On 1 December 2020, during the Hermitage Days, the exhibition “Oman: the Land of Frankincense” opened in the Winter Palace, telling about various stages in the history and culture of Oman. It presents finds from significant archaeological excavations carried out in the Sultanate of Oman over the past 50 years – archaeological treasures from the 3rd–1st millennia BC.
The exhibition includes metal artefacts, very ancient stone mijmars (incense-burners), an Indus seal bearing an inscription and an astonishing stone countenance from a temple of Sin, the god of the moon.
The exhibition was opened by Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage: “Today, once again in the new regime, we are opening another exhibition, ‘a little corner of Oman’. Oman is a remarkable country in the south of the Arabian peninsula, where trade routes converged for centuries. One of those routes is the route of fragrances to which today’s exhibition ‘Oman: the Land of Frankincense’ is devoted… Southern Arabian culture itself has been studied very extensively in our city and in our country, and so this exhibition has an especial affinity for us. Not only for that reason, but also because we have long-standing ties with Oman and with the National Museum of Oman. We hold Days of Oman in the Hermitage and Hermitage Days in Oman. There are exchanges of restorers and many different events are planned. One of those is the creation of ‘a little corner of Oman in the Hermitage’ that will remain here roughly a year. As soon as the pandemic abates, ‘a little corner of the Hermitage’ will be created in the National Museum of Oman – an exhibition of Islamic art. All our contacts are the result of a collaboration agreement that was signed here in the Hermitage. It was signed by the Minister of Culture, Haitham bin Tariq, who is now the ruling Sultan of Oman. So our exhibition has the very highest patronage.”
The exhibition is concentrated around the theme of frankincense (olibanum in Latin; al-lubān in Arabic) – Oman’s gift to the world, the trade in which began back in the era of the Magan civilization. The earliest mentions of Magan, in Sumerian cuneiform texts dating from 2300 BC, refer to it as a region from which copper and diorite were brought to Mesopotamia. It was known for shipbuilding and the maritime trade that connected the territory of Oman with Dilmun, the Indus Valley civilization, Mesopotamia and Iran.
A special place on the archaeological map of Oman is taken by the bay of Ras-al-Jinz. Excavations there in the 1980s uncovered one of the region’s largest Early Bronze Age settlements. The exhibition includes two items found there. The first is a seal or stamp carved from soapstone that dates from roughly 2300–2000 BC. The second artefact is the earliest known incense-burner or mijmar, to use the local term. When it was flourishing (in 2600–2000 BC), the Ras-al-Jinz settlement functioned as a seaport and lived off trade and crafts connected with the sea. Ras-al-Jinz is the source of the majority of glyptic items found in the Sultanate of Oman: carved seals from Mesopotamia, Dilmun and the Indus Valley. One of the Indus civilization seals appears in the exhibition.
The display includes unique metal quivers and bows, the earliest ever found by archaeologists on the territory of Arabia and the Middle East. The hoard that included them was named after the settlement of Al-Mudhar where it was found. There, more than 4,000 copper and bronze arrowheads were unearthed, as well as 40 miniature statues of snakes, reduced-size models of weapons and full-sized weapons. All the objects, the majority of which were unfinished, date from the Iron Age, between 900 and 600 BC. Scholars theorize that they may have been offerings to a god of war or else valuables intended perhaps for ceremonial exchanges of gifts.
The arrival of the Iron Age on the Oman peninsula is dated to 1300 BC. However, the earliest iron artefacts that archaeologists have found on the territory of the sultanate occur only in layers from the Seleucid period. By contrast, the production of copper reached its peak late in the 1st millennium BC. The exhibition features some unique copper and bronze items for the Iron Age, the latest of which dates from around the turn of the 1st millennium AD. They are all a continuation of the ancient tradition of copper production that goes back at least 3000 years.
In the Iron Age, the civilization of the Land of Frankincense came into being in the south of Oman, while in the north the Al-Azd tribes who had arrived from Yemen established settlements, which marked the formation of an Arab identity in Oman. In the Salut valley, archaeologists have excavated a magnificent highland fortress located above the ruins of a major Bronze Age burial dating from 2500–1900 BC and also an ADjoining Iron Age site from 1200–300 BC. This important site is represented in the exhibition by the spout of a copper vessel made in the shape of a hybrid creature – half-man, half-beast, and also a copper sieve with a handle in the shape of an animal’s head.
In the 4th century BC, the fortified seaport of Sumhuram, considered the most important pre-Islamic settlement in the Dhofar region, was built in southern Oman. The port of Sumhuram provided Omani traders with access to the Indian Ocean coast and from there their ships sailed to Hadramawt in present-day Yemen, India and the Eastern Mediterranean. The port was at its most active between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. The most valuable commodity in the Dhofar region was undoubtedly incense. Not surprisingly, in the 1st century AD Eleazus or Iliazz Yalit I, ruler of Hadramawt, overhauled the port of Sumhuram in order to exert control over the lucrative trade in Dhofar incense. Three important items from Sumhuram are on display: an ancient incense burner and two votive objects with inscriptions made in Musnad, the ancient South Arabian script. The inscriptions mention dedications and offerings made to the moon god Sin in his temple at Sumhuram.
The exhibition has been organized by the State Hermitage and the National Museum of Oman. Its curator is Maria Sologubova, a junior researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of the East, who gave a guided tour of the exhibition following its formal opening.
