Khor Kharfot 2022-2023 Excavation Summary Report

Abstract:

Beginning in the spring of 2014, the Archeological Research Institute (ARI)[i] has been involved in archaeological investigations in the Khor Kharfot Archaeological Reserve of Dhofar, Oman. A three-year excavation contract was signed with Sultan Qaboos’s advisory council[ii] in 2015. In 2022 the excavation permit was granted a five-year renewal with the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Tourism.[iii] This article summarizes the efforts of Campaigns 6 and 7 during 2022 and 2023 to expand an appreciation of Wadi Sayq’s ancient environment and its early Paleolithic through Islamic period occupations and extensive architecture. This summary of Campaigns 6 and 7 excavations contains ARI’s recent discoveries at five separate loci: site II-4 (Neolithic and Iron Age occupation site), site IV-1 (Neolithic Kharfot Mound Site), site IV-3 (Neolithic-Iron Age-Islamic Period Alcove Site), site IV-4 (Neolithic Upper Platform), and site IV-5 (Neolithic Walkway).

[i] The Archaeological Research Institute (ARI) was incorporated in the State of Utah as a not-for-profit research entity in 1989 by F. Richard Hauck, Ph.D., and has conducted reconnaissance and excavations in North America, Central America and Middle East (Oman). ARI is affiliated with the Utah Technical University of St. George, Utah. Since its inception in 2014, ARI research in Oman has been generously funded by The Khor Kharfot Foundation of The Woodlands, Texas, and a variety of donors personally involved in this long-term endeavor.

[ii] That three-year excavation, reconnaissance, and mapping contract (2016-2018) was signed on November 8, 2015, by H.E. Abdul Aziz bin Mohammad Al Rowas, Adviser to the Sultan and F. Richard Hauck, Director of ARI. 

[iii] That five-year excavation, reconnaissance, and mapping contract (2022-2026) was signed on October 10, 2022, by Ismail bin Hamed Al-Rawani, Assistant Director, Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, and F. Richard Hauck, Director of the Archeological Research Institute of Farmington, Utah.