Archaeologists discovered an Iron Age settlement and burial site with 45 tombs in Oman’s Al Sharqiyah governorate.
Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Culture, working with Germany’s Heidelberg University on a project to study Iron Age settlements in North Al Sharqiyah found the new site in Al Mudhaibi. The ministry said the tombs are “very well preserved” and cover a 50 to 80-square metre area.
The tombs are 700 metres from a settlement that the team believes dates from the beginning of the Iron Age and may have been home to people who worked in copper mining.
It is believed there was copper mining at the site during the Iron Age and continued until early in the Islamic era.
“It is the most preserved sites of its components, where stone buildings and tombs resembling huts are retained by nature for more than 3,000 years, and reflect the method of burial,” the Ministry of Heritage and Culture said.
“It features the social status of the deceased through the length of the tomb and archaeological artefacts buried with him.”
Al Sharqiyah site is one of many archaeological finds discovered in Oman over the past decade. Many were discovered by a team from the archaeology department at Sultan Qaboos University, which works with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture to find, protect and preserve sites of interest.
Oman’s ancient sites have also been recognised by the UN. In 1988, Bat, Al Khutm and Al Ayn were certified as World Heritage Sites. The three ancient settlements in Al Dhahira Governorate of north-west Oman are the most complete of their kind from the Iron Age.
In January 2018, the largest trove of Iron Age weapons in the region was discovered at Mudhmar East. It contained more than 3,000 arrows, daggers and axes.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
