagoon or sailing away from the coast?
Résumé
With more than 1300 km of coastline at their disposal, the inhabitants of the Sultanate of Oman turned very early towards the sea and the exploitation of its resources. Indeed, at the beginning of the Holocene, the period was wetter and enabled the development of large mangroves and lagoons, which probably favoured a large occupation of the coastline by human communities. Characterized by numerous shell middens, the local Neolithic (7/6 th-4 th millennia) is distinct from the one in the Near East. This regional form was aceramic, without agriculture (with the beginnings of animal husbandry) and accorded great importance to coastal resources. The mangroves, lagoons and coastlines were heavily exploited before and throughout the Neolithic. The mangroves, lagoons and coastlines were heavily exploited before and throughout the Neolithic.
This is manifested in the faunal spectra by the presence of thousands of vertebrae of small fish (juveniles, small pelagics) (Natif 2, Ra's al-Hamra 5, 6, Ruways 1, Suwayh 1, Masirah 10) and is complementary to the exploitation of demersal reef fish (Ra's al-Hadd 5, Ra's al-Hamra 5, 6).